The 68th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as Seminci, wrapped on Saturday (October 28), giving its top award, the Golden Spike, to Laura Ferrés’ debut feature The Permanent Picture.
It is the first time the best feature award at the long-running film festival has been won by a Spanish woman director.
Ferrés previously directed short film The Disinherited which won the Cannes Discovery Award for best short in 2017.
See below for full list of winners
The Permanent Picture is the story of an introverted middle-aged casting director who is looking for people to share their experiences when arriving in a new city and meets a woman with whom she discovers a shared connection. The film, produced by Spain’s Fasten Films and France’s Le Bureau, previously played in competition at Locarno.
Ferrés co-wrote the screenplay of what she describes as a ”depressing comedy” with Carlos Vermut (Manticore) and Ulises Porra (Carajita). The film received support from Cannes Critics’ Week’s Next Step initiative and TorinoFilmLab and was one of the Work In Progress projects selected in Malaga. The Permanent Picture will be distributed in Spain by La Aventura and sales are handled by Be For Films.
Valladolid’s first edition to be headed by José Luis Cienfuegos gave its Silver Spike competition award to Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, and its Ribera del Duero Best Director Award to Angela Schanelec for Music, a film that also won the prize for Best Cinematography.
The awards for Best Acting went to Léa Seydoux for Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast and Dave Turner for Ken Loach’s The Old Oak.
In the official competition section, the Audience Award also went to The Old Oak.
How to Have Sex earned Molly Manning Walker the Pilar Miró Award for Best New Director, a prize named after filmmaker Pilar Miró, a key figure for women directors in Spain. Veteran Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio and Susanna Nicchiarelli won for Kidnapped.
The Fipresci award went to another Spanish first feature, Víctor Iriarte’s Foremost The Night, which previously premiered in Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days section. The film is about stolen children in Spain under Franco’s regime when thousands of babies were taken for adoption from mothers that the regime thought unsuitable.
Marina Alberti, granddaughter of Spanish poet Rafael Alberti and writer María Teresa León, won the Silver Spike for Best Short for Aitana, a homage to her mother.
Meeting Point, the main sidebar section of Valladolid, awarded its top prize to Gasoline Rainbow, a post-Trump road movie directed by brothers Bill and Turner Ross. The Audience award in this section went to another Spanish first feature, Marta Lallana’s non-fiction feature Muyeres.
Valladolid’s closing film was Matthew J. Saville’s Juniper, starring Charlotte Rampling, who received an honorary award for her career. In her acceptance speech she vindicated the importance of “Unique, unpredictable and profoundly humane films that escape the grammar of big data. Films like the ones the Seminci has shown this week.”
Valladolid 2023 winners
Official competition
Golden Spike
The Permanent Picture (Sp-Fr)
Dir: Laura Ferrés
Silver Spike
La Chimera (It-Fr-Switz)
Dir: Alice Rohrwacher
Ribera del Duero Award for Best Direction
Angela Schanelec
Music (Ger-Fr-Ser)
Pilar Miró Award for Best New Director
Molly Manning Walker
How To Have Sex (UK-Gr-Bel)
Best Actress
Léa Seydoux
The Beast (Fr-Can)
Best Actor
Dave Turner
The Old Oak (UK-Fr-Bel)
Best Cinematography
Ivan Marković
Music (Germany-Fr-Serbia)
Miguel Delibes Award for Best Screenplay
Marco Bellocchio, Susanna Nicchiarelli
Kidnapped (It-Fr-Ger)
José Salcedo Award for Best Edit
Gesa Jäger
The Teachers’ Lounge (Ger)
Golden Spike for Best Short
Wander to Wonder (Neth-Bel-Fr-UK)
Dir: Nina Gantz
Silver Spike for Best Short
Aitana (Sp)
Dir: Marina Alberti
Meeting Point
Best Feature
Gasoline Rainbow (US)
Dir: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross
Special Jury Prize
Arthur & Diana (Ger)
Dir: Sara Summa (Alemania)
Special Mention
Animal (Gr-Austria-Rom)
Dir: Sofia Exarchou
Best International Short
Nocturnal Burger (India-US)
Dir: Reema Maya
Special Mention
Heartbreak Hotel (Fr)
Dir: Emma Axelroud Bernard, Toujours Panthère
Best Spanish Short
Meteoro (Sp)
Dir: Víctor Moreno
Time of History
1st prize
Between Revolutions (Rom-Croatia-Qatar-Iran)
Dir: Vlad Petri
2nd prize
Pictures Of Ghosts
Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil)
Best short
Ours (Switz)
Dir: Morgane Frund
No comments yet