Film Countries Archives: Spain

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An elderly woman stands on a balcony with flowers, resting her arms on the ledge and looking down, smiling.

Calle Malaga

  Maryam Touzani

  Morocco, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium     116 minutes

Synopsis

Fiercely independent eighty-year-old Spaniard María is a vibrant lifelong member of her beloved Tangier community, but her stability is threatened when daughter Clara arrives for a long-overdue visit. In dire financial straits after a divorce, Clara intends to sell the family home, left to her by her late father, and even begins liquidating the property’s antiques to hasten the proceedings. But María won’t go so easily. Determined to find the financial means to keep her apartment and win back her belongings, María sets out on a surprising, romance-fueled late-in-life adventure.

Screen legend Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Volver) delivers an unforgettable performance suffused with warmth, humor, and gentle defiance in this crowd-pleasing story of a woman refusing to relinquish neither her independence nor her dignity. Making her Spanish-language debut, Moroccan director and Festival alum Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan) brings a palpable sense of place to the screen. She renders María’s colorful coastal enclave in bright hues and her winning ensemble of neighbors with affection, richness, and complexity.

 Spanish, Arabic with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Screening

Fri, Oct 17 @ 5:00pm

at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 13
Venue information...

Screening

Sun, Oct 19 @ 5:30pm

at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 2
Venue information...

Media

Film Credits

  •   Nabil Ayouch, Amine Benjelloun, Jean-Rémi Ducourtioux, Simon de Santiago, Fernando Bovaira, Fred Burle, Sol Bondy, Sebastian Schelenz
  •   Maryam Touzani, Nabil Ayouch
  •   Teresa Font
  •   Virginie Surdej
  •   Carmen Maura, Marta Etura, Ahmed Boulane, María Alfonsa Rosso
  •   Freya Arde
  •   Les Films du Nouveau Monde, Mod Producciones, One Two Films, Velvet Films, Ali n’ Productions

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A group of mourning women cluster around the body of a young girl.

Chiquita Piconera

  Mey Montero, Age 22

  Spain     12 minutes

Synopsis

A grieving mother uses vibrant Spanish dancing to cope with the loss of her youngest daughter, but the intensity of her grief threatens her relationship with her eldest child.

This film screens as part of the Best of CineYouth 2025 shorts program.

  

 Spanish with subtitles

Film Credits

  •   Clara Atero
  •   Mey Montero, Almudena García
  •   Víctor Merino
  •   Carlos Cuervo
  •   Lucía Fernández, Helena Martín, Jimena Toledo
  •   MArcos Carvajal
  •   TAI, Moira Pictures

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Best of CineYouth 2025

  Various

  Poland, Spain, U.S.     82 minutes

Synopsis

The award-winning shorts of CineYouth 2025 showcase the talent and vision of eight young filmmakers from around the world. Fast-paced action-comedy, timely documentary, cheerful animation, and body horror help comprise this genre-spanning program.

Diagnosed with terminal insomnia, Cillian obsessively builds a time machine to escape death in the The Mechanization of Man. Perfect Casting follows the founding of an unlikely friendship. How to Smell Without a Nose is a dark and impactful short about the Korean war, illustrated through the prosecution of a Joseon woman. April struggles for self-expression in Arm and a Leg. In the action comedy Check Please, a Korean and a Korean-American fight over their pride, honor, and who gets to pick up the tab. A mother and daughter cope with grief in Chiquita Piconera. An evil king holds a princess captive in Paper Love. In Hey Hugo, a well-loved family man waits in prison for his conviction to be overturned.

 English, Korean, No Dialogue, Spanish 

Content Considerations

Screenings & Events

Screening

Sat, Oct 25 @ 10:00am

at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 04
Venue information...

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A webcam image of a woman holding a cat is superimposed over an animated background showing a cluttered round table.

Abortion Party

  Julia Mellen

  Spain     13 minutes

Synopsis

As the filmmaker narrates the events surrounding an abortion she had in college, the events she describes play out behind her in animated form. The initially irreverent tone, matching the disjointed images on screen, turns melancholy as she considers the consequences of her decision.

This film screens as part of Shorts Program 10: Outré.

 English 

Film Credits

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Shorts 10: Outré

  Various

  Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, U.S.     84 minutes

Synopsis

The creators of these shorts unabashedly follow their own singular visions into wildly new and weird territories. Filled with fantastic imagery, oddball production design, and both animated and live-action storytelling, this program showcases the boundless possibilities of short film as a uniquely innovative art form.

Water Sports transports us to a hyper-stylized world ravaged by climate change where two students discover that emotional rather than physical strength offers their best chance of survival. In Arguments in Favor of Love, two animated ghosts revisit the conflicts and emotions that populated the landscapes of their previous shared life. A filmmaker narrates the events surrounding her abortion with poignance and irreverence while MS-paint style animation depicts the titular Abortion Party. A single woman navigates the difficult world of contemporary dating in Manakin by building a life-sized stuffed companion onto which she projects the images and words of a litany of single men. A young queer man on his way to a rave in the Argentine Pampas finds himself stranded in a rural tavern with a secret in the strikingly animated Luz Diabla. In a fantastical world suffused with eroticism, Once in a Full Moon follows a young vampire as he embarks on a quest that promises to grant him his heart’s truest desire: to consummate his love for the moon.

 English, French, Spanish, Tagalog 

Content Considerations

Screenings & Events

Screening

Sat, Oct 25 @ 10:15pm

at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 01
Venue information...