- Valladolid City Council and the team led by the festival’s former director from 2023 to 2025 will pay tribute to him alongside the film community, the public, the press and various institutions
José Luis Cienfuegos (1964–2025) left an indelible mark on Spanish culture over more than three decades dedicated to showcasing auteur cinema through some of Spain’s most important festivals. Following his time in Gijón and Seville, he directed SEMINCI between 2023 and 2025, where he also left a profound mark. His approach to film festivals, based on bringing together films, filmmakers, audiences, industry professionals, journalists and institutions, will be at the heart of the 71st edition, which will serve as a collective celebration of his legacy.
Organised by Valladolid City Council and conceived by the Cienfuegos team at SEMINCI, led by its co-directors, Mariona Viader and Javier H. Estrada, the tribute will build on the projects he left in progress. It will begin with the opening of the 71st edition on Friday 23 October, with a ceremony of remembrance and celebration hosted by the journalist Pepa Blanes, which will bring together institutions and the film community at the Calderón Theatre.
The 71st SEMINCI will develop some of the ideas and projects he left in progress, such as the retrospective ‘A History of Sound (in Cinema)’, the photograph featured on this year’s poster, and the Academic Honourary Spike, closely linked to his commitment to cinema in the classroom.
Music for a tribute shared with the audience
In keeping with the importance Cienfuegos attached to celebrating cinema with the spectators, the audience will play a central role in SEMINCI Nights, a programme that will revive another of his great passions: music. The evenings organised by some of his collaborators in Gijón, Seville and Valladolid will also continue the bonds and connections that Cienfuegos forged in these cities throughout his professional career.
Music will also be present in the day-to-day experience of the 71st SEMINCI. Audiences will be welcomed into the cinemas with a soundtrack of 71 songs, selected based on their connection to films and filmmakers whom Cienfuegos discovered, supported or helped to bring to prominence. This selection will serve as a sonic map of his career and his cinematic discoveries, and will serve as a daily reminder of the importance he attached to music as part of the festivals’ identity.
The film industry: MERCI launches the José Luis Cienfuegos Award
The tribute will also have a professional dimension through the MERCI Independent Film Market, organised by SEMINCI and the Association of Independent Film Distributors (ADICINE), with the support of the Ministry of Culture and in collaboration with Rentrak, ECAM Industria and Sociograph. In its sixth edition, to be held from 28 to 30 October in Valladolid, the market will incorporate Cienfuegos’ name into one of its awards: the MERCI Award for Professional Achievement has been renamed the José Luis Cienfuegos Award. The award will recognise the contribution of leading figures to the development and strengthening of independent cinema, a field to which Cienfuegos was closely linked.
An Honorary Spike award recognises a school for the filmmakers of the future
This year, the Academic Honorary Spike award will recognise the Master’s in Creative Documentary at the UPF-Barcelona School of Management (Barcelona Film Society), a leading institution for film education in Spain and a breeding ground for professionals such as Oliver Laxe, Isaki Lacuesta, Lois Patiño, Neus Ballus, Amanda Villavieja and Diego Dussuel. For almost three decades, the Master’s programme has developed a model in which film education and filmmaking form part of a single process. The films are produced in collaboration with independent producers, a formula that has so far resulted in 42 feature-length documentaries. This recognition affirms education as an essential part of film culture and continues one of the key initiatives that Cienfuegos championed through SEMINCI, convinced that film festivals also have a responsibility to support those who will shape the cinema of the future.
The press: a tribute that takes us back to the roots of his career
For Cienfuegos, film festivals were spaces where films began to take on meaning and become part of each generation’s cinematic narrative. This conviction was closely linked to his own professional experience, which began in the press department of the Gijón Film Festival. For this reason, the traditional Meeting of Women Filmmakers, held annually by SEMINCI, will this year be dedicated to film journalists and will bring together in Valladolid women journalists who write about, research, narrate and promote cinema across various media, to reflect on how the ways of reviewing and telling the stories of films have changed. The opening panel will pay tribute to Cienfuegos’ legacy and his commitment to film journalism as an essential cultural practice, indispensable to the life of film festivals.
In short, the 71st SEMINCI will also be a celebration of this unique and enthusiastic way of understanding a festival: as a space for encounter, discovery and dialogue centred on cinema.