Cinema

At the same time, the programme foregrounds filmmakers who engage with their times through visionary, critical, and artistic lenses, as they stand at the intersection of a globalized world and a digital society.

The film lineup comprises unreleased premieres, contemporary features, retrospectives, restored silent films, and experimental cinema. Activities will range from performative screenings, expert panels, workshops, and seminars, to two major exhibitions devoted to Spanish cinema. EUROPALIA is partnering with cinemas, film and art schools, film clubs, art centers, museums, and festivals across Belgium to offer a rich and varied audiovisual landscape.

In Brussels, at Cinematek, the Dreams of the Future series highlights two critical eras. Firstly, films from 1975–1981, produced during Spain’s transition, reflect the optimism and desire for openness that shaped post-Franco Spain, but also the mistrust of those dreams.

Secondly, films produced between 2010 and 2025 grapple with contemporary challenges—historical reckonings, societal anxieties, and the reimagining of what the future might look like. Together, these periods create a cinematic dialogue structured around aspirations, disruption, and renewal.

Key events include Close-ups on Albert Serra and Pilar Palomero at Bozar (Brussels); a Rodrigo Sorogoyen retrospective at Quai 10 (Charleroi) and a spotlight on Gala Hernández during Festival En Ville! (Brussels).

Equally noteworthy are the collaborations with Filem’on (film festival for young audiences) — with a commission for a film-concert by Charo Calvo — Pink Screens, Brussels Art Film Festival, Art Cinema OFFoff — where Deneb Martos will perform her live installation Gold Film — as well as with De Cinema (Antwerp). The latter, running in parallel with the exhibition Resolución: On Lifetime Decisions in Spanish Cinema, hosted by MoMu (Antwerp), will provide a distinctive approach to cinema, tracing how colour operates in Spanish films — both aesthetically and culturally — and revealing alternative ways of understanding the social realities from which these films emerge. Wiels (Brussels) will host the première of Edurne Rubio’s commissioned film Los Huesos no Flotan.

Additionally, at RITCS, KASK, and INSAS, we’ll delve into the history of Spanish film collectives—groups that emerged from the 1960s, often during periods of crisis, using cinema as political resistance or creative dissent from mainstream models. There will also be a stimulating collaboration with UCLouvain’s LOCI (Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering and Urban Planning), creating an opportunity to view cinema through the perspective of architecture. The initiative presents an exhibition of students’ drawings deducted from ‘arrêts sur images’ of Andalusian houses featured in two Spanish works alongside an analysis of architecturally significant spaces, such as kitchens, in Almodóvar’s films.

By intertwining activities and academic engagements, EUROPALIA ESPAÑA aims to affirm the richness, variety, and vitality of half a century of Spanish audiovisual culture, continuously resonating with Spain’s evolving national narrative.