Recent Spanish Cinema

Recent Spanish Cinema

Egyptian Theatre

Hollywood, CA

October 16-19, 2014

Join us for the 20^th anniversary of our annual showcase to be the first to see the best of Spain's rich, vibrant and vital films first - on the big screen at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.   The 1994 Recent Spanish Cinema series hosted a young Javier Bardem’s first visit to Los Angeles. His JAMON, JAMON had enjoyed a small arthouse release in the U.S., so the Cinematheque audience was delighted to see his follow up with director Bigas Luna, HUEVOS DEL ORO (GOLDEN BALLS). In the past 19 years, the Recent Spanish Cinema series has introduced international Spanish talents such as   Penélope Cruz , Victoria Abril and Antonio Banderas and more recently audiences have enjoyed  hearing from filmmakers like Alejandro Amenabar, Alex de la Iglesia , Julio Medem, Benito Zambrano, and  from actors including Angela Molina, Luis Tosar and Eduardo Noriega to name a few . You'll catch films plucked hot off the festival circuit, in the company of the passionate, talented Spanish filmmakers and established artists.

Since 1994, the Recent Spanish Cinema Series has been presenting the most outstanding current Spanish films. The Series is a Seventh Art showcase of Spain’s top cinema personalities, who have contributed significantly to putting "Made in Spain" productions in the vanguard of international filmmaking. Talents like Carmen Maura, Álex de la Iglesia, Bigas Luna, Fernando Trueba, Vicente Aranda, Javier Fesser, and Fernando León de Aranoa, among others, have attended this event and left their personal stamp on the Recent Spanish Cinema Series. Each year, more long-standing celebrities as well as up-and-coming artists in Spanish cinema are adding their names to the list of participants. They tell us about their experiences in films in the Series at the Q&A sessions for the attending audiences. The Recent Spanish Cinema Series is an initiative of the Spanish Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), a branch of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport devoted to preserving, fostering, and promoting the Spanish filmmaking and audiovisual sectors, with American Cinematheque, a non-profit cultural organization in the heart of Hollywood dedicated to public presentation of films of yesterday and today beyond the scope of the big, mainstream productions and EGEDA, the Spanish Audiovisual Producers’ Rights Management Association. EGEDA’s Los Angeles branch office coordinates and supervises the Series to ensure its ongoing success year after year. In the 1990s, American Cinematheque acquired the landmark Egyptian Theatre for the symbolic price of 1 dollar with a commitment to restore and re-open it to the public. This historic venue, built in 1922 on the renowned Hollywood Walk of Fame, serves as the setting each year for multiple projections of Spanish filmmakers. Since 2005, Spanish films have also been hosted in the Aero Theatre, a classic cinema in the coastal city of Santa Monica. The Recent Spanish Cinema Series is a great annual opportunity in the LA-area, and a unique one for West Coast film fans, to see the USA debut of numerous top Spanish-produced films.