Palace is delighted to announce the first highlights of the 2025 HSBC Spanish Film Festival offering a tantalising taste of this year’s superb mix of contemporary and award-winning films. The curated line-up, featuring films from Spain and Latin America, screens nationally from 11 June at Palace Cinemas.
This year’s Festival Centrepiece EL 47 scooped the pool at the recent Goya Awards (the Spanish Oscars), winning five major awards including Best Film. Inspired by a true story, EL 47 is an urban tragicomedy starring Eduard Fernández that follows a bus driver in an act of peaceful dissidence that transformed modern Barcelona during the city’s boom in the 1970s.
UNDERCOVER (La infiltrada), a Special Presentation, was the co-winner of Best Film at the 2025 Goya Awards, sharing the accolade with EL 47. A gripping crime thriller set in the Basque Country, it is based on the real-life story of Aranzazu Berradre Marín, the pseudonym for the only police officer in Spanish history to infiltrate the terrorist organisation ETA.
The second Festival Special Presentation comes directly from the 2025 Málaga Film Festival. One of Spain’s most distinctive cinematic voices, Julio Medem’s enchanting and daring love story OCHO (8) follows a couple’s tumultuous relationship as their lives intertwine over the course of eight decades. Exploring themes of love and forgiveness, it is set against the backdrop of pivotal moments in Spain’s 20th Century history.
A Spanish box office hit, the delightful comedy BABIES DON’T COME WITH INSTRUCTIONS (Sin instrucciones) stars festival favourite Paco León as a carefree man living a hedonistic lifestyle in the Canary Islands. Out of nowhere, an old flame turns up with a baby and upends his life, propelling him into fatherhood.
Adapted from Elia Barceló’s critically acclaimed novel and directed by Olga Osorio, THE GOLDSMITH’S SECRET (El secreto del orfebre) is a timeless, epic romance starring Mario Casas as a goldsmith who in 1999 revisits his Spanish hometown, remembering his summer love affair with a seamstress 25 years prior.
Based on true events, MAY I SPEAK WITH THE ENEMY (Es el enemigo? La película de Gila) is a witty yet sensitive tribute to comedian Miguel Gila, the pioneer of stand-up comedy in Spain. The plot explores his experience of the Spanish Civil War, where he managed to survive a multitude of misfortunes.
From Argentina, the critically acclaimed EL JOCKEY tells the story of a legendary jockey whose self- destructive behaviour starts to outshine his talent and threaten his relationship with his girlfriend. This quirky, stylish thriller set in vibrant Buenos Aires stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Úrsula Corberó (Money Heist, The Day of The Jackal).
The 2025 HSBC Spanish Film Festival takes place nationally from 11 June to 9 July (dates vary) in Melbourne, Ballarat, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Byron Bay and Ballina.
The full programme will be announced and tickets go on sale mid-May. Tickets for the festival preview go on sale on Wednesday 7 May.
2025 HSBC Spanish Film Festival
Canberra 11 June – 2 July: Palace Electric Cinema
Adelaide 11 June – 2 July: Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas
Brisbane 11 June – 2 July: Palace James Street and Palace Barracks
Perth 12 June – 2 July: Palace Raine Square, Luna Leederville and Luna on SX
Melbourne 13 June – 3 July: The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Palace Balwyn and Pentridge Cinema
Ballarat 13 June – 3 July: Palace Regent Cinema Byron Bay 19 June – 9 July: Palace Byron Bay Ballina 19 June – 9 July: Ballina Fair Cinemas
Sydney 19 June – 9 July: Palace Norton Street, Palace Moore Park, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema
www.spanishfilmfestival.com
