Spanish Cinema Now 2025

The annual festival “Spanish Cinema Now” returns to bring the best cinema made in Spain to DMV audiences.

The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington, DC, co-present Spanish Cinema Now, an annual festival of selected new films that reflect the breadth of styles and talents at work in Spain today.

They will be dust

• On Friday, May 30th at 7 pm. Opening Night, Q&A with filmmaker Carlos Marques-Marcet and post-screening reception. Buy tickets.
• On Monday, June 2nd at 6:45 pm. Buy tickets
• Directed by Carlos Marques-Marcet, Spain / Switzerland / Italy, 2024, 106 minutes.
• In Spanish and English with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Claudia decides to take one final journey —to Switzerland, where she can choose how and when to end her life with the help of an assisted suicide organization. Flavio, her partner of over forty years, joins her on this one-way trip. Meanwhile, their daughter Violeta becomes an unwitting mediator between her parents and everything they’re leaving behind, as she tries to find her own place in the story.

The Wailing

• On Friday, May 30th at 9:45 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Saturday, May 31th at 9:15 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Tuesday, June 3rd at 9:10 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Pedro Martín-Calero, Spain, France and Argentina, 2024, 107 minutes.
• In Spanish and French with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

Something haunts Andrea, but no one, not even she, knows what it is. Twenty years ago, ten thousand kilometers away, the same presence terrorized Marie. Camila was the only person who understood what was happening to her, but no one believed them. As they confront this oppressive threat, all three hear the same sound: a wailing.

Rita

• On Saturday, May 31th at 12 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Monday, June 2nd at 4:40 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Paz Vega, Spain 2024, 94 minutes.
• Original title: Rita.
• In Spanish with subtitles in English. Watch trailer.

Seville, summer of 1984. Rita and Lolo, aged 7 and 5, are siblings growing up in a modest working-class family. Summer vacation has just begun, and the whole country is buzzing with excitement over the European Championship, where Spain has reached the final. The heat is relentless, and while Rita dreams of going to the beach, life in the neighborhood offers her a very different reality.

The Exiles

• On Saturday, May 31th at 2:10 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Tuesday, June 3rd at 2:10 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Belén Funes, Spain/ Chile, 2024, 110 minutes.
• Original title: Los Tortuga.
• In Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

Delia is a Chilean immigrant in Spain, whose sudden loss of her husband, Julian, has left her alone to raise her teenage daughter. When they face eviction, mother and daughter find themselves on different paths, in Belén Funes’ moving sophomore feature about the contours of identity, loss and love. Since her husband’s death, Delia has found herself driving a taxi for hours on end in Barcelona, a demeaning and exhausting job that helps keep grief at bay. Anabel, her daughter, is in college and forging her own path. At the center of the story is Julian’s family’s olive grove in the countryside, a place for which Delia now feels a sense of alienation while Anabel rekindles a sense of connection.

A House on Fire

• On Saturday, May 31th at 4:30pm. Buy tickets.
• On Sunday, June 1st at 6:10 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Dani de la Orden, 2024, Spain / Italy, 105 minutes.
• Original tiltle: Casa en Flames.
• In Catalan with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

Montse is very excited because she is about to spend a weekend with the whole family at her house in Cadaqués, on the Costa Brava. She has been divorced for a long time, her ex has a new partner, her children have grown up and have been living their lives without paying any attention to her, but nothing and nobody will be able to spoil Montse’s mood. She has been waiting for this moment for too long, she has been dreaming about it for too long: this weekend will be an ideal weekend, even if she has to burn everything to do it.

Afternoon of solitude

• On Sunday, June 1st at 1:15pm. Buy tickets.
• On Monday , June 2nd at 9:00 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Albert Serra, 2024, Spain/France/Portugal, 125 minutes.
• Original tiltle: Tardes de Soledad.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

A portrait of contemporary bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey, offering a window into the torero’s inner world—one shaped by the personal duty of facing the bull, driven by reverence for tradition and the pursuit of aesthetic expression. In this violent, physical confrontation between human reason and animal instinct, a fleeting form of beauty emerges.

I Am Nevenka

• On Sunday, June 1st at 3:45pm. Buy tickets.
• On Tuesday, June 3rd at 4:15 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Iciar Bollain, Spain/ Italy, 2024, 112 minutes.
• Original title: Soy Nevenka.
• In Spanish with subtitles in English. Watch trailer.

In 2004, Nevenka Fernandez, 24, a Finance Councillor in the Ponferrada City Council, was relentlessly harassed by the Mayor of her city, a man used to doing as he pleased, politically and personally. Nevenka decided to report him, knowing she would pay a very high price: those around her don’t support her, Ponferrada turns its back on her and she endures a tough public trial in the media. Her case marks the beginning, in Spain, of the “me too” movement long before the term was coined. A story based on real events. The person at the heart of it becomes a pioneer, the first woman to take a powerful, popular politician to court for sexual abuse and harassment in the workplace.

Undercover

• On Saturday, May 31th at 6:45 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Sunday, June 1st at 8:30 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Arantxa Echevarría, Spain, 2024, 118 minutes.
• Original title: La Infiltrada.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

Aranzazu Berradre Marín has a secret: she is a police officer. She is the only one capable of infiltrating the Spanish terrorist group ETA. Using a false identity, Marín goes deep undercover, confusing her enemies and impressing her fellow officers. Arantxa Echevarría’s thriller is based on a true story and won the Goya Award for Best Film. Taking place over eight years, Undercover follows Marín as she gradually infiltrates ETA, one of the most brutal terrorist organizations in the world, responsible for the deaths of hundreds. While confronting sexism within her own ranks, Marín delves deep into ETA, aiming to dismantle the organization. Undercover is the highest-grossing Spanish film directed by a woman.