The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces lineup for the 21st edition of SPANISH CINEMA NOW, December 7-16
Opening Night kicks

off with Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves, Spain’s official entry for the 2013 Oscars and Closing Night wraps up with Alvaro Longoria’s compelling documentary Sons of the Clouds, featuring Javier Bardem

  A salute to surrealist master filmmaker Luis Buñuel includes Catherine Deneuve in Tristana

Thursday, November 15, 2012 (New York, NY) ⎯The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the lineup for the 21st edition of SPANISH CINEMA NOW, December 7-16, featuring the latest, most exciting films from Spain, as well as a salute to surrealist master, Luis Buñuel. Kicking off this year’s series is Spain’s official Foreign Language Oscar submission, Pablo Berger’s BLANCANIEVES, an extraordinary lush, silent retelling of Snow White, complete with a traveling troupe of bullfighting dwarves. Closing out the festival is director Alvaro Longoria’s SONS OF THE CLOUDS, the newest film featuring Academy Award-winning actor Javier Bardem who takes audiences on a journey to the Western Sahara, where the Sahawai people wait for permission to return to their ancestral lands. Tickets are now on sale, visit Filmlinc.com!

“Reaching majority age this year–Spanish Cinema Now is 21 years old and counting–I'm delighted to say the series remains as young and fresh as ever, with a bevy of new talents that, against considerable economic odds, have still managed to produce sharply-observed engaging works that stretch across every cinematic genre,” says Film Society Program Director Richard Peña.

Spanish Cinema Now will also include a retrospective for surrealist master filmmaker Luis Buñuel and will feature a selection of films celebrating his work as director, producer and screenwriter. The sidebar includes TRISTANA, starring young screen siren Catherine Deneuve. The Instituto Cervantes New York will also be hosting lectures and special screenings to celebrate Buñuel from December 11-14.

For those who want to get a jump start on catching up with the best of Buñuel, prior to Spanish Cinema Now, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center will have a one-week theatrical run, starting November 23rd, of his 1972 masterpiece, THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary. A Rialto Pictures release. For more information visit, www.filmlinc.com.

This year’s Spanish Cinema Now lineup also includes a diverse selection of shorts, ShortMetraje (presented by Pragda), celebrating its 10th anniversary and includes a wide array of unique films from emerging Spanish filmmakers. The 2012 series will also play host to many in-person appearances, including directors Pablo Berger, Paula Ortiz, Jorge Torregrosso, Benito Zembrano, Eduard Cortés and the Director of the Filmoteca Nacional of Spain, Jose Maria Prado.

Spanish Cinema Now is presented by the Film Society in collaboration with the Spanish Film Institute (ICAA) in Madrid and the Instituto Cervantes in New York. Special thanks also to the Spanish Consulate General in New York.
 
Tickets are on sale both at the box office and on-line today, Thursday, November 15. Discount single screening tickets are available for students, seniors, Film Society and Cervantes Institute members. Everyone can enjoy a Special Three-Film Discount Package! More information available at www.filmlinc.com.

Public and Press Screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater (located at 165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway), unless otherwise noted.

PRESS SCREENINGS (AT THE WALTER READE THEATER)

Tuesday, November 27
10:00 AM BLANCANIEVES (104m)

12:00 PM CHRYSALIS (95m)

**RSVP to John Wildman at [email protected]

Films and Descriptions for 2012 Spanish Cinema Now

Opening Night!
BLANCANIEVES (2012) 104m
Director: Pablo Berger

An extraordinary re-reading of the classic Grimm Brothers tale as a lush silent melodrama, complete with a wicked stepmother and a traveling troupe of bullfighting dwarves. A Cohen Media Group release.
Friday, December 7 at 6:30pm
Director Pablo Berger in person!

