Valladolid Film Festival Awards 2023: Immigration movies win top prizes in Spain

The Valladolid International Film Festival, commonly known as Seminci (Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid), is held annually in Valladolid, Spain every year. Debuted in 1956 as Semana de Cine Religioso de Valladolid, Seminchi is one of Spain's oldest film festivals. It stands out in the field of feature films and independent films. Seminci is traditionally held in October each year, about a month later than Spain's most prestigious film festival, the San Sebastian Film Festival.

This year, the 68th film festival took place from 21st to 28th October. The Movie Teller, an adaptation of Hernán Rivera Letelier's novel, directed by Lone Scherfig, opened the festival.

This year 2 immigration movies have made it big at the festival. Laura Ferrés-directorial, The Permanent Picture and Ken Loach-directorial, The Old Oak won Best Actor and Audience Award, respectively.

Other authors who won awards at Valladolid are Italian Alice Rohrwacher, who won the Silver Spike with La Chimera, the German Angela Schanelec, who directed and did the camera (Ivan Marković) for Music, Marco Bellocchio won for screenplay for Kidnapped, and Lone Scherfig from Denmark won the Young Seminci Prize for the opening film The Movie Teller.

The Valladolid MERCI Prize 2023 edition was won by veteran producer, distributor and exhibitor Enrique González Macho, whose upscale chain Cines Renoir helped change the face and comfort of the Spanish arthouse scene.