The red carpet returns for Malaga's annual film spectacular

2016-04-23 08:00:00

Today marks the beginning of the 19th edition of the Malaga Film Festival, a star-studded celebration of Spanish cinematography which is held in the heart of Malaga’s historic centre every year.
The festival, which runs from 22 April until 1 May, will offer spectators a variety of films (feature-length and documentaries), paying homage to the personalities involved in the Spanish film industry.
During the festival, movies will be screened in a number of different sites across the city including the Cine Albéniz, the Teatro Alameda and the Teatro Cervantes where a red carpet has been rolled out especially for the occasion.
This year, the festival is expected to exceed the 120,000 spectators that attended the event in the previous edition. Headline titles include Kike Maillo’s thriller, ‘Toro’, which is the festival’s inaugural movie and is screened at 10pm tonight in the Teatro Cervantes. Meanwhile, the Teatro Echegaray will display a range of fascinating documentaries, featuring ‘El hombre nuevo’, a film about a Nicaraguan transvestite who returns home to confront his past.
The Malaga festival will also have an international flavour to it as on 26 April when the Teatro Cervantes will show ‘Gernika’, a Spanish-directed film performed in English which will commemorate the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica.
As well as promoting Spanish cinema, the film spectacular looks to celebrate Malaga itself with the ambition of transforming the city into a hub of cinematic activity. Since its conception in 1998, the Malaga Film Festival has contributed to the area’s cultural and economic development as the event attracts wide media attention in Spain each year.
In particular, one event which highlights the festival’s goal to promote regional and local business is ‘Cruzcampo recupera el Cine Alameda’. The event, sponsored by the Andalusian beer producer, will host a celebration of classic films credited for igniting people’s love of Spanish cinema.
On Tuesday afternoon, the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, joined by the director of Malaga Film Festival, Antonio Vigar, and Javier Galindo, brand manager of Cruzcampo, presented the event at the Centro Gastronómico Cultural Mercado close to Plaza de la Merced. During the talk, the mayor described how the festival continues to get “bigger and better each year”. Meanwhile, Vigar expressed how the cinematic celebration is “important to everyone” in Malaga as “events like [these] support the local economy and create employment”.
‘Cruzcampo recupera el Cine Alameda’, which runs from the 25 to 28 April in the Teatro Alameda, will treat film fanatics to a selection of Spanish favourites from different eras. From a list of many well-known titles, Álex de la Iglesia’s, ‘El día de la bestia’ will be shown along with Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios’ which features Carmen Maura and a young Antonio Banderas. In a special twist, the Alameda theatre will be decorated to resemble the era of the film that is on display.
Tapas route
In addition to this, yesterday, Cruzcampo’s ‘Rutas de Tapas de Cine’ event kicked off and will run until 1 May. It aims to combine film and gastronomy with dishes inspired by the films of the festival.
Tickets for events during the Malaga Film Festival can be purchased from www.unientradas.es. or by calling 952 076 262.source surinenglish