Anyone wanting to argue the riches of European films need go no further than the new talents spotlighted at this year’s Seville European Film Festival which launched last year a Rampa section for first and second features and has added short films to its lineup in 2025. Variety highlights seven features and five short films, championed by critics and announcing most certainly talent to keep on the radar:
“The Anatomy of the Horses,” (“La Anatomía de los Caballos,”Daniel Vidal Toche, Playa Chica Films, Sideral, Spain; Pioneros Producciones, Peru; Los Niños Films, Colombia; Mito Films, Promenades Films, France).
Picked up by Loco Films and backed by the Berlin Festival’s World Cinema Fund, and put through EAVE’s Puentes, MRG Work, Ventana Sur’s Proyecta and Málaga’s Mafiz, a take on Peruvian history not far from the pessimism of “One Hundred Years of Solitude”: Revolutions don’t work, Peru is “trapped in an unbroken cycle,” he tells Variety. Jumping from 18th century to modern-day corporate degradation, originally shot, a film style and substance.
“Dandelion’s Odyssey,” (Momoko Seto, Miyu Productions, Ecce Films, Arte Cinéma, U Media, France, Belgium)
A boundary-pushing animation odyssey using time-lapse, macro-photography, robotics, periscopes and drones to picture four friends, dandelion seeds, floating off into the cosmos from an Earth destroyed by nuclear war. Seto’s fifth work but first feature, “an experimental animated feature unlike anything you’ve seen before,” proclaims Cartoon Brew. Sold by Indie Sales, a Cannes Fipresci Award and Annecy Animation Festival winner.
“The Last One for the Road,” (“Le Citta di Pianura,” Francesco Sossai, A Vivo Film, Rai Cinema, Maze Pictures, Italy)
50-somethings Carlobianchi and Doriano chain-booze their way from life, dispensing advice, bar-hopping, exchanging stories and escaping the police. A Cannes Un Certain Regard player with a more melancholic undercurrent rated by Variety as a “pleasant Italian gem on drinking buddies, aging and wistful flavors of life.”
“My Father’s Shadow,” (Element Pictures, Fatherland Productions, BBC Film, BFI, Crybaby, U.K.)
“Nigeria’s first ever Cannes selection marks a miraculous gem of auto-fiction,” Variety proclaimed of “My Father’s Shadow.” “In his feature film debut, Akinola Davies Jr. announces himself as a major cinematic voice,” it added. “One day in the life of two young boys traveling with their father from a small village in rural Nigeria to the bustling capital city Lagos.” But an “intimate and well-observed drama” ends up in a way so devastating it completely upends the movie, elevating it into a deeply humanist narrative.”
“A Year of School,” (Laura Samani, Nefertiti Film, RAI Cinema, Tomsa Films, Arte France Cinéma, Italy).
Winning best actor honors for newcomer Giacomo Covi at this year’s Venice Horizons, Samani’s second feature and a turn-up for the books after her year 800 Frigian community-set “Small Body,” set in 2007 as Fred, Swedish, enrolls in an all-male senior year class of a technical high school in Trieste, soon joining a gang of three close male friends. “About desire,” and “the way the world allows us to express these desires,” which differs for females,” Samani tells Variety.
“Short Summer,” (Nastia Korkia, Tamtam Film, Totem Atelier, Art & Popcorn, Germany, France, Serbia)
This year’s Venice Lion of the Future and Chicago New Directors winner, sold by Totem Films and the fiction feature debut of Korkia, now based in France and Germany. A drama set during the second Chechen war, it turns on eight year-old Katya (Maiia Pleshkevich), on summer holidays with her grandparents at their country house. Filmed with fixed-camera shots, an eye to documentary-like details as war insinuates itself into daily life.
“We Believe You,” (Charlotte Devillers, Arnaud Dufeys, Mackintosh Films, Belgium)
Sold widely by The Party Sales to Germany, France and Spain and most Eastern Europe, and described by Variety as a “gripping family custody drama,” a Berlin’s Perspectives player, garnering a Special Mention. Myriem Akheddiou delivers an extraordinary performance, often caught in close-up, of a mother under extreme stress, underscoring the best that Belgium offers: Tough and informed social drama. “We meet victims of sexual assault, and some of them reveal incest to us,” says Devillers, a nurse.
Short Films
“Baile de Feria” (Rakia Films, Te Lo Garantizo Producciones, Spain)
Set against the atmosphere of the Seville April Fair, “Baile de Feria” meaning Fair Dance traces the bond between a father experiencing cognitive impairment and the daughter who reconnects with him through shared music, movement and ritual. Directed by Bernabé Bulnes, the short blends domestic scenes with the fairgrounds and its “Calle del Infierno,” locating the bond of family entwined within local tradition.
“Dad’s Not Home” (Szkoła Filmowa im. Krzysztofa Kieślowskiego, Poland)
Winner of the Student Academy Award for best narrative short, “Dad’s Not Home” follows two young brothers who conceal their father’s frontotemporal dementia in order to remain together after their mother’s death. Directed by Jan Saczek and produced at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, the film depicts an early, imposed adulthood as the boys manage caretaking, household routines and emotional strain of growing up.
“Éiru” (Cartoon Saloon, HerStory, Ireland)
Giovanna Ferrari directs this Iron-Age mythic adventure of a young girl who journeys underground to restore her community’s water source, a lifegiving essential stolen by magic. Featuring voice work from Coco Teehan Roche, the film reflects BAFTA and Emmy winning studio Cartoon Saloon’s interest in cultural folklore and environmental stewardship. Distributed by Gkids in North America.
“A Good Day” (Portugal Films – Portugal)
António wakes to find a lifeless double of himself floating in the family pool, a discovery that unsettles the household as they attempt to carry on while quietly grieving the inexplicable presence. Doubts arise as to who and what António is. Directed by Tiago Rosa-Rosso, the film stages a gently absurd domestic scenario that drifts between comedy and unease, unfoldig like a theatrical chamber piece where logic slips and all is up for questioning.
“Yonne” (Rita Productions, Norte Productions, Switzerland, France)
Set in mid-19th-century Burgundy, “Yonne” follows two sisters who disguise themselves as men to join a timber raft crew. Their destination is Paris and perhaps a hope for an improved life than what they flee. Co-directed by Julietta Korbel and Yan Ciszewski, the short underscores the physical strain and vulnerability of the flotteurs as they navigate a pastoral river route. Selected for Locarno’s Pardi di Domani before appearing in Seville’s Official Shorts, the film traces emancipation, hiding and survival of spirit through labor, movement and shifting bodies.
