• Four feature films and eleven short films make up the section the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival devotes to Canarian cinema in 2025
• The prestige and drive of filmmakers such as Adrián Orr or David Baute, winner at the Goya Awards, are combined this year with the strength of the Galdosian spirit, the magic of the Caribbean, Antonia San Juan’s directing presence and the healthy contrast between veteran filmmakers and new creators
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Thursday, April 3, 2025-. Four feature films and eleven short films provide all the protein to Canarias Cinema in the next edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, which will take place from April 25 to May 4 in the city. The space reserved for Canarian cinema exhibits the current state of health and concerns of a varied group of filmmakers, producers and actors from the islands through a selection full of humanity, personality and the essential dose of independence and experimentation characteristic of the Gran-Canarian capital’s festival.
The renowned Adrián Orr, the award-winning Mariposas Negras, Galdós’ most unknown side or the Caribbean mysticism constitute some of the most appealing ingredients that make up the competing feature films. On the other hand, veteran Canarian filmmakers intermingle with new authors in the short-film selection the festival shall offer this year to its audience, which will include pleasant surprises such as Antonia San Juan’s appearance as director.
Feature Films in Canarias Cinema
A nuestros amigos | To Our Friends (2024, Spain-Portugal, 90 min.) is a work directed, co-written and filmed by Adrián Orr, who back in 2018 collaborated with the LPA Film Festival as part of one of its juries. Produced by Hugo Herrera, Marina Alberti and João Salaviza, the film tells the story of Sara, a young woman from a working-class neighborhood, starts university and constructs her identity, split between her friends from her community and the new world she is exposed to as she comes of age. This piece, supported by the Tenerife-based production company El Viaje Films (along with New Folder Studio and the Portuguese Karõ Filmes), arrives at the Gran-Canarian capital’s festival after having been screened at Nyon, Valladolid, Nantes, São Paulo and DocLisboa.
Ikiru Films, Tinglado Film, Anangu Grup, Tunche Films, Mogambo, 3Cat, RTVE and la Radio Televisión Canaria are the production companies behind Mariposas Negras | Black Butterflies (2024, Spain-Panama, 83 min.), David Baute’s award-winning animation film. So far, the filmmaker from Garachico has won this year’s Goya in its category as well as the Best Animated Feature at the 2025 Gaudí Awards and at the 2024 Forqué Awards. In addition, the piece has been nominated at Sitges, Annecy, the Quirino Awards and the Platino Awards. Such recognitions highlight the quality of a piece animated by María Pulido that offers us, in the context of climate change, a journey from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia to an uncertain future for humanity alongside its three main characters, who were inspired by real women.
Mi ilustrísimo amigo | My Dearest Friend (2025, Spain, 84 min.) is a film of Galdosian aura premiering worldwide at the Gran-Canarian Festival. Directed by Paula Cons, it portrays Emilia Pardo Bazán and Benito Pérez Galdós’ epistolary -and passionate- relationship. Lucía Veiga and Paco Déniz star in this piece produced by the Canarian Chedey Reyes and Jugoplastika, as well as Juan de Dios Serrano and Agallas Films. Due to its connection to the greatest writer in Canarian history, this title has generated some considerable excitement among the Festival’s audience prior to its beginning.
The last feature film competing in Canarias Cinema is Sugar Island (2024, Dominican Republic-Spain, 90 min.). This piece, which has already been shown at Venice, London, São Paulo, Thessaloniki and Málaga, is directed by Johanné Gómez Terrero and produced by the Canarian Tinglado Films and the Dominican Guasábara. Its story revolves around Makenya, a young woman working in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic. While her friends dream of leaving the country, she feels a deep connection to her land and her roots. But everything changes when she becomes pregnant. Rejected by her family, she is forced to look for new jobs, and to start a personal journey that will lead her to discover an ancestral and mystical universe that envelops the island.
