Kolkata: Kolkata cinephiles are in for a treat this monsoon as the city is set to host a week-long celebration of Spanish cinema, featuring gripping stories, award-winning direction and memorable performances. From human resilience and solidarity to satire and surrealism, the festival promises to transport audiences through Spain’s rich filmmaking tradition.
Organised by the Forum for Film Studies and Allied Arts in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain, Instituto Cervantes, New Delhi, and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), the programme titled ‘A Session of Award-Winning Spanish Cinema’ will be held at SRFTI’s Main Auditorium from Monday, August 18 to Friday, August 22, 2025. Screenings begin each evening at 6 pm.
The inaugural session will see film scholar Indranil Chakravarty as the guest of honour, with film critic and Forum vice-president Samik Bandyopadhyay also present.
The festival opens on August 18 with Javier Fesser’s ‘Campeones’ (2018), winner of a Goya Award and 13 other honours, about a basketball coach leading a team of players with disabilities. On August 19, Juan Diego Botto’s ‘En los márgenes’ (2022), screened at the Venice Film Festival, follows three lives navigating 24 hours of economic stress and personal struggle.
August 20 features Alejandro Amenábar’s ‘Mar Adentro’ (2004), based on the true story of Ramón Sampedro, a quadriplegic man whose legal battle for the right to die with dignity won an Oscar and 68 other awards.
On August 21, Álex de la Iglesia’s ‘Mi gran noche’ (2015) tells a story of chaos, rivalry, and unexpected romance behind the scenes of a New Year’s Eve television special.
The festival concludes on August 22 with Luis Buñuel’s ‘El ángel exterminador’ (1962), in which dinner guests mysteriously cannot leave a mansion as social order unravels. The evening will also feature Bengali recitations of Spanish poems by poet and translator Tanmoy Chakraborty. The five-day film festival also comes in the wake of five alumni of SRFTI having bagged the National Award this year. The winners include directors Dominic Megam Sangma and Christo Tomy, cinematographers Saravanamuthu Soundarapandi and Meenakshi Soman, and sound designer Shubharun Sengupta, highlighting the institute’s legacy of nurturing top-tier talent in Indian cinema.