The heat will be turned up as the 2026 HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival arrives in Australia this winter with a carefully selected line up of over thirty films from Spain, Colombia, Argentina and more, showing at Palace Cinemas, Palace Nova and Luna Palace Cinemas around Australia this June – July.
This year’s diverse program takes audiences on a season of cinematic escapes – from culinary adventures in Peru and São Paulo to gripping thrillers, passionate Spanish romances, documentaries tracing salsa’s New York origins, and even an uplifting true story about the pioneering girls who changed the course of women’s football in Spain.
Speaking on this year’s festival, Benjamin Zeccola, CEO of Palace Cinemas, said:
“Opening a window into Spanish and Latin America cinema is to embark on a wonderful adventure, visiting exotic places, hearing the voices and accents shift across regions while navigating the challenges of love, life and freedom with a dose of salsa, a swing of the hips, a delicious dish and a glass of wine.
We can’t wait to welcome the HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival back for its 29th year across Australia. Audiences can look forward to a rich and eclectic lineup of the best contemporary Hispanic and Latin American cinema.”
Read on to learn about the full program, with tickets now on sale at spanishfilmfestival.com
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS:
Opening the Festival is the Australian premiere of delicious Peruvian drama MISTURA, starring the sensational Bárbara Mori. The award-winning feature, revered for its vivid portrayal of Peru’s gastronomy and people, centres on a woman (Mori) whose life unravels after her husband leaves her, inspiring her to embark on a transformative culinary journey. Featuring beautiful cinematography and elegant settings, the 1950s set film will leave mouths watering.
Watch the MISTURA trailer:
The Centrepiece of the Festival is SUNDAYS (Los domingos) winner of the Golden Shell (Best Film) at the 2025 San Sebastián Film Festival. Writer/director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s quietly spellbinding drama deftly captures the rupture within a family after a young woman defies expectations with her chosen vocation. The coming-of-age drama has already drawn widespread critical acclaim on the festival circuit.
Watch the SUNDAYS trailer here.
The 2026 Special Presentation is THE TIGERS (Los Tigres), starring Antonio de la Torre and Bárbara Lennie as professional divers and siblings. In this critically acclaimed maritime thriller from award-winning director Alberto Rodríguez, the pair discover the proceeds of a crime and are met with a huge dilemma about what to do next.
Watch THE TIGERS trailer here.
The second Festival Special Presentation is epic historical adventure THE CAPTIVE (El cautivo) from award-winning director Alejandro Amenábar. Featuring an international ensemble, including Julio Peña (Through My Window) and Alessandro Borghi (The Eight Mountains), the thrilling drama follows a young Miguel de Cervantes, who went on to write Don Quixote, as he finds an unexpected refuge in the art of storytelling while imprisoned in 1575 Algiers.
WatchTHE CAPTIVE trailer here.
Featuring the much-loved Mexican star Gael García Bernal, (The Motorcycle Diaries, Y tu mamá también) NOTHING BETWEEN US (Nada entre los dos) is an intimate and charming love story set against the backdrop of a corporate crisis. Bernal is joined by Natalia Oreiro as they explore desire, choice, and the fragile balance between personal freedom and social expectations.
Watch the NOTHING BETWEEN US trailer here.
To close the Festival, and marking its 60th anniversary with a new restoration, is Carlos Saura’s award-winning classic THE HUNT (La Caza). Considered a landmark classic in Spanish cinema and a representative film of Nuevo cine español, the film delivered Saura his first international success, being awarded Silver Bear for Best Director at the 1966 Berlin International Film Festival.
A thrilling psychological drama set over the course of a single scorching summer day, tensions rise between friends on a rabbit hunt, acting as a skillful allegory of the wounds of the Spanish Civil War and subsequent Franco dictatorship.
Festival goers can also enjoy screenings of LADIES’ HUNTING PARTY (Día de caza), a contemporary adaptation of THE HUNT, featuring an all-female lineup of legendary actors, including Blanca Portillo, Carmen Machi and Rossy de Palma. It also explores the cycle of betrayal, corruption, and abuse of power in society.
PILGRIMAGES ON SCREEN:
In the eagerly awaited drama ROMERÍA (meaning pilgrimage), from acclaimed writer/director Carla Simón (Alcarràs), Llúcia Garcia delivers a luminous central performance as an eighteen-year-old girl who travels to the city of Vigo to meet her paternal family and is immediately confronted with a past shaped by absence and deep-seated emotions.
In piecing together her parents’ complex history, she reveals long-buried family secrets hindering her ambition to reconstruct a coherent account of her father, her parents’ love story, and her place within it.
Watch the ROMERÍA trailer here.
The best-reviewed film of the 2025 Berlinale was Gabriel Mascaro’s breathtaking fable THE BLUE TRAIL (O Último Azul), following a remarkable Brazilian woman who, as her working life draws to an end, secretly sets out on a trip down the Amazon to fulfil a long-held dream. It still retains a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
WatchTHE BLUE TRAIL trailer here.
Continuing the theme of journeying is Emilio Estevez’s profoundly touching drama THE WAY, celebrating its 15th anniversary. Martin Sheen stars as a father heading overseas to recover his estranged son who died while traveling “El camino de Santiago,” and decides to take the pilgrimage himself. The film will also screen with an exclusive pre-recorded Q&A with Estevez and Sheen.
