Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival presents screenings across Scotland and in Manchester
The event celebrates community with 16 films from Spain and Latin America, including folk horror, football and inspiring true stories
The 13th edition of the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival features 16 releases hailing from Spain and Latin America, with this year’s movies celebrating community and bringing people together. Under the curation and direction of Marian A Aréchaga, the festival is centred on Edinburgh but also has screenings in Glasgow, Manchester, Tranent, Ayr and Stirling. The 2026 programme offers two opening features: Band Together takes place in the aftermath of a maritime disaster which devastates a Galician coastal village and depicts how the locals heal their loss by reviving the musical tradition of the ‘rondalla’ while director El Langui’s Lust For Life is an inspiring documentary about paralympic athlete Desirée Vila, a gymnast who lost a leg yet became a national athletics champion.
This year’s Basque Window sidebar includes gnarly folk-horror fantasy Gaua by director Paul Urkijo. Set in the 17th century, a woman flees from her husband into a dark forest where she encounters a coven of witches (Neil Jordan’s The Company Of Wolves is a useful reference point). A further sporting highlight arrives in Another League, based on a true story set in 1970s Franco-led Spain. Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz’s film celebrates the groundbreaking spirit of those who played in the country’s first ever women’s football match. Sport, like cinema, remains a constant which brings a community together and heightens the feelgood factor. It’s almost as though Spain recently won some big football competition…
Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival, various venues, UK, Thursday 1 October–Thursday 5 November.