Ever since its inception, the FMFS audience has loved the films coming from the Iberian Peninsula, and after several years of creative and production crisis - the Spaniards are returning to our festival with a bang.

The Spanish invasion is led by the absolute winner of the national Goya awards, including those for the best film, direction, screenplay, leading male and supporting male role - the film “The Beasts” (As Bestas) by Rodrigo Sorogoyen. The FMFS audience knows Sorogoyen from the tense film “The Candidate”, which we showed a few years ago and distributed in cinemas across Croatia. The main role in "The Beasts", which premiered at Cannes, is played by French actor Denis Menochet, known for his roles in the films “Peter Von Kant” and “Inglorious Basterds”. The film has so far collected more than fifty awards, among which stands out the audience award in San Sebastian.

Another treat is the film “Prison 77” (Modelo 77) by Albert Rodriguez, who we remember at FMFS for the audience favourite “Marshland” screening, after which we introduced a new ticket category for the seats on the wall due to huge interest. The film is based on a true event, had its world premiere at the festival in San Sebastian, and won five Goya awards. In the main roles are the legendary Javier Gutierrez (“Marshland”, “Truman”, “Champions”) and the young star Miguel Herran, known for his role in the series ”Money Heist”.

From the Panorama programme of this year's Berlinale comes the Spanish “Matria”, the debut film of director Alvaro Gago, whose award-winning short film “16 December” was screened at FMFS in 2020. The main actress Maria Vazquez won the award for the best female role at the festival in Malaga.

The feature-length Spanish programme closes with director Carlo Vermut's “Manticore”, which received four Goya nominations and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Spaniards are also featured in the short film programme of the 16th FMFS. In the free entrance cinema on the plateau of the Dom mladih (The Youth Centre), “Women Visiting A City” will be shown, arriving with the pedigree of the awards for the best European film and for the best comedy of the festival in Clermont-Ferrand. There is also the winner of the Goya for the best Spanish short film “Emotional Architecture 1959”, as well as “Aqueronte” which won the film critics award for the best short film in the competition at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

Tickets for the 16th FMFS are on sale from 4 June at 10 a.m. in our webshop.