Golden Bear-winning director Carla Simón (“Alcarràs”) is set to direct a short film titled “Flamenco” as part of the Where Talent Ignites campaign organized by Audiovisual From Spain, the international promotion brand of the Spanish audiovisual sector.
The short film was announced during a showcase for the campaign at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where Simón is also presenting her Cannes competition title “Romería.”
“Flamenco,” the first of three new pieces commissioned by the campaign, will “offer a contemporary and deeply cinematic perspective on flamenco as a living cultural expression, shaped by the tension between tradition and change,” said one description. Speaking at the event, Simón said that after making three “super personal films” with “Summer 1993,” “Alcarràs” and “Romería,” she wanted to go into “new territory.”
“Flamenco has this emotional connection with the audience that is so immediate and powerful,” she added. “It’s been explored in cinema, but it has also been a while. There are a lot of documentaries about flamenco, but when we think about flamenco music in cinema, it seems a bit conservative because [those films] were made during the Franco dictatorship. I think it’s interesting to rethink it in a contemporary way.”
Simón’s short film is part of a deeper, larger research on the flamenco tradition, which will also inform her next feature, currently described only as a “flamenco musical.” The feature is currently in early stages of development, while the short film is expected to premiere at the Cannes Festival’s Marché du Film in May.
“I am starting to prepare a film that has to do with [how] flamenco has evolved a lot in terms of music, but in terms of cinema not so much,” she said about the future. “When I got this opportunity to make a film to promote Spain, I thought about exploring flamenco because it is alive between tradition and change. I am interested in this tension I feel other countries also have with their cultural elements, where they think some people might be making it too modern, or that it will disappear [entirely]. I feel flamenco has all of this inside it.”
On the production of the short, Simón said she and her team are currently casting the flamenco artists who will be part of the film. “Contemporary artists take so much from traditional flamenco, so it’s a theme that is not black or white; it is very complex. The script is currently too long, I’m trying to make it short but it’s difficult,” she said, laughing.
The director also briefly took the temperature of her national film industry, saying she feels “very fortunate to be part of this moment in Spanish cinema.” Spain is currently in the running for this year’s International Feature Oscar with Oliver Laxe’s “Sirāt,” which also played the 2025 Cannes competition alongside “Romería.”
“There is a whole new generation speaking with their own voices,” said Simón of this new wave of Spanish cinema. “All of us are doing different searches. I feel we are trying things out, experimenting and taking risks with our films.”
The filmmaker said that Spanish cinema now has something that “had been missing for a while,” which is “a bit of a spotlight.” “Our films are travelling to festivals now. I remember presenting ‘Alcarràs’ in Berlin and thinking: This isn’t something that will only happen once. Since then, it has not stopped. There are new directors coming up every year and it’s very exciting to see it happen.”
As for the rise in Spanish co-productions, Simón said it is great to finally have a sense of “reciprocity” within the national industry. “I remember that, at the time of ‘Summer 1993,’ we didn’t have many co-productions in Spain. It wasn’t a country that had this exchange. It has changed a lot now. We are also helping films from other countries get made and it’s a very rich exchange.” Co-productions, she concluded, are also essential in getting Spanish films to “travel and get sold.”
There is a significant Spanish presence at Rotterdam this year, including Gala Hernández López’s “Like Moths to the Light,” Carlos Casas “Krakatoa” and Lois Patiño’s latest project “Adarna” as part of Cinemart.
Produced by Iván Miñambres and Chelo Loureiro and featuring fully embroidered backgrounds and digitally animated characters, there’s also a strong buzz on “El Cuerpo de Cristo,” Bea Lema’s animation debut, which bowed over the weekend at Rotterdam in its short and mid-length section, its sales handled by Miyu Distribution.
The International Film Festival Rotterdam runs between Jan. 29 – Feb. 8.
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