Possibly the most visited web page by those responsible for organizing the galas and each Seminci is that of the Aemet. When, like today, it dawns with a glittering 0% chance of rain, the International Film Week of Valladolid that begins takes on an even brighter tone. On the first ‘Green Carpet’, the one that precedes the Opening Gala of the 68th edition of the festival, some of its main protagonists have paraded. But, first, the institutional representatives of the city who must welcome their guests.
The first to step on the carpet and take up positions outside the doors of the Calderón were the festival director, José Luis Cienfuegos; the mayor of Valladolid and president of the Governing Council of the Seminci, Jesús Julio Carnero, and the Councilor for Tourism, Events and City Branding, Blanca Jiménez Cuadrillero. Then, to take positions before the start of the ceremony, the actress Marta Nieto, presenter of the Gala, and the musician Fito Robles, from Siloé.
Film Week would be impossible without the members of the different juries. On the carpet were the members of the International Jury, with Meritxell Colell Aparicio, Mike Goodridge, Pan Nalin, Jara Yáñez and Iván Granovsky.
After the jurors, two other people who will frequent the festival’s screening rooms full time, the influencers Sheila Conde and Juan García Escudero, who have preceded the directors of films from different sections: Malene Choi (The Quiet Migration), Ng Choon Pin (co-director with Sam H. Freeman of Femme), Vera Egito (A Batalha da Rua Maria Antônia), Asmae El Moudir (The Mother of All Lies), Tana Gilbert (Malqueridas), Anthony Ing (Jill, Uncredited), Lukas Nathrath (One Last Evening), Maryna Vroda (Stepne) and Víctor Iriarte (Sobre todo de noche), Valerie Delpierre (Foremost by night), Jill Goldston (Jill, Uncredited) and Rachel Walden (Lemon Tree).
The EFA, ready to collect the Espiga de Honor
A star moment for the honored institution. The members of the European Film Academy were there, ready to receive a few minutes later, during the Opening Gala, the Festival’s Honorary Spike. A recognition to the work of the institution to be collected by its president, the Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland. Next to her, at her entrance to the Calderón Theater, her colleagues of the EFA, the vice-president, Mike Downey, the members of the Board of Directors Rebecca O’Briend, Ada Solomon, Antonio Saura or the director of the EFA himself, Matthijs Wouter Knol.
Once again, it was the turn of the programmed film crews. Joining the party on the Green Carpet were the teams of The Sweet East, with its director, Sean Price Williams, and actress Talia Ryder; El amor de Andrea, by Manuel Martín Cuenca, supported by actors Lupe Mateo Barreda and Agustín Domínguez; and Que nadie duerma, by Antonio Méndez Esparza, who was accompanied by cast members Rodrigo Poisón and Manuel de Blas, composer Zeltia Montes, co-writer Clara Roquet, and producer Pedro Hernández Santos. The director of La contadora de películas, Lone Scherfig, was accompanied by her cast, Antonio de la Torre, Sara Kecker, Alondra Valenzuela, Abril Valenzuela, Francisco Díaz and Moira Miller; by her producers Manuel Monzón and Adolfo Blanco, and by the representatives of the distributor, A contracorriente Filmes, Paz Recolons and David Mitjans.
The Green Carpet was closed by the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Fernando Méndez Leite; the vice presidents of the institution Susi Sánchez and Rafael Portela; the director of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), Ignasi Camós; the ambassador of India (guest country of the edition), Dinesh Kumar Patnaik and the assistant secretary Merja Seckar. The filmmakers, undisputed protagonists of a festival that for 68 years has been worshipping the most important authors of international cinema, have also been the protagonists of this opening Green Carpet. They have paraded along it, surrounded by what is also one of the most cinephile audiences in Spain, the people of Valladolid.
