Australia's Spanish Film Festival Is Returning for 2025 to Add Some Euro and Latin American Vibes to Your Winter
This year's fest features 30 films, including a 'Sliding Doors'-style opening pick, 2025's two Goya Best Film winners and celebrating the 25th anniversary of 'Nine Queens'.
Two Spanish couples on holiday, the tale of a real-life Barcelona bus driver and a crime thriller set in the Basque Country: if you're looking to swap Australia's winter for Euro vibes from your cinema seat, they're some of the highlights in store. When the middle of the year hits Down Under each year, the Spanish Film Festival brightens up Aussie picture palaces with a lineup of movies from its namesake country. Exploring the breadth of Spanish-language cinema, it also showcases flicks from Latin America.
Thirty films are on the fest's just-announced program for 2025, which is touring across Australia in June and July. Across various dates between Wednesday, June 11–Wednesday, July 9, audiences in Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Ballarat, Sydney, Byron Bay and Ballina can enjoy a roster of picks that includes a Sliding Doors-style opener, this year's two Goya Best Film winners and a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Nine Queens.
Among the films mentioned above, Samana Sunrise is kicking of the festival with 20-year pals on a beachside getaway to the Dominican Republic when what might've been becomes the focus. Then, both El 47 and Undercover have prime slots fresh from their shared victory at Spain's version of the Oscars. The first heads back to the 70s to tell of bus driver Eduard Fernández's peaceful act of dissidence, while the second also unfurls a true tale, this time about the only police officer in Spain's history that has worked their way into terrorist organisation ETA.
If you've been watching Ricardo Darín in recent Netflix hit The Eternaut, then you'll want to head back a quarter-century to see the Argentinian star's stellar work in heist flick Nine Queens — or revisit it if you're already a fan. It's closing out this year's Spanish Film Festival, screening in 4K.
Other highlights across the program include The Quiet Maid, which was completely funded by NFTs, boasts Steven Soderbergh (Presence, Black Bag) as an executive producer, and follows a Colombian maid who discovers how to enjoy her summer while working on the Costa Brava; Ocho, charting a relationship over 90 years; the page-to-screen The Goldsmith's Secret; and Spanish box-office hit Wolfgang, a comedy a nine-year-old boy being set to live with his father. Or, there's Argentinian crime-thriller A Silent Death, which heads Patagonia in the 80s; El Jockey, with Money Heist and The Day of the Jackal's Úrsula Corberó among the Buenos Aires-set film's cast; and Peru's Through Rocks and Clouds, where an eight-year-old alpaca herder gets excited about the World Cup.
With Marco, The Invented Truth, another slice of reality graces the lineup, this time honing in on the man who acted as the speaker of the Spanish association of Holocaust victims. The same is the case with I Am Nevenka, Nevenka Fernández's report of harassment by her employer in the 90s. Two documentaries also demonstrate how fact is frequently more fascinating than fiction, with Mugaritz. No Bread, No Dessert all about its eponymous Michelin-starred restaurant and The Flamenco Guitar of Yerai Cortés celebrating a rising star of its titular genre.
From there, audiences can also catch the Canary Islands-set Babies Don't Come with Instructions, dive into mother-daughter relationships with Little Loves, follow three three Mexican American sisters retracing their grandmother's footsteps in Las Tres Sisters, Miguel Gila tribute May I Speak with the Enemy and queer drama Baby — and plenty more.
Spanish Film Festival 2025 Dates
Wednesday, June 11–Wednesday, July 2 — Palace Electric Cinema, Canberra
Wednesday, June 11–Wednesday, July 2 — Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and Palace Prospect Cinemas, Adelaide
Wednesday, June 11–Wednesday, July 2 — Palace James Street and Palace Barracks, Brisbane
Thursday, June 12–Wednesday, July 2 — Palace Raine Square Cinemas, Luna Leederville and Luna on SX, Perth
Friday, June 13–Wednesday, July 2 — The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Palace Balwyn and Pentridge Cinema, Melbourne
Friday, June 13–Wednesday, July 2 — Palace Regent Theatre, Ballarat
Thursday, June 19–Wednesday, July 9 — Palace Norton Street, Palace Moore Park, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema, Sydney
Thursday, June 19–Wednesday, July 9 — Palace Byron Bay, Byron Bay
Thursday, June 19–Wednesday, July 9 — Ballina Fair Cinemas, Ballina
The 2025 Spanish Film Festival tours Australia in June and July. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the festival's website.
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