Competing Short Films
Regarding this year’s short film selection, the competing pieces make up a varied group that includes the return to the Festival of some of its most iconic participants, such as filmmakers David Pantaleón, Miguel G. Morales or Fátima Luzardo, the appearance of Antonia San Juan in the role of director, and the new proposals confirming the freshness of a section that always manages to surprise the audience of the Festival.
Cartas desde el zoo | Letters from the Zoo (2024, Spain, 26 min.) is the short film by David Pantaleón competing in this edition. The documentary explores, through social theatre, the connections between prisons, zoos, and society, inviting a profound reflection on freedom and confinement. Chedey Reyes and Cris Vivó are the producers of this piece premiering at the Gran-Canarian Festival.
De interés insular | Of Island Interest (2024, Spain, 4 min.) is a work by Marta Torrecilla that depicts the Barlovento Lagoon, the largest reservoir in all the Canary Islands.
Another piece included in this edition is Dime, Mari | Tell Me, Mari (2025, Spain, 18 min.), by filmmaker Marcos Crisostomo. In it, we hear Ramón’s conversations with his family from inside the cabin of his truck as he faces a race against time to make it to an important appointment with his son.
El grito de César del Bosque | The Shout of César del Bosque (2025, Spain, 25 min.) is the work Pedro García submitted to Canarias Cinema. A short film produced by the filmmaker himself that tells how César lives in seclusion in a shack near the woods with his dog Bruto. Two unexpected events will disturb the peace he seeks there.
A veteran of the Festival, Miguel G. Morales proves once again his talent for documentary filmmaking with Escuchar la sombra | Listen to the Shadow (2024, Spain, 30 min.). He takes the audience back to the Spanish Second Republic, when the echoes of fascism began to threaten the future of a legitimate regime. Morales offers a reflection on the hidden history of thousands of people who crossed the ocean from Cuba to fight fascism in the so-called Spanish Revolution.
Amos Milbor is the director of Inmaculada | Inmaculate (2025, Spain, 14 min.) as well as its producer. The short film tells the story of Inma, who believes she has been impregnated by the Holy Spirit, as happened to the Virgin Mary two thousand years ago. José, her husband, will be released tomorrow after two years in jail… And he doesn’t know anything. Inma needs Carmen, her sister-in-law, to convince José of the miracle.
It was Hot that Day a Jandiman Story (2024, Spain-Guatemala-USA, 11 min.) is the short film by Chisco Valdés arriving this year to the Gran-Canarian Film Festival. It has been produced by the Canarian company Amissus Media. The Guatemaltecan filmmaker returns to the pandemic to portray Frank, a construction worker who rushes to prepare a house for painting in Phoenix’s pandemic summer. However, an unexpected discovery leads to introspection on the American Dream. Prior to its arrival to Canarias Cinema as one of its most exotic participants, this short film has already been shown at the Málaga Festival.
Koyas (2025, Spain, 16 min.) tells the story of two girls who have been persuaded to denounce their pimp. Directed by Arima León and starring Andrea Cabret and Paula Ojeda, this project won the Best Screenplay Award at the XXI Ibértigo.
Antonia San Juan garners attention in this section of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival with La paciente desconocida de Freud | Freud’s Unknown Patient (2025, Spain, 7 min.). San Juan has co-written this work’s screenplay alongside Enrique Gallego, in which they portray Renata, a woman tormented by her past who goes to a psychoanalyst to confront her inner demons. San Juan herself stars in the piece, whose cast also includes Blanca Rodríguez and Roberto Herrera.
Las sirenas | Mermaids (2024, Spain, 20 min.) is the new short film with which María Abenia returns to Canarias Cinema after having been awarded the 2022 Leacock for Best Short Film for her work Circe. The piece, that has already been shown at the Gijón Festival, delves into the narratives that make up the identity of a group of women from Tegueste based on a community film workshop.
Finally, Tour (2024, Spain, 2 min.), by Fátima Luzardo, is the short film that closes the selection of titles devoted to Canarian cinema within the Festival. The filmmaker portrays in this collage piece a personal reflection on certain evils in today’s world.
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