The titles programmed in 2025 have also won, among other awards, two Oscars, two Goyas, seven Césars, three BAFTAs, five Golden Globes, and eight European Film Academy Awards
The films selected for the 70th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival (SEMINCI) held from October 24 to November 1, 2025, have capped off an exceptional awards season. Thirteen feature films (including those premiered at SEMINCI: Hamnet, Ciudad sin sueño, Golpes, Frontera, Pillion, and Sorry, Baby), one short film, and one series have already amassed more than 50 awards at major international film festivals, including two Oscars, two Goyas, six Césars, four BAFTAs, five Golden Globes, and nine European Film Academy Awards. This track record confirms SEMINCI’s status as the leading barometer of quality auteur cinema in Spain, screening these films months before their nominations for the most prestigious awards.
The Big International Winners
The British film Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)—who won the Silver Spike award in 2017 for The Rider—has become one of the standout films of the season since winning the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and premiering in Valladolid three months before its release in commercial theaters across Spain. Jessie Buckley was named Best Actress at the Oscars, the BAFTAs (where the film also won Best British Film), the Golden Globes (which also awarded the film the top prize among the nominees for Best Drama), the Critics’ Choice Awards, and the SAG Awards, which honor actors.
However, the film that has won the most awards among those screened at the 70th SEMINCI is undoubtedly Joachim Trier‘s Sentimental Value, winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. The Norwegian production won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (the first ever won by a Norwegian film), the Goya for Best European Film, and the BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film, while Stellan Skarsgård triumphed in the Best Supporting Actor category at both the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes. The European Film Academy also honored it with seven EFA awards: Best Film, Director, Actress (Renate Reinsve), Actor (Stellan Skarsgård), Screenplay (Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier), and Original Music (Hania Rani). The latest film from the director of The Worst Person in the World (Youth Award at the 66th SEMINCI) has also garnered acclaim this season from the British Independent Film Awards and the National Board of Review Awards, among others.
Screened in the Constellations section at SEMINCI, The Secret Agent, by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, rounds out the trio of major international winners with a remarkable haul in the United States, reaffirming the awards for Best Director and Best Actor (Wagner Moura) won at the Cannes Film Festival: Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor in a Drama at the Golden Globes, and Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards, the Critics’ Choice Awards, and among critics in New York and Los Angeles.
Nouvelle Vague, by American director Richard Linklater, was one of the winners at the César Awards for French cinema, taking home four awards for its free adaptation of the filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s legendary film Breathless: Best Director, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, and Best Cinematography.
Nino, the debut feature by Pauline Loquès, which she personally presented to the Spanish audience at SEMINCI in the Meeting Point section, also received two César Awards for Best First Feature Film and Best New Actor for Théodore Pellerin.
Three more of the feature films in competition at the 70th SEMINCI have received international recognition: the American film, Sorry, Baby, by Eva Victor—which added the Best Performance award at SEMINCI for Eva Victor to its Best Screenplay award at Sundance—has won two Independent Spirit Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Naomi Ackie, and the Best First-Time Director Award from the National Board of Review of American film critics. Meanwhile, the German film Sound of Falling, by Mascha Schilinski, winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, received the Best Costume Design Award for Sabrina Krämer at the European Film Academy (EFA) Awards.
Meanwhile, Harry Lighton’s Pillion won the Gotham Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for its director. These awards, presented in December by the Gotham Film & Media Institute, are considered the kickoff to awards season and typically include, in addition to productions that later compete for Oscars, independent films. In its latest edition, the nominees across various categories included films and filmmakers familiar to the SEMINCI audience, such as Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind (Golden Spike in 2025); Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother; Bi Gan’s Resurrection; Constance Tsang’s Blue Sun Palace; Carson Lund’s Eephus; and Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch.
The Spanish Winners
The Gaudí Awards, presented by the Catalan Film Academy, also brought joy to films that premiered at SEMINCI. Frontera, by Judith Colell, took home four awards: Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Bruna Cusí), Best Costume Design (Mercedes Paloma), and the Special Audience Award, while De Sucre, by Clàudia Cedó, was named Best Short Film, and Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake, directed by Irene Iborra, won in the animation category.
Among the Spanish productions, Golpes, the directorial debut of Rafael Cobos—co-writer of Los tigres, Anatomía de un instante, and Marshland—which had its world premiere in the Official Selection of the 70th edition of SEMINCI, was the standout winner at the Carmen Awards for Andalusian cinema, taking home six awards for its fresh take on the “quinqui” film genre: Best New Director, Best Leading Actor (Jesús Carroza), Best Breakout Actress (Teresa Garzón), Best Original Score (Bronquio), Best Original Song, and Best Costume Design (Lourdes Fuentes). Meanwhile, Bella, by Manuel H. Martín and Amparo Martínez Barco, was named Best Animated Film in Andalusia.
Sleppless City, the first feature film by Guillermo Galoe (winner of the Goya Award for Best Documentary for Frágil equilibrio), has earned two awards for this story filmed in the Cañada Real: the Goya Award for Best New Actor for Antonio “Toni” Fernández Gabarre and the Feroz Arrebato Fiction Award.
The winner of the Goya for Best New Director for La herida, Fernando Franco, won the Miguel Delibes Award for Best Screenplay at SEMINICI for Subsuelo, another of the world premieres in Valladolid, and added to his list of accolades with the Carmen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the adaptation—written alongside Begoña Arostegui—of Marcelo Luján’s novel of the same name.
Finally, the series Yakarta, created by screenwriter and producer Diego San José (Celeste, Venga Juan) and directed by Elena Trapé, Javier Cámara, and Fernando Delgado-Hierro—the only entry in this format presented at SEMINCI—won three Feroz Awards for Best Drama Series, Best Actor in a Series for Javier Cámara, and Best Screenplay. Added to these is the Forqué Award for Best Leading Actor.