Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival returns for its 12th edition

Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival returns for its 12th edition on the big screen in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Inverness from 1st to 19th October 2025.

Article Source: Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival
Last Updated: 10 September 2025 13:34

The Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival (ESFF) welcomes film fans from all over Scotland to its 12th edition. The festival is delighted to offer a packed programme of cinema screenings, guest appearances and cultural events, featuring a total of 17 films, including four debut features from Spain and Latin America and offering a snapshot of the best brand-new Spanish-language cinema for 2025. The majority of our films are Scottish premieres.

ESFF 2025 is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the reestablishment of Spanish democracy. As such, our opening event will be a roundtable entitled “50 Years of Democracy in Spain: Perils and Possibilities for a Changing Future” where Professors Nuria Capdevila and Oliver Escobar will reflect on the legacy of the Spanish transition and what we can learn from it, especially in today’s critical context for democracy everywhere.

Following on the spirit of this event, our opening film will be Breaking Walls by Borja Cobeaga, a delightful road movie set in 1989 featuring a group of reluctant fathers who must escort their young daughters from Bilbao to Berlin for a gymnastics competition. The director will present the film on Friday 3rd October at 18:10 at the Edinburgh Filmhouse, and it will be followed by a Q&A session.

Our film programme will go over different periods of Spain’s contemporary history: from highlighting classism in Francoist-era Valencia with The Good Manners by Celia Rico (in attendance, Sat 4th 18:00 at the Filmhouse), to navigating the intricate fight against ETA in the 1990s with Undercover by Arantxa Etxevarría. We also have the uphill struggle of internal migrants in Barcelona with The 47 by Marcel Barrena, the marginalisation and empowerment of a group of Spanish transwomen with Dressed in Blue by Antonio Giménez Rico, and the current challenges faced by refugees and their allies with Pheasant Island by Asier Urbieta (co-presented with festival partner French Film Festival UK).

As always, we welcome the debut films of new Spanish directors: Everything I Don’t Know by Ana Lambarri (in attendance, Sun 12th 18:00 at the Odeon), which follows the anxieties and frustration of a young woman trying to make it in the tech world; Dismantling an Elephant by Aitor Echeverría (in attendance, Fri 10Th 19:00 at the Fraser Centre, and Sat 11th 18:00 at the Odeon), depicting the relationship between an ambitious ballerina and her mother recently released form addiction rehab; and Away by Gerard Oms (in attendance, Sat 18th 17:45 at the Filmhouse), featuring Mario Casas’ breakthrough performance as an undocumented immigrant who strives to find a future in Amsterdam.

We are also pleased to bring you two recent films from Peru: Queens by Klaudia Reynicke, where two sisters have to choose between staying with their father and friends in Lima or migrating with their mother to the US; and Through Rocks and Clouds by Franco García Becerra, where an Andean shepherd boy who is excited for the FIFA World Cup is threatened by the social and environmental impact of corporate mining.

Last but not least, Professor Nuria Capdevilla’s celebrated audiovisual project CartasVivas will return to our festival this year featuring new stories from overlooked Spanish female intellectuals.

All our films will be screened in their original language with English subtitles. For hard-of-hearing (HOH) audiences, we will continue to work with local accessibility experts such as Screen Language for HOH captioning. Undercover, Breaking Walls and Dismantling an Elephant will be screened with HOH captions in Edinburgh, Inverness and Tranent.

Special events:

Following our tradition to support the study of Spanish as a foreign language in the UK, we have organised many events for young students. This year, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles by Salvador Simó and The Footballest by Miguel Ángel Lamata will be available online with an access code, ready to be viewed from the comfort of the classroom for all UK schools. Breaking Walls by Borja Cobeaga will be screened in Edinburgh and Manchester for special school screenings. The CartasVivas screening in Edinburgh will also be open for students.

In a new collaboration with Scottish charity The Welcoming, which supports asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Edinburgh, ESFF will host a special workshop: “Recording Edinburgh as My Home”, with ESFF programmer assistant Dr Gustavo Herrera Taboada.

Finally, following our sold-out Basque Supper Club in May, ESFF will host a Valencian Supper Club at Tapa Restaurant in Leith as our closing event on Sunday 19th October at 18:30, featuring special cocktails and dishes inspired by Valencian cuisine.

Marian A. Aréchaga, Director ESFF said: “Spanish cinema is on a high, with the number of films produced in Spain rising steadily in the past few years. At ESFF we are delighted to bring the best of those titles alongside some of the most exciting features from Latin America. It has been and is an incredible experience to share thoughts, views and ideas with directors, colleagues, students and wonderful interpreters who make the whole thing possible.”

For more detailed information about the films see: www.edinburghspanishfilmfestival.com/en/

Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, Film Hub Scotland, Screen Scotland, the Spanish Embassy in London and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

Screening and Event Venues and Prices:

Edinburgh
Filmhouse (88 Lothian Road, EH3 9BZ)
Films: £12 full price, £10.50 concession

French Institute of Scotland (W Parliament Square, EH1 RN1)
Films: £10 full price, £7 concession

Odeon (118 Lothian Rd, EH3 8BQ)
Films: £10 full price, £8 concession

Tapa (19 Shore Pl, EH6 6SW)
Valencian Supper Club: £40

Tranent: The Fraser Centre (3 Winton Pl, EH33 1AF)
Films: £7 full price, £6 concession

Glasgow: University of Strathclyde, Royal College room 345 (entry through James Weir building on 75 Montrose St, G1 1XJ)
Films: £8 full price, £6 concession

Stirling: Macrobert Arts Centre (University of Stirling, FK9 4LA)
Films: Pay what you can: £6.50

Inverness: Eden Court Cinema (Bishops Rd, IV3 5SA)
Films: £9.50/£7 concession

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