The Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival (ESFF) welcomes film fans from all over Scotland to its 12th edition. The festival is delighted to offer a packed programme of cinema screenings, guest appearances and cultural events, featuring a total of 17 films, including four debut features from Spain and Latin America and offering a snapshot of the best brand-new Spanish-language cinema for 2025. The majority of our films are Scottish premieres.

ESFF 2025 is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the reestablishment of Spanish democracy. The opening event will be a roundtable entitled “50 Years of Democracy in Spain: Perils and Possibilities for a Changing Future” where Professors Nuria Capdevila and Oliver Escobar will reflect on the legacy of the Spanish transition and what we can learn from it, especially in today’s critical context for democracy everywhere.

Following on the spirit of this event, the opening film will be Breaking Walls by Borja Cobeaga, a road movie set in 1989 featuring a group of reluctant fathers who must escort their young daughters from Bilbao to Berlin for a gymnastics competition. The director will present the film on Fri Oct 3 at 18:10 at the Edinburgh Filmhouse, to be followed by a Q&A session.

The film programme will go over different periods of Spain’s contemporary history: from highlighting classism in Francoist-era Valencia with The Good Manners by Celia Rico (in attendance, Sat 4 Oct 18:00 at the Filmhouse), to navigating the intricate fight against ETA in the 1990s with Undercover by Arantxa Etxevarría. We also have the uphill struggle of internal migrants in Barcelona with The 47 by Marcel Barrena, the marginalisation and empowerment of a group of Spanish transwomen with Dressed in Blue by Antonio Giménez Rico, and the current challenges faced by refugees and their allies with Pheasant Island by Asier Urbieta (co-presented with festival partner French Film Festival UK).

As always, the festival also presents debut films of new Spanish directors: Everything I Don’t Know by Ana Lambarri (in attendance, Sun Oct 12, 18:00 at the Odeon), which follows the anxieties and frustration of a young woman trying to make it in the tech world; Dismantling an Elephant by Aitor Echeverría (in attendance, Fri Oct 10, 19:00 at the Fraser Centre, and Sat 11 Oct, 18:00 at the Odeon), depicting the relationship between an ambitious ballerina and her mother recently released form addiction rehab; and Away by Gerard Oms (in attendance, Sat 18 Oct, 17:45 at the Filmhouse), featuring Mario Casas’ breakthrough performance as an undocumented immigrant who strives to find a future in Amsterdam.

ESFF also presents two recent films from Peru: Queens by Klaudia Reynicke, where two sisters have to choose between staying with their father and friends in Lima or migrating with their mother to the US; and Through Rocks and Clouds by Franco García Becerra, where an Andean shepherd boy who is excited for the FIFA World Cup is threatened by the social and environmental impact of corporate mining.

Last but not least, Professor Nuria Capdevilla’s celebrated audiovisual project CartasVivas will return to the festival this year featuring new stories from overlooked Spanish female intellectuals.

All films are screened in their original language with English subtitles. For hard-of-hearing (HOH) audiences, Undercover, Breaking Walls and Dismantling an Elephant will be screened with HOH captions in Edinburgh, Inverness and Tranent. 

Marian A. Aréchaga, Director ESFF said: “Spanish cinema is on a high, with the number of films produced in Spain rising steadily in the past few years.  At ESFF we are delighted to bring the best of those titles alongside some of the most exciting features from Latin America. It has been and is an incredible experience to share thoughts, views and ideas with directors, colleagues, students and wonderful interpreters who make the whole thing possible.”

The Edinburgh Spanish International Film Festival runs from Wed 1 to Sun 19 Oct 2025