Every year, the FICBUEU kicks off its programme with the Seminars, a forum for reflection and analysis that brings together filmmakers, critics and essayists to consider and discuss the art of cinema.
In this edition, the activities centre on the limits of cinema: ethical, aesthetic, cultural and industrial. Through four activities and one screening, we will explore the frontiers of representation, the mechanisms of self-censorship, the tension between form and the market, and the dynamics of cultural colonisation. An opportunity to tackle uncomfortable questions and rethink the role of cinema in a changing world.
ROUND TABLE. LIMITS, POSSIBILITIES, AND PARADOXES OF REPRESENTATION IN CONTEMPORARY CINEMA
What happens when a camera chooses what to show and what to leave out of the frame? Who decides how a people, a leader, or a movement is portrayed? Oriol Erausquin, Ricci Galiano and Layla Martínez will explore through two specific cases the pitfalls and potential of the cinematic image. The first: the portrayal of the Palestinian people. The dominant humanitarian approach, centered on the figure of the victim, tends to render their resistance invisible or to portray it as something uncomfortable—if not to criminalize it outright.
The second: the figure of Trump and the contemporary far right. Political satire has found a goldmine in him, but what is lost when we reduce him to a caricature? Does it truly help us understand the phenomenon, or does it instead trivialize it and overshadow the economic interests and power structures that explain his rise to power and his shift toward fascism? And, if we focus on portraying the far right, what role does organized resistance play?
This conversation aims to argue that thinking about representation is not an aesthetic exercise, but a deeply political issue: deciding where we place our focus is also an exercise of power that we must reflect on, question, and challenge.
Layla Martínez is an editor and writer. She has published the essay Utopía no es una isla (2020) and the novel Woodworm (2024). She is currently writing her first screenplay and editing her second novel.
Oriol Erausquin holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and is the author of La Rabia es Nuestra (2025). His public activities encompass activism, digital communications and cultural production. He is currently completing his doctoral thesis in sociology on far-right conspiracy theories.
Ricci Galiano is trained in stage direction and contemporary theatre at the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramática and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He researches the role of art and culture as political mediators, combining this with the queer cause, the solidarity movement with Palestine and anti-imperialism.
MASTER CLASS. SELF-CENSORSHIP AND CANCEL CULTURE IN THE FILM INDUSTRY
Who can direct what? Who can play whom? This lecture examines how cancel culture, identity representation and self-censorship are reshaping and influencing filmmaking. From diversity algorithms in screenplays to DNA-based casting, with examples such as the controversy surrounding Nolan’s Odyssey, the session analyses these phenomena in the light of the thinkers who have best described them, with Pier Paolo Pasolini as the guiding thread, and addresses the problems that can arise from cultural homogenisation.
Antonio José Navarro is a Spanish film critic. Throughout his career, he has contributed to numerous magazines and programs specializing in film, such as the radio program Parlem de Cinema and the magazines Dirigido Por, Imágenes de actualidad, Quatermass, and Nosferatu. In addition, he has worked as a programmer at the Sitges International Film Festival, collaborated on the organization of film series at the Film Archive of the Government of Catalonia, the Basque Film Archive, and the Film Archive of the Government of Valencia, and has taught at various Spanish universities. Among his publications, the following books stand out: Alien / Los inconquistables (1995), El imperio del miedo. El cine de horror norteamericano post 11-S (2016), and Clash of the Titans: 50 Essential Films on the Cold War (2017).
MASTER CLASS. BLURRED BOUNDARIES: INDUSTRY AND ITS PERIPHERIES
The term “industrial cinema” is often used to refer to a specific production model, but for years now its boundaries have become increasingly difficult to define. Where does the industry end and where does independent cinema begin? Is this an economic, aesthetic, or distribution and exhibition issue? Building on these questions, the talk will explore the tensions running through contemporary cinema: the coexistence of formal risk and market demands, the growing dependence on festivals as spaces for legitimization, the concentration of financing and distribution in the hands of a few agents, the transformation of films to adapt to specific exhibition circuits, and the contradictions that arise when works conceived from the margins end up becoming integrated into industrial dynamics.
Jara Yáñez has been editor-in-chief of the magazine Caimán Cuadernos de Cine since January 2022, a publication she has been working for since its foundation in 2007 as Cahier du cinéma. España. Since 2014, she has also been a lecturer on the Master’s in Film Criticism at ECAM; she is a regular contributor to the programme Historia de nuestro cine (TVE) and the author of books such as La aritmética de la creación. Entrevistas con productores del cine español contemporáneo (in collaboration with Luis L. Carrasco, 2009), La medida de los tiempos. Spanish Short Films in the 2000s (2010) and Femenino plural (edited jointly with Andrea Morán in 2017), as well as being the author of other contributions to anthologies. She has worked at festivals such as DocumentaMadrid and the Alcalá de Henares Festival, and on programmes such as Museocinema at the Reina Sofía National Art Centre and Madrid en Corto.