Closing night!
SONS OF THE CLOUDS (HIJOS DE LAS NUBES, LA ÚLTIMA COLONIA) (2012) 110m
Director: Alvaro Longoria

Academy Award-winning actor Javier Bardem takes us on a journey to the Western Sahara, where the Sahawai people wait for permission to return to their ancestral lands.
Sunday, December 16 at 8:00pm

ANIMALS (2011) 100m
Director: Marçal Forés

Pol is a seemingly normal teenager with a family, homework, and a stuffed bear who speaks English named Deerhoof; all is well until he starts to get drawn into the dark world of a new classmate.
Sunday, December 9 at 8:45pm

THE BODY (EL CUERPO) (2012) 95m
Director: Oriol Paulo

When the body of a murdered woman disappears from the morgue, an unlikely partnership develops between a police inspector and the victim’s husband.
Saturday, December 8 at 7:30pm
Friday, December 14 at 4:00pm

CARMINA OR BLOW UP (CARMINA O REVIENTA) (2012) 70m
Director: Paco León

Parly a hilarious picaresque comedy, partly a love letter to his mother, Paco León’s impressive debut establishes its young director as a real talent to watch.
Sunday, December 16 at 4:00pm

CHRYSALIS (DE TU VENTANA A LA MÍA) (2011) 95m
Director: Paula Ortiz

The wonderful Maribel Verdu co-stars in this chronicle of three generations of women each trying to control their own destinies against the background of a rapidly changing Spain.
Friday, December 7 at 2:00pm
Sunday, December 9 at 4:00pm
Director Paula Ortiz in person at Sunday, December 9 screening!

THE COLD CALL (A PUERTA FRÍA) (2012) 80m
Director: Xavi Puebla

Forced to get a new contract signed or else lose his job, a businessman prepares for a meeting at a trade fair with a big American magnate (Nick Nolte).
Friday, December 7 at 4:15pm
Sunday, December 16 at 5:45pm

DREAM AND SILENCE (SUEÑO Y SILENCIO) (2012) 120m
Director: Jaime Rosales

One of Spain’s most provocative filmmakers, Rosales (La soledad, Bullet in the Head) offers an unsettling tale of a man who, following her death in a car accident while he was driving, forgets he ever had a daughter.
Thursday, December 13 at 8:30pm

THE END (FIN) (2012) 90m
Director: Jorge Torregrosso

An already tension-filled reunion among old friends turns terrifying when it seems as if some inexplicable, apocalyptic catastrophe has taken over the planet.
Saturday, December 8 at 5:30pm
Wednesday, December 12 at 1:00pm
Director Jorge Torregrosso in person at Saturday, December 8 screening!

FROZEN SILENCE (SILENCIO EN LA NIEVE) (2012) 114m
Director: Gerardo Herrero

A group of Spaniards in the notorious “Blue Division”–both volunteers and conscripts sent by Franco to fight alongside the Germans on the Russian front–fear they have a serial killer in their midst. 
Friday, December 7 at 9:00pm

GHOST GRADUATION (PROMOCIÓN FANTASMA) (2012) 97m
Director: Javier Ruiz Caldera

Teacher and psychic Modesto (Raul Arevalo) gets a new assignment: to help a group of teenage ghosts graduate from the high school they’ve been haunting.
Friday, December 14 at 8:15pm

ICEBERG (2012) 90m
Director: Gabriel Velázquez

Beautifully shot in Salamanca, this deceptively tranquil look at three teenagers who try to drop out from the world masks the enormous tensions and contradictory emotions lurking just below the surface.
Tuesday, December 11 at 8:15pm

ORANGE HONEY (MIEL DE NARANJAS) (2012) 101m
Director: Imanol Uribe

Stationed in his girlfriend’s hometown, a young solider in ‘50s Spain discovers the brutal truth of the Franco regime.
Wednesday, December 12 at 3:00pm
Saturday, December 15 at 7:30pm

PAINLESS (INSENSIBLES) (2012) 100m
Director: Juan Carlos Medina

A taut, provocative thriller that spirals between the Thirties and the present as it recounts the terrible story of a Civil-War era clinic and its experiments with children naturally immune to pain.
Friday, December 15 at 2:00pm
Saturday, December 15 at 9:45pm

THE SLEEPING VOICE (LA VOZ DORMIDA) (2011) 128m
Director: Benito Zembrano

Dulce Chacon’s bestselling novel about female prisoners in the early years of the Franco regime is brilliantly adapted to the screen
Sunday, December 9 at 6:15pm
Thursday, December 13 at 3:45pm
Director Benito Zembrano in person at Sunday, December 9 screening!

WILAYA (2012) 97m
Director: Pedro Pérez Rosado

After living for years in Spain, a young woman is forced to rejoin her family in a massive refugee camp in the Western Sahara.
Thursday, December 13 at 1:30pm
Sunday, December 16 at 12:00pm

WINNING STREAK (LOS PELAYOS) (2012) 101m
Director: Eduard Cortés

Country: Spain
In this fast-paced comedy, casino gambler Gonzalo finally figures out a way to beat the odds, drafting his somewhat reluctant family into a scheme to make a killing at the roulette table.
Saturday, December 8 at 9:45pm
Director Eduard Cortés in person!

