The Red Carpet at the Shang is hosting Pelicula for the first time./ARMIN P. ADINA
MANILA, Philippines — After missing the physical cinema environment for two years, Pelicula Spanish Film Festival is back to screening in an actual movie theater for its 21st edition this year, and it will be hosted for the first time at the Shangri-la Plaza’s Red Carpet at the Shang in Mandaluyong City.
The annual festival of Spanish language movies spearheaded by the Instituto Cervantes de Manila took a break from physical screenings in 2020 and 2021 because of the restrictions in mass gatherings and limitations to theatrical operations implemented because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was instead held online for those two editions.
Aside from the screenings at Shangri-la Plaza, Pelicula will also show movies from its 2022 lineup at Cine Adarna at the University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City, and at the Intramuros branch of Instituto Cervantes. There will also be online screenings in the country, and in Malaysia and Australia.
“We have to break away from the pandemic,” Instituto Cervantes de Manila Director Javier Galvan said at the festival’s launch held recently at the Red Carpet at the Shang. He was the one who started the festival in the Philippines in 2002 during his first stint in his post.
Instituto Cervantes de Manila Director Javier Galvan welcomes the public to the return of Pelicula to face-to-face screenings./ARMIN P. ADINA
“This is becoming more complex because we are coming back to face-to-face,” he continued, noting how the festival has grown from having seven films in the lineup in a single venue, to having 13 titles in multiple locations this year, with both physical and virtual screenings.
This year’s line up includes “El Buen Patron” starring Academy Award winner Javier Bardem, and Cannes winner “Muerte de Un Ciclista.”
For 2022, the festival has lined up films from different genres, including documentaries.
It is ongoing and will run until Oct. 16. Screenings are open to the public, free of charge.
Online screenings will run from Oct. 11 to 14 at www.pelikula.org, with two movies premiering per day, except on the first day which will have only “Esa Pareja Feliz.” Online access is free, but the movies will be available for only 48 hours. EDV