Léalo en español
Last February, 19 Spanish and Latin American shorts and feature films participated at the Berlin Film Festival. Not a large number considering the enormous films screening in Berlin, but with a disproportionate influence: nine of these films (47%) received awards and special mentions, including the Silver Bear for the Dominican feature Pepe and the Golden Bear for best short film for the Argentinian An Odd Turn.
And the Berlinale is just one example that there are now films in Spanish winning awards — a feat considered unachievable until recently — at such diverse festivals as Minsk, Tallinn, Busan and Innsbruck.
In recent years it has become common to see Penélope Cruz, Gael García Bernal, Salma Hayek and Diego Luna walking the red carpets of the world’s festivals and award ceremonies, such as the Oscars and the Baftas. The films of Guillermo del Toro, González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Pablo Larraín and Walter Salles are all over the world. So it seems fair to pay attention to Spanish-language cinema.
All the aforementioned directors film in English and Spanish — but is the result the same? Taking the topic farther, are Gravity or Children of Men similar to Roma? Birdman or The Revenant to Bardo? Jackie or Spencer to The Count? Although the technical mastery and directing expertise is the same in both languages, the films shot in Spanish by these directors are a return to their country and are much more personal. Roma, Bardo and El Conde come from the directors’ own scripts, filmed with Latin American actors. And the result is different, closer to their country of origin; deeper and more inspiring for everyone.
The Film Verdict has been committed to Spanish-language cinema since its inception: Prayers for the Stolen, The Good Boss and Letters from a Distance, were published in the first month of their release in September 2021. For a year we continued publishing reviews in English by our senior critics Deborah Young, Jay Weissberg and Stephen Dalton. But we believed it was not enough. Spanish and Latin American cinema deserve reviews in their own language, and in October 2022 we launched CineVerdict with the participation of Uruguayan critic Patricia Boero and this Mexican writer and critic, as well as translations into Spanish of our reviews of films from Latin America and Spain. Our spectrum has expanded since then and today it includes newsletters in Spanish and coverage of special sections at festivals around the world. TFV not only covers consolidated industry productions but also independent and emerging cinema such as the Costa Rican films, genre films, documentaries, and short films.
And this is only the beginning: in 2024 the coverage will be expanded to include a larger percentage of cinema in Spanish to facilitate its access to film professionals and our entire readership, regardless of their language. In addition to a podcast in Spanish, Caso Juzgado, with interviews and reviews.
Yes, we are really interested in Spanish-language cinema, and we are committed to helping it find its audience!
Lucy Virgen is a TFV critic and CineVerdict editor.