The Seville European Film Festival opens a new venue at Espacio Turina and kicks off with "¡Viva Carmen!"
Topics Ayuntamiento de Sevilla Espacio Turina Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla
The 23rd edition of SeFF runs from Friday, November 6 to Saturday, November 14. The Official Section has 17 films, including the world premiere of "El director", by Dani de la Orden. Agnieszka Holland and the Cartoon Saloon studio receive the Honorary Awards.
The Seville European Film Festival (SeFF) celebrates its 23rd edition from Friday, November 6 to Saturday, November 14. It is organised by the Seville City Council and directed by Manuel Cristóbal. According to the City Council, the 2025 edition drew more than 67,800 spectators, making it the fourth film festival in Spain by attendance and the first in Andalusia.
Espacio Turina, the main venue
The big novelty is the venue. For the first time, Espacio Turina, on calle Laraña, is the centre of the festival: the press room, accreditation, presentations and meetings with the public will be there, and there will also be screenings from the Official Section and Special Screenings.
Films are also spread across Mk2 Cinesur Nervión Plaza, Cine Cervantes, Teatro Alameda, Avenida 5 Cines, Odeón Plaza de Armas, Cartuja Center CITE, CICUS and CaixaForum. Las Setas, which turns fifteen, joins the festival and will host the traditional photo of the day.
Opens with "¡Viva Carmen!"
The opening film is "¡Viva Carmen!", by Sébastien Laudenbach. It is an animated version of Bizet's opera, set in the Seville of 1840, in which a group of street children tries to save Carmen. It premiered at Cannes and arrives thanks to an agreement with the Seville Opera Festival, whose next edition is in 2027.
Seventeen films in competition
The Official Section, which competes for the Giraldillo de Oro, brings together 17 titles. The festival announced 15 at the end of September and completed it on October 15 with two films based on books. "El director", by Dani de la Orden, adapts the novel by journalist David Jiménez, starring David Verdaguer and Alberto San Juan; Seville hosts its world premiere. "A Long Winter", by the British director Andrew Haigh, is based on a story by Colm Tóibín and will have its first screenings in Spain in Seville.
Also competing are "La desconocida", by Arthur Harari, with Léa Seydoux; "Lemonade", by Kim Bartley, with Barry Keoghan; "The Idiot(s)", by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert; "You Don't Belong Here", by Florin Şerban, Golden Leopard at Locarno; "Children of the Monkey", by Tommaso Landucci; "Falling House", by Mohsen Gharaei; "3 Weeks After", by Miroslav Terzić; "Black Money for White Nights", by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov; "Palabras de amor", by Rudi Rosenberg; "Sin expectativas", by Eivind Landsvik, and the animated film "Blaise". Two of them are their country's Oscar candidates: "Adult Supervision", from Sweden, and "Elephants in the Fog", from Nepal.
Spanish cinema in the section is completed by the documentary "Taranta", by Samuel Nacar, about the reopening of the Santana factory in Linares, and the fiction film "Tralovento", by Eloy Domínguez Serén, about a village divided by a wind farm. Out of competition, "Anguita. El hombre de los tres siglos", by Hugo Cabezas, about the politician Julio Anguita, will be shown.
The other sections
The European Film Academy Selection brings twelve films awarded this year at the major festivals: "Fjord", by Cristian Mungiu, Palme d'Or at Cannes; "Yellow Letters", by İlker Çatak, Golden Bear at the Berlinale; "Fatherland", by Paweł Pawlikowski; "Coward", by Lukas Dhont; "Rose", with Sandra Hüller, or "La violinista", a Spanish co-production awarded at Annecy.
In Embrujo, Alumbramiento and Rampa appear Catherine Deneuve ("A Man's Skin"), Monica Bellucci ("Ketticè"), Chiara Mastroianni and Fabrice Luchini ("Hugo"), Asia Argento and Éric Cantona, and the directorial debut of actor James McAvoy, "California Schemin'". Special Screenings has five Spanish titles: "Carta Blanca", by Gerardo Herrero; "El Confidente", by Daniel Calparsoro; the documentaries about Edgar Neville and about Clint Eastwood's shoot in Spain, and the children's film "Momonsters. La película de Navidad".
Honorary Awards
The Polish director Agnieszka Holland, director of "Europa Europa" and former president of the European Film Academy, will receive the Honorary Award. So will the Irish studio Cartoon Saloon, the studio behind "Song of the Sea" and "Wolfwalkers": it is the first time the festival has awarded an animation studio. The organisation has said it will announce more Honorary Awards.
Posters and exhibition
The Seville illustrator José Luis Ágreda signs the posters for this edition. The first takes the protagonists of Godard's "Breathless" to Las Setas; the second puts Antonio Banderas with a Giralda dressed as a flamenco dancer, in homage to Almodóvar. There will be a third. Ágreda's six posters for 2025 and 2026 will be exhibited during the festival at the Círculo Mercantil e Industrial de Sevilla.
Tickets
The box offices at Mk2 Nervión Plaza and Espacio Turina open before the festival, from Tuesday, October 27 to Thursday, November 5, from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to 21:00. During the festival they open from 9:00 to 22:00. At the other venues, the box office opens one hour before the first screening of the day.
The programme of screenings, with days and times, has not yet been published. When it comes out it will be on the festival website, festivalcinesevilla.eu/, and in the YaSevilla agenda.