WRINKLES (ARRUGAS) (2011) 89m
Director: Ignacio Ferrera

Country: Spain
A beautifully animated tale of resistance, friendship and life set among the inhabitants of an elderly care facility.
Sunday, December 16 at 2:00pm

New Spanish Shorts (ShortMetraje) 96mShortMetraje comes back full force, this time celebrating its 10-year anniversary. This edition's fantastic line-up includes a wide array of formats, genres, and styles by a group of emerging filmmakers whose talents will shape the future of Spanish cinema. Be the first to discover tomorrow's most acclaimed filmmakers! This program is presented by Pragda (www.pragda.com).
Sunday, December 9 at 2:00pm

A STORY FOR THE MODLINS (UNA HISTORIA PARA LOS MODLIN) (2012) 26m
Director: Sergio Oksman

After appearing in the film ROSEMARY’S BABY by Roman Polanski, Elmer Modlin ran away with his family to a distant land, where they shut themselves inside a dark apartment for 30 years.

THAT WASN’T ME (AQUEL NO ERA YO) (2012) 20m
Director: Esteban Crespo

Being a soldier is not difficult: either you get used to it or they kill you. The hardest thing is getting used to living with your memories and being yourself again after doing what you have done.

GOODBYE DAD, GOODBYE MUM (ADIÓS PAPÁ, ADIÓS MAMA) (2011) 12m
Director: Luis Soravilla

Sole is making dinner for her husband Bernardo and her son Martín, but the news Martín brings home from work is about to turn her quiet domestic life upside down: his company has offered him a permanent contract and that he is going to go and live with his girlfriend, Blanca. She has already told her parents and is putting pressure on Martín to tell his, which he finally, with difficulty, manages to do.

MACHINE MAN (HOMBRE MÁQUINA) (2011) 15
Directors: Alfonso Moral and Roser Corella

Dhaka, Bangladesh. Barefoot women collect coal. Boys produce 18,000 bricks a day. A man weighing 50 kilos moves 100-kilo sacks. Children sort plastic bottles for 12 hours each day. Men dismantle rusty wrecks in a polluted river. When they speak of the work that destroys their health, which in Europe would be considered inhumane, they say, “I feel like a machine.” Despite the plethora of modern machinery available in the 21st century, this film captures people still performing back-breaking and often dangerous work by hand.

THE LAST SEQUENCE (LA ÚLTIMA SECUENCIA) (2011) 13m
Director: Arturo Ruiz Serrano

The late 1960s. In the Almería desert, a Spanish-Italian co-production is being filmed. The lack of resources and poor communication among the different members of the crew are on verge of running the end of the film. They might just be saved by one shot/scene.

VOICE OVER (2012) 10m
Director: Martín Rosete

I-won’t-tell-you-whose voiceover guides us through three extreme situations which are actually the same. Will you survive?

BUÑUEL IN SPAIN
Don’t miss this special retrospective devoted to master filmmaker Luis Buñuel’s work as director, producer and screenwriter in his native Spain!

THE DAUGHTER OF JUAN SIMON (LA HIJA DE JUAN SIMÓN) (1935) 69m
Director: Jose Luis Saenz de Heredia

A shameless melodrama about betrayal and redemption made even more outrageous under producer Buñuel’s surreal eye. With Carmen Amaya.
Tuesday, December 11 at 6:15pm

DON QUINTIN THE BITTER (DON QUINTÍN EL AMARGAO) (1935) 87m
Director: Luis Marquina

Buñuel served as producer and uncredited screenwriter for this tale of a cuckolded businessman who, on his deathbed, meets the child he abandoned years before.
Thursday, December 13 at 6:30pm

LAND WITHOUT BREAD (LAS HURDES) (1933) 30m
Director: Luis Buñuel

screening with
ESPAÑA 1936. (1937) 35m
Director: Jean-Paul Le Chanois

Two documentaries, the first a remarkable portrait of one of the poorest regions of Spain, the second an early chronicle of the Civil War produced and scripted by Buñuel.
Sunday, December 9 at 12:00pm
Director of the Filmoteca Nacional of Spain, Jose Maria Prado in person!

