Watch Spanish-Language Films for Free From October 4 to 11

This year’s Official Selection of films for PELÍCULA>PELIKULA, the Manila Spanish Film Festival, brings together an impeccable assortment of lauded works from the 1976 documentary El Desencanto by Jaime Chávarri about the family of the Spanish poet Leopoldo Panero; to Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language feature film debut, the Goya award-winning La Habitación de al Lado with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton; to Giants of La Mancha, an animated feature about Alfonso, an imaginative 11-year old boy who’s the direct descendant of Don Quixote. The films will be screened beginning October 5 at Power Plant Mall, Cinema 2, with a four-film marathon on October 4 at Instituto Cervantes, Intramuros branch. The free screenings are open to the public and will run for four days. All films will be presented in their original languages with English subtitles.

The Manila Spanish Film Festival was established in 2002 and has grown into the most anticipated showcase of Spanish-language cinema in Southeast Asia. The 23 films on its slate cover a wide range of genres and styles, including a few notable films from outside of Spain, including Cyclone, an exploration of the working-class woman's struggle in a male-dominated world where women have no bodily autonomy. Cyclone is the product of a four-woman collaboration, including director Flavia Castro, lead actress Luiza Mariani, and producers Joana Mariani and Eliane Ferreira. The Costa Rican coming-of-age drama Tengo sueños eléctricos by writer-director Valentina Maurel follows the life of Eva, a young girl who lives with her mother, her sister, and their cat as she navigates her tempestuous relationship with her bohemian artist father. Tengo sueños eléctricos has won numerous awards, including sweeping the Locarno Film Festival in 2022 with Best Direction, Best Actress, and Best Actor nods. Vino la noche is a 2024 Peruvian documentary by freshman director Paolo Tizón, following a group of young men who enlist in the Peruvian Air Force in the hopes of fighting in the Valle de los Ríos Apurímac, Ene y Mantaro. The VRAEM is one of the major areas of coca production and a hotbed of conflict as the center of operation of the communist guerrilla group, the Shining Path.

The previously mentioned Giants of La Mancha is an Argentinian production directed by Gonzalo

Gutierrez and kicks off the festival on October 4, apropos for an organization named after Miguel de Cervantes, who created Don Quixote. The 2025 time-travel comedy Mensaje en una botella by writer-director Gabriel Nesci features a renowned sommelier who finds a way to communicate with her past self using messages put in wine bottles. She tries to correct the mistakes of her past but hilariously finds that things get more complicated with each change she tries to make.

In collaboration with the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España, this year's selection will also present "Premios Goya on Tour," featuring seven recently awarded Spanish productions. Oliver Laxe's visually and aurally stunning Sirat took home six out of eleven nominations in the 2026 Goya Awards, a harrowing exploration of a post-apocalyptic landscape that's part Mad Max and part rave party. José Ramón Soroiz took home the Best Actor prize earlier this year for his portrayal of Vicente, an elderly gay man who finds himself having to return to the closet after living a loud and proud life when he's put in a conservative nursing home in Maspalomas. Co-directors Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi take an earnest look at a culture that otherwise accepts queerness except when it comes to the older generation.

Manuel Gómez Pereira’s La Cena, which he co-wrote with Joaquín Oristrell and Yolanda García Serrano, took home the Best Adapted Script for translating  José Luis Alonso de Santos’ 2008 play La cena de los generales into film. The comedy is set two weeks after the conclusion of the Spanish civil war featuring where a banquet for the generals is under threat of falling into chaos when it turns out that the people supposed to prepare it are the people who lost in the war. Los Tigres by Alberto Rodríguez is a 2025 thriller that took home Best Special Effects and follows the travails of brother and sister divers Antonio and Estrella, whose lives take an unexpected and dangerous turn when they find a stash of cocaine in the hull of a freighter. In El Cautivo, Julio Peña plays Miguel de Cervantes in a film that explores the writer’s years in captivity in Algiers from 1575 to 1580. El Cautivo won Best Hair and Makeup at the 40th Goya Awards. Mariposas Negras is documentary filmmaker David Baute’s directorial debut for an animated feature, following the journey of three women impacted by the effects of climate change. 

Other notable films include Los domingos by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, a family drama centered around a 17-year-old girl’s spiritual journey to become a cloistered nun. The film stands out for its curious plot, uncommon at a time when young women very rarely consider religious contemplation. Olivia y el terremoto invisible is a stop-motion animation that tackles tricky subjects like homelessness and poverty. Irene Iborra Rizo’s adaptation of Maite Carranza’s children’s book La película de la vida deftly navigates serious themes with a light-handed touch, using the power of imagination and community to overcome life’s adversities.

One of the PELÍCULA>PELIKULA's core objectives is to strengthen cultural ties between the Philippines and the Spanish-speaking world, and the section "Encuentros en el cine: En corto" brings together five short films from the Philippines, Latin America, and Spain in pursuit of that. The two Filipino films are Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Danelle Romero’s Agapito, an official Cannes selection about Mira, a pin setter at a local duckpin bowling alley, and Cinemalaya Best Director winner Gaby Serrano’s dystopian sci-fi Elenita Elena Elaine. Chile’s Voz de trompeta by Pilar Smoje Gueico and David Monarte Serna; Spain’s Gilbert by Arturo Lacal, Alex Salu, and Jordi Jiménez; and Mexico’s ¡Abre las piernas!, by Águeda V. Flores round out the selection of five shorts that will be screened on October 11, at 5 p.m.

As part of a tradition introduced in 2004, festivalgoers will get to choose the recipient of the Audience Choice Award by voting for their favorite film after each screening, and the winning film will be screened again during the festival's closing ceremony. In addition to screenings, the festival will offer a diverse program of complementary activities such as workshops, concerts, and lectures, including a talk on October 6 at 1:00 p.m. by film historian Nick Deocampo at Power Plant Cinema 2, exploring Spanish influences on Philippine cinema. Mexican artist Juan Pablo Chipe will conduct a series of film-inspired art workshops, using modeling clay or collages. Participation is free, although slots are limited.

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