12th Festival of Malaga and Spanish Cinema 2009

12th MALAGA FESTIVAL
Spanish Cinema 2009
17 – 25 of April

From Friday 17th of April till Saturday 25th of April 2009 Malaga will celebrate its annual festival of cinema: Malaga Festival, Spanish Cinema 2009 or FESTIVAL DE MÁLAGA, CINE ESPAÑOL 2009.

The idea of this festival was born in 1998 and always has been a touristy, cultural and social event, bringing loads of people to the Costa del Sol’s capital Malaga. Year after year the festival can count on the interest of national and international press, and the visit of important people from cinema world.


At this 12th edition ANTONIO BANDERAS (Mister Melanie Griffith) will be the festival’s ‘special guest’. Banderas has been invited because he will give the MALAGA AWARD (Premio Málaga) to his good friend and colleague, the actor Juan Diego, at a special Gala to be celebrated on Saturday the 18th of April at the Cervantes Theatre.





The festival will award the same sections as every year like Retrospective, The Golden Movie, Zonazine, Short Films, Official Section of Film, the Eloy de la Iglesia Award, the Ricardo Franco Award, Documentaries and Section Latin-American. Besides these classic sections, the festival will have its annual side activities like Malaga Screenings, TV Market, a Youth Section, Animation and Science Fiction Fair and the Spanish and Latino Documentary Fair.


LA VERGÜENZA by David Planell


La Vergüenza (Shame) is the first long play film of David Planell and will open the festival at the official section on competition, on the 17th of April. This film tells the story about a couple, both about 30 of age, Pepe and Lucía, who just informed their Social Worker, that life has become impossible since Manu. Manu is their 8-year-old adopted son from Peru. Their life has become hell since he lives with them, now 6 months, and they want to return him. This decision will have its price...

The cast of La Vergüenza: Natalia Mateo, Alberto San Juan, Esther Ortega, Norma Martínez, Brandon Lastra and Marta Aledo.

David Planell


David Planell, screenwriter and director, La Vergüenza has been working for television series like El Comisario and Hospital Central and made 4 short movies.
In 2004 he started the first one, called Carisma and was nominated for the spanish Premios Goya (Goya Awards).


Planell was co-writer with Fernando León for “Los Hombres Siempre Mienten” (1994, Antonio del Real) and with Gracia Querejeta for the scripts of her last two movies “Héctor” (2004) and “Siete Mesas de Billar Francés” (2007), awarded with the Jury’s Award at the Festival of San Sebastian, recognition from the “Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos” (board of screenwriters) and a second Goya Award nomination. At present Planell is writing the script for his second movie.


MALAGA FESTIVAL 2009: THE JURY

This year the festival chooses Álex de la Iglesia as president of the jury for the long play movies. The rest of the jury consist of famous spanish cinema people like Juan Madrid and Sergio Cabrera, both directors, the actors Emma Suárez, Rubén Ochandiano and José Manuel Cervino and the writer Lucía Etxebarría.


BIOGRAPHY Álex de la Iglesia:


Born in Bilbao in 1965. Master Degree at the Deusto University and qualified director. Started his career as decorator at the national television till he started writing scripts and directing movies. His first movie was Acción Mutante (1993) and from that moment an impressive career began. El día de la Bestia (1995), Perdita Durango (1997), Muertos de Risa (1999), La Comunidad (2000). But also 800 Balas, Crimen Ferpecto and Los Crímenes de Oxford.




BIOGRAPHY Juan Madrid:


Born in Malaga in 1947. Writer, director, documentalist and screen play writer for movies and television. He published 47 books and were translated to 16 languages. Some of his novels were adapted for the screen and brought to cinema, like ”Días Contados” (directed by Imanol Uribe) or “Tanger”, which he directed himself. For a lot reviewers Juan Madrid is considered to be one of the most important writers of Novela Negra. At present he’s teaching screen writing at the International School of Cinema and Television in Antonio de los Baños (Havanna, Cuba)

BIOGRAPHY Sergio Cabrera:


Born in Medellín, Columbia in 1950. Director and producer for television and movies. His first movie “Técnicas de Duelo” gained various awards. Later on he would come up with movies like “La Estrategia del caracol, Águilas no Cazan Moscas and Golpe de Estado, who were also nominated for national and international festivals. Between 2004 and 2008 Sergio Cabrera has been one of the 3 writers of the famous spanish television serie Cuéntame como Paso.

BIOGRAPHY Lucía Etxebarría:


Born in Valencia in 1966. Master Degree in Journalism and English Philology. In 1997 she published her first and very successful novel “Amor, Curiosidad, Prozac y Dudas”. She won the Nadal Award for “Beatriz y los Cuerpos Celestes” and from that moment on she will start writing screen plays for movies. “Sobreviviré” in collaboration with Albacete and Menkes, I Love You Baby (idem) and “La Mujer de mi vida” are one of her most important movies. Not so long ago she was honoured Doctora Honoris Causa in Literature by the Aberdeen University in Scotland.



BIOGRAPHY Emma Suárez:


Born in Madrid in 1964. She was only 15 years old when she started acting in Memorias de Leticia Valle. She appeared in more than 30 movies, 6 successful television series and a fistful of Theatre plays. Emma Suárez always has been Julio Médem’s muse and in 1996 she was awarded with the Goya Award for Best Actress in El Perro del Hortelano , directed by Pilar Miró.

BIOGRAPHY Rubén Ochandiano:


Born in Madrid in 1980. Actor. He will start his carreer at the television serie “Al salir de Clase”. Appeared in famous movies like “Flores de Otro Mundo” by Iciar Bollaín, “El Corazón del Guerrero” , “Asfalto”, “Descongélate” , “La Flaqueza del Bolchevique”, “Tapas” and “Silencio Roto” , for which he was nominated for the Goya Awards for Best Actor Revelation. He also appears in Pedro Almodóvar’s last movie “Los Abrazos Rotos” and in “Biutiful” from Alejandro González Iñarritu, which is still to be released. In theatre he has been working with Antonio Mercero and Miguel Narros.

BIOGRAPHY José Manuel Cervino:


Born in Aroa, Tenerife in 1940. Actor. In 2007 he won the Goya Award for Best Actor and the Award of the Union of Actors for his part in Las Trece Rosas. He also appears in “El Prado de las Estrellas” (Mario Camus), “El Pico” (Eloy de la Iglesia), “Gary Cooper que estas en los Cielos” (Pilar Miro), “Siete Días de Enero” (Juan Antonio Bardem) and “Maravillas” (Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón). On television he has been working with important directors like Miguel Narros and José Luis García Berlanga.