TRISTANA (1969) 95m
Director: Luis Buñuel

Given charge of a young orphan, Don Lope eventually turns her into his lover in this beautiful meditation on guilt and forgiveness. With Catherine Deneuve and Fernando Rey.
Saturday, December 15 at 5:30pm

VIRIDIANA (1961) 90m
Director: Luis Buñuel

One of Bunuel’s unquestionable masterpieces, the story of a young woman’s attempt to create a kingdom of virtue among the poor and desperate. With Silvia Pinal.
Friday, December 14 at 6:15pm

BUÑUEL AT INSTITUTO CERVANTES
December 11-14 at 6:00 PM, 211 E. 49TH Street

Documentary: SPEAKING OF BUÑUEL (A PROPÓSITO DE BUÑUEL)
Director: Javier Rioyo

(In Spanish with English subtitles)
The most complete documentary ever made about the life and work of Luis Buñuel. With the participation of Michelle Piccoli, Jean Rochefort, Ángela Molina, Jean-Claude Carrière, Carlos Fuentes & Paco Rabal, among others.

Tuesday, December 11 at 6:00pm

Lecture & Screening
Las Hurdes is a documentary by Buñuel that completely changed the genre. Javier Herrera, one of the top experts in Buñuel´s first films, will talk about the true story of the genesis, the release and the problems that arose during the creation of this masterpiece. In Spanish with simultaneous translation.  The screening will include rare home films of Buñuel´s family.
Wednesday, December 12 at 6:00pm

Film: THE YOUNG ONE
Director: Luis Buñuel

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
(In English with Spanish subtitles)
Thursday, December 13 at 6:00 pm

Film: ROBINSON CRUSOE
Director: Luis Buñuel

On 30 September 1659, the aristocratic British Robinson Crusoe's ship sinks and he miraculously survives on a deserted island somewhere in South America.
(In Spanish with English subtitles)
Friday, December 14 at 6:00 pm

Public Screening Schedule for Spanish Cinema Now

Screening Venue:
The Film Society of Lincoln Center – Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65 Street, between Broadway & Amsterdam (upper level)

Friday, December 7        
2:00PM CHRYSALIS (95min)
4:15PM THE COLD CALL (80min) 
6:30PM   BLANCANIEVES (104min)
(Q&A with director Pablo Berger)
9:00PM FROZEN SILENCE (114min)

Saturday, December 8
5:30PM THE END (90min)
(Q&A with director Jorge Torregrosso)
7:30PM THE BODY (95min)
9:45PM WINNING STREAK (101min)
  (Q&A with director Eduard Cortés)

Sunday, December 9
12:00PM LAND WITHOUT BREAD (39min) with ESPANA 1936 (35min)
(Q&A with Director of the Filmoteca Nacional of Spain, Jose Maria Prado)
2:00PM NEW SPANISH SHORTS (ShortMetraje) (96min)
4:00PM CHRYSALIS (95min)
  (Q&A with director Paula Ortiz)
6:15PM THE SLEEPING VOICE (128min)
  (Q&A with director Benito Zembrano)
8:45PM ANIMALS (100min)

Monday, December 10
NO SCREENINGS

Tuesday, December 11
6:15PM THE DAUGHTER OF JUAN SIMON (69min)
8:15PM ICEBERG (90min)

Wednesday, December 12
1:00PM THE END (90min)
3:00PM ORANGE HONEY (101min)

Thursday, December 13
1:30PM WILAYA (97min)
3:45PM THE SLEEPING VOICE (128min)
6:00PM DON QUINTIN THE BITTER (87min)
8:30PM DREAM AND SILENCE (120min)

Friday, December 142:00PM PAINLESS (100min)
4:00PM THE BODY (95min)
6:15PM VIRIDIANA (90min)
8:15PM GHOST GRADUATION (97min)

Saturday, December 15
5:30PM TRISTANA (95min)
7:30PM ORANGE HONEY (101min)
9:45PM PAINLESS (100min)

Sunday, December 16
12:00PM WILAYA (97min)
2:00PM WRINKKES (89min)
4:00PM CARMINA OR BLOW UP (70min)
5:45PM THE COLD CALL (80min)
8:00PM SONS OF THE CLOUDS (110min)

Film Society of Lincoln Center
Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, which recently celebrated its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, WNET New York Public Media, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com.

For Media specific inquiries, please contact:
John Wildman, (212) 875-5419
[email protected]

David Ninh, (212) 875-5423
[email protected]