Seven decades of SEMINCI in 25 great films: a cycle to rediscover the history of arthouse cinema throughout 2025

• The festival brings back to life great masterpieces of auteur cinema that marked the history of the festival, celebrating its 70th edition.
• Espacio SEMINCI inaugurates the first ‘display of the month’, a journey through the history of the festival through its archive collection.

April 24 will mark the beginning of 70 years of SEMINCI. ‘A Certain History of Arthouse Cinema’, a cycle that revives the history of the Valladolid Film Festival through 25 iconic films by great masters of auteur cinema. Thursdays at 8 p.m., the Broadway Cinemas in Valladolid will become a time machine, screening some of the most representative films that have been programmed or awarded at SEMINCI. The event, organized in collaboration with El Norte de Castilla, will run until December to celebrate the 70th edition of the festival in 2025.

This special program highlights the historical legacy of the festival, which since its inception on March 20, 1956 has established itself as one of the most important platforms for the dissemination of auteur cinema in Spain. Through this cycle, SEMINCI offers a unique opportunity to rediscover great classics and celebrate its role as a window of access to internationally renowned filmmakers, ranging from Federico Fellini to Abbas Kiarostami, François Truffaut, Andrzej Wajda, Michael Haneke, Atom Egoyan, Zhang Yimou and Lars von Trier, among others.

A journey through the history of arthouse cinema

The ’70 years of SEMINCI’ cycle will kick off on April 24 with Nights of Cabiria (1957), by Federico Fellini, a fundamental work of Italian cinema that inaugurated a new era of realism and cinematographic humanism. Throughout the event, the visitors will be able to enjoy a cinematic journey through the stylistic diversity of the history of auteur cinema through iconic titles such as A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956) or The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1959).

From the 70s and 80s, the cycle has selected films committed to social and political reality, from the rawness of Kes (Ken Loach) to the spirituality of The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovski) and the critical harshness of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman). The 1990s and 2000s consolidate a globalized panorama with filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami (Through the Olive Trees), the Dardenne brothers (The Promise), Lars von Trier (Dancing in the Dark) and Zhang Yimou (Ju Dou), exploring new narratives and approaches.

The program also highlights the presence of pioneering female filmmakers who have shaped the history of auteur cinema, such as Věra Chytilová (Something Different, 1964), Márta Mészáros (The Girl, 1968), Agnieszka Holland (In Darkness, 2011) and Jane Campion (An Angel at My Table, 1990). In this way, SEMINCI pays tribute to the contribution of women in film and reflects on the evolution of their representation at the festival over its seven decades.