• Starting this Monday, April 28, ten feature films will compete for a Golden Lady Harimaguada after being recognized at other important international festivals
• The fifteen short films comprising one of the most diverse sections in years will be divided into three screenings scheduled for April 30 and May 1 and 2
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Sunday, April 27, 2025.- The 24th Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival begins on Monday, April 28, the screenings of the works competing for a Golden Lady Harimaguada in its Official Section. Ten feature films and fifteen short films make up this diverse, daring and alternative selection the Festival has programmed for its audience, who, once more, will be able to enjoy new auteur and independent pieces that move outside commercial theaters.
The ten feature films included in the Official Section have already been screened, and recognized, at important festivals such as Rotterdam, Locarno, Venice, Berlin or Sundance. Documentaries, comedies and even thrillers make up one of the most diverse selection in years, which strengthens the prestige of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival within the national circuit as one of the events giving visibility and support to that other kind of cinema.
Tato Kotetishvili (Georgia), Bálint Szimler (Hungrary), Rohan Parashuram Kanawade (India), Murat Fıratoğlu (Turkey), Brittany Shyne (USA), Chloé Robichaud (Canada), Ameer Fakher Eldin (Ukraine), Julian Chou (Taiwan), Silvina Shnicer (Argentina) and the Spanish Ángel Santos and Iván Castiñeiras Gallego are the filmmakers competing in 2025. Programmer Jaime Pena pointed out that the ‘contrast’ between some works and others was the best term to define their inclusion in the same section.
Some of them will come to the city to present their films: Julian Chou, on Monday 28; Ángel Santos and Ivan Castiñeiras, as well as Tato Kotetishvili, on Tuesday 29; Ameer Fakher Eldin and Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, on Thursday, May 1; and Silvina Shnicer and Murat Fıratoğlu, on Friday, May 2.
Overall, the selected works illustrate various ways of approaching stories from different cultures, moments and realities. Sometimes, from the harshest perspective. Some others, from the most acid and bold irony. And always under a particular auteur’s gaze and their own conception of filmmaking. Thus, the Festival continues to show a certain sort of cinema its audience has learned to enjoy and recognize, considering some outstanding filmmakers have been first shown here.
Furthermore, the Official Section includes fifteen short films that will be shown, divided into three different screenings, on April 30 and May 1 and 2. They are pieces that reflect the relevance of the format today, and on a global scale. Its programmer, Andreea Patru, explained in the catalog how most of them “are committed to looking—or sometimes seeing. Whether they create fictional narratives or challenge genre and form as an innate characteristic of the short film, the directors seek to captivate us in a media-saturated world.” Some of the filmmakers will come to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, too, to introduce their works.
The full program and schedule are available at this website.
FEATURE FILMS
Monday, April 28
Shi Ming | Blind Love by Julian Chou (Taiwan, 2025, 145 min.)
Official Selection, 2025 Rotterdam
Fekete Pont | Lesson Learned by Bálint Szimler (Hungary, 2024, 119 min.)
Special Mention – Filmmakers of the Present, 2024 Locarno
Tuesday, April 29
Deuses de Pedra | Gods of Stone by Ángel Santos and Iván Castiñeiras Gallego (Spain, 2025, 85 min.)
Bright Future Section, 2025 Rotterdam
Holy Electricity by Tato Kotetishvili (Georgia, 2024, 95 min.)
Golden Leopard – Filmmakers of the Present, 2024 Locarno
Wednesday, April 30
Deux femmes en Or | Two Women by Chloé Robichaud (Canada, 2025, 100 min.)
Special Jury Mention – World Competition, 2025 Sundance
Seeds by Brittany Shyne (USA, 2025, 123 min.)
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary, Sundance 2025
Thursday, May 1
Yunan by Ameer Fakher Eldin (Germany, Canada, Italy, Palestine, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, 2025, 124 min.)
Official Selection, 2025 Berlin
Sabar Bonda | Cactus Pears by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade (India, United Kingdom, Canada, 2025, 112 min.)
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize Dramatic, 2025 Sundance
Friday, May 2
La Quinta by Silvina Shnicer (Argentina, Spain, Chile, Brazil, 2024, 99 min.)
Special Jury Prize, 2024 Marrakech
One of Those Days When Hemme Dies by Murat Fıratoğlu (Turkey, 2024, 83 min.)
Horizons Special Jury Prize, 2024 Venice
SHORT FILMS
Wednesday, April 30
SCREENING 1
Généalogie de la violence | Genealogy of Violence by Mohamed Bourouissa (France, 2024, 15 min.)
Afto pou zitame apo ena agalma einai na min kineitai | What We Ask of a Statue Is That It Doesn’t Move by Daphné Hérétakis (Greece, France, 2024, 32 min.)
Man Number 4 by Miranda Pennell (United Kingdom, 2024, 10 min.)
Guille, 28 by Miguel Alcalde de la Fuente (Spain, 2025, 17 min.)
En hjältes död | The Death of a Hero by Karin Franz Körlof (Sweden, 2024, 14 min.)
Thursday, May 1
SCREENING 2
Đừng giỡn mặt với Bà | Don’t F*ck with Ba by Sally Tran (USA, 2024, 15 min.)
Dette er ikke en fest (det er en vinkveld) | Sorry I’m Late (But I Brought a Choir) by Håkon Anton Olavsen (Norway, 2024, 10 min.)
Ke wai huo dong | Extracurricular Activity by Dean Wei, Xu Yidan (China, 2025, 22 min.)
Audio y el Caimán | Audio & the Alligator by Andrés I. Estrada (Canada, Venezuela, 2024, 16 min.)
Friday, May 2
SCREENING 3
Where Russia Ends by Oleksiy Radynski (Ukraine, 2024, 25 min.)
Dream On by Zhang Dalei (China, 2024, 18 min. )
A Black Hole Near Kent County by Hannah Schierbeek (USA, 2024, 15 min.)
Banished Love by Xiwen Cong (China, 2024, 40 min.)
Disturbia by Mira Yankova (Bulgaria, 2024, 6 min.)
Number 32. Giant Fish by Si Seung-hyun (South Korea, 2024, 10 min.)
Partners, sponsors and collaborators of the 24 FICLPGC
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, organized by the Culture area of the Gran-Canarian capital’s City Council through Promoción de la Ciudad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has received public assistance by the ICAA [Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts], the Visitors’ Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE), of the Spanish Public Agency for Cultural Action (AC/E), as well as public support from Promotur Turismo Islas Canarias.
Among the Festival’s collaborators we may find Fundación Auditorio Teatro, Cines Yelmo, Las Arenas Shopping Center and Hotel Cristina by Tigotan, places which also function as venues or hold activities of the film event; as well as other institutions and companies such as Sagulpa, Toyota, Royal Bliss, Fuze Tea, Coca Cola, Sholeo Lodge, Audiovisuales Canarias, Music Library &SFX, Blackout Films and International Bach Festival. Likewise, its market, MECAS, has been possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Gran Canaria Film Commission-Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria and the support of Proexca.
The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Mid Atlantic University, Digital 104, the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media CIMA, the Cartagena International Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival, the Barcelona Independent Film Festival, the Tres Puertos Laboratory, Barcelona’s ESCAC, and Very Good Script, Freak World and Fimucité are also collaborators.
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