ROUND TABLE. AUDIOVISUAL COLONISATION AND PERFORMATIVE RESISTANCE IN CONTEMPORARY CINEMA
A discussion between Álvaro Peña, Yago Paris, Pepa Llausás and Ariadna Cordal on audiovisual colonisation. The debate will explore the failure of militancy and resistance to the sources of oppression and marginalisation faced by new filmmakers, in contrast to the militant cinema of the 1960s and 1970s or the marginal film movements that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s thanks to the internet and new physical formats. Focusing on the formal and narrative structures that permeate contemporary audiovisual production, the discussion will examine the extent to which new creators may end up tacitly collaborating with the very powers they seek to resist.
Yago Paris is a postdoctoral lecturer in the Department of Arts and Humanities at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid and writes as a critic for magazines such as Cine Divergente (of which he is co-editor) and El Antepenúltimo Mohicano. He created the podcast Críticas Sobre La Marcha and co-edited the book Lo que nunca volverá: La infancia en el cine (2022).
Álvaro Peña, who holds a degree in East Asian Studies, is co-editor of Cine Divergente. He has contributed to publications such as Contemporary Paranoia. Cinema in the Society of Control (2019), Lo que nunca volverá: Childhood in Cinema (2022) and Blade Runner: Do Androids Still Dream? (2023), and has edited various books on cinema, such as The Legacy of Akira Kurosawa (2018). He also founded the online magazine Cosas de Cine and the podcast Perros Verdes.
Pepa Llausás is a narrative analyst, writer and essayist, and has focused her career on the study and teaching of screenwriting and, currently, on research into narrative structures and collective imaginaries. She developed the theory of Narrasis and runs Calma Gris, a publishing imprint and podcast dedicated to cultural analysis.
Ariadna Cordal is a director, editor and researcher, trained in audiovisual editing and holding a PhD from Pompeu Fabra University. As a director, she has made short films such as They Ponder (2017), Papá por que quitas la música (2019) and O patio (2024).
SCREENING. LES RENDEZ-VOUS D’ANNA, BY CHANTAL AKERMAN
As the culmination of the Seminars, the film Les Rendez-vous d’Anna, directed by the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman and released in 1978, will be screened. Anna is a film director, a profession that takes her travelling throughout Western Europe. Wherever she goes, Anna has some intimate relationship established or, if she doesn’t, she finds one quickly. People are drawn to her and tend to reveal their most intimate secrets, even though Anna shows no interest in knowing them.
Les Rendez-vous d’Anna challenges the boundaries of cinema by offering a minimalist, immersive proposition in which the observation of the everyday is stretched through long takes, connecting and fusing the aesthetic construction with the protagonist’s emotional disconnection. In this way, Akerman subverts traditional narrative to make cinema an intimate and unsettling experience.
FICBUEU 2025 Seminars
Music and Cinema
Since the birth of the seventh art, music has accompanied the images, becoming a fundamental element in the evolution of cinematic expression. In this edition, the Film Festival centered on music and cinema, focusing on composition as a narrative element.
FICBUEU 2024 Seminars
Cinema and Politics: Films as a Reflection of Their Historical Context
Cinema is a window to its historical context, reflecting the social and political transformations of its time. Beyond entertainment, films engage with reality, becoming tools for analysis, critique, and change. During this session, we analyze, with insights from various experts, how cinema addresses political tensions, representing ideals, conflicts, and transformations. The goal is to understand its power to narrate history and shape the present.
FICBUEU 2023 Seminars
Everyday Life and the Aesthetics of Sensitive Cinema
During this session, we delve into the different ways sensitive cinema portrays the everyday, highlighting its ability to magnify the ordinary and transform it into something extraordinary. We bring together diverse voices, from filmmakers to critics, to examine how this aesthetic is constructed and its emotional and artistic impact on the audience. Through these reflections, we immerse ourselves in the textures of daily life and the silences between words and gestures, recognizing cinema as an art form capable of giving voice to the invisible.
FICBUEU 2022 Seminars
Sculpting time
The Cinematic Journeys of FICBUEU are a space for reflection and analysis on cinema, organized annually within the framework of the International Film Festival of Bueu. These sessions bring together professionals from the industry, such as filmmakers, critics, and essayists, to address diverse themes related to the seventh art.