The 2019 Spanish Film Festival features a representative selection of films from 2018 and 2019 that will give Canadian audiences a taste of all the creativity, history, and talent of today’s Spanish cinema.

In collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Embassy of Spain presents this year a festival of new films from Spain that do not have commercial distribution in Canada. Included are award winners and box-office champions. These four films are prime examples of the quality and vitality of film production in Spain today. Come and join us in celebrating Spanish film creativity!

From October 8-31, 2019, Ottawa, Toronto with the addition of Calgary this year for the first time, will host thoughtful, funny and provocative movies –all of them premiering in the cities where they will be screened.

In this edition, El reino (The Realm) – the first of many highlights – is a film that was featured at TIFF 2018. This thriller about political corruption was one of the stars at the 2019 Spanish Film Academy Goya Awards. Campeones (Champions) was one of the biggest box-office successes in Spain last year, and winner of the Goya for Best Film. Audiences will also have the opportunity to enjoy the self-consciousness of growing up when watching La banda (Love Beats) and Viaje al cuarto de una madre (Journey to a Mother’s Room). Besides, the comedies ¿Qué te juegas? (Get Her… If You Can) and Yo, mi mujer y mi mujer muerta (Me, Myself and My Dead Wife) might just make you smile or even laugh out loud.

Champions (Campeones)

• On Thursday, October 10 at 6 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Javier Fesser, Spain, 2018, 124 minutes.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Comedy / Drama. Watch trailer.
• Winner of 3 Goya Awards: Best Film, Original Song and New Actor.

Marco is an assistant coach in Spain’s top basketball league. One day, after getting drunk, his frustration and bad attitude get him involved in a traffic accident that lands him in court. He loses his job and his girlfriend and is sentenced to the worst possible punishment for his ego: coaching a group of intellectually-disabled players that have never touched a ball before. Through their innocence, tenderness and plenty of good humor, they will teach Marco about the things that really matter. They are the true Champions of Life.

The Realm (El Reino)

• On Thursday, October 17 at 6 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain / France, 2018, 131 minutes.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Thriller. Watch trailer.
• Winner of 7 Goya Awards, including Best Director, Screenplay & Actor.

Manuel López-Vidal is a beloved politician in his region: he enjoys a good social position, has a loving family, friends everywhere and plenty of natural charisma. He is also a corrupt man who has been enriching himself with public funds for years. After attempting to cover up for an associate, Manuel is left exposed. To his surprise, the Party’s members seek to place the blame for the entire plot on his shoulders. But he will not surrender. How far is a person willing to go in order to hold on to power?

Me, myself and my dead wife (Yo, mi mujer y mi mujer muerta)

• On Thursday, October 24 at 6 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Santi Amodeo, 2019, 87 minutes.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Comedy / drama. Watch trailer.
• Best Actor (Oscar Martínez) at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival.

Bernardo, an old-fashioned professor at the University of Buenos Aires with strong convictions, has just buried his wife. Although they have been married for more than 30 years, he refuses her last wish: to have her ashes thrown into the sea on the Costa del Sol. According to him, it was nothing but last-minute alienation. But when days later the grave of his deceased wife is desecrated, he is forced to change his mind and start a trip to Spain full of surprises that will change his life forever.

Love Beats (La Banda)

• On Thursday, October 31 at 6 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Roberto Bueso, 2019, 87 minutes.
• In Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles. Drama. Watch trailer.
• Official Selection at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival.

Edu is a young musician who will have to temporarily abandon his monotonous life in dreary London to return to his hometown in Spain for his brother’s wedding. After years away, a sense of strangeness and nostalgia leave him feeling like he’s on the outside looking in until, gradually, the reunion with friends, family and especially, Alicia, his secret crush and his best friend’s girlfriend, bring out feelings that he thought he had gotten over.