Watch THE WAY trailer here.
THRILLING ESCAPADES:
This year’s festival features a fantastic selection of thrillers from Spain, Uruguay and Argentina. LUGER is action-packed, brilliant and darkly comic, paying homage to directors such as Guy Ritchie, Quentin Tarantino and Brian DePalma. The film follows a duo of small-time hustlers working for a lawyer of questionable morals who get caught up in a situation that quickly spirals out of control over one frenetic day.
Watch the LUGER trailer here.
In the engaging comedy thriller A LOOSE END (Un cabo suelto), an Argentinian policeman outruns his corrupt boss by crossing into Uruguay where the locals welcome him with open arms, as he navigates a new life, unexpected romance, adventure and danger.
Watch A LOOSE END trailer here.
Weaving political intrigue with an intimate emotional journey, SOFIA’S SUSPICION (La sospecha de Sofía) is a gripping espionage thriller set between Spain and Germany during the Cold War. Filled with tension, deception, survival and intrigue, a man becomes caught up in a KGB plot to establish operations in Spain.
Watch SOFIA’S SUSPICION trailer here.
Based on true events, BALANDRAU, WHERE THE FIERCE WIND BLEW (Balandrau, vent salvatge) is a breathtaking survival thriller. In December 2000, a group of hikers trying to ascend the mountain Balandrau get caught in the worst storm ever to hit the Catalan Pyrenees, that seemed to come from nowhere.
GRIPPING DRAMA:
From Paraguay comes NARCISO, inspired by notorious real-life events. The seductive new noir from Marcelo Martinessi unravels the mysterious death of a charismatic radio host in late-1950s Paraguay, an event seized on by the military regime, as the rebellious pulse of rock ’n’ roll crackling over the airwaves sparks fear, scandal and moral panic.
Watch the NARCISO trailer here.
In the intoxicating drama ISABEL, fresh from its premiere at the recent Berlinale, a talented sommelier in São Paulo’s fine-dining scene dreams of opening her own wine bar, away from her controlling boss, but must navigate following her passion and the realities of opening a business.
Watch the ISABEL trailer here.
Starring internationally acclaimed actress Ester Expósito (Netflix series Elite) as a gifted young cellist, THE TALENT (El talento) is a captivating drama about an impossible choice. The young cellist, from a fallen aristocratic family, is forced to make a life changing decision when her best friend’s powerful father offers a solution at an exclusive high-society party.
Based on a true story, epic historical drama KARMELE follows nurse Karmele Urresti and her family on a riveting emotional journey through 20th century Spain. Fleeing the Basque country for France in 1937, they survive the Civil War, dictatorship and exile, using art and music as a form of resistance.
FEEL THE BEAT:
Set in a small town on the coast of Galicia, BAND TOGETHER (Rondallas) is a heartfelt gem with a stellar ensemble cast led by Javier Gutiérrez (Champions, SFF18). Two years after the tragic sinking of a fishing boat that devastated their tight-knit fishing community, the small coastal village decides to revive their traditional music ensemble, the rondalla, to compete against other neighbouring villages and heal themselves.
Watch the BAND TOGETHER trailer here.
Also in celebration of music and in the vein of Buena Vista Social Club, comes vivid documentary LA SALSA VIVE. The film tells the story of two cities bound by the rhythm of salsa: New York City, where the genre was born, and Cali, Colombia, where it thrives with unmatched passion.
Watch the LA SALSA VIVE trailer here.
UNCANNY ALLEGORY:
In the festival retrospective titled ‘Uncanny Allegory’, a selection of compelling films rarely seen on the big screen represent iconic works from three directors whose formative works fuse elements of the uncanny, surreal and gothic and went on to influence other filmmakers of the genre.
THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE (El espinazo del diablo), Guillermo del Toro’s gothic ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War, blends political allegory with supernatural melancholy and celebrates its 25th anniversary, delivering a haunting meditation on memory and historical guilt.
Watch THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE trailer here.
Luis Buñuel’s surreal satire of bourgeois fragility, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (El ángel exterminador), where guests inexplicably cannot leave a dinner party, incorporates repetition, decay, and claustrophobia to explore social collapse, and the hidden savagery beneath civility.
Watch THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL trailer here.
And in Víctor Erice’s meditation on innocence and mortality, THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (El espíritu de la colmena), haunting imagery and sparse dialogue explores childhood, imagination, and trauma in post–Civil War Spain.
Watch THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE trailer here.
LAUGH OUT LOUD COMEDY:
This year’s lineup would not be complete without some beloved Spanish language comedy. From renowned writer-director David Trueba is tender romantic drama ALWAYS WINTER (Siempre es invierno). David Verdaguer plays an architect who travels to Belgium to take part in a competition and an unexpected encounter changes his life.
ANOTHER LEAGUE (Pioneras: solo querían jugar) is a feel-good origins story inspired by true events in the 1970s. The inspirational story follows of a group of pioneering girls, and an ambitious promotor, who set out to change the story of women’s football in Spain.
Set in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Bilbao in 1989, BREAKING WALLS (Los aitas) is a comical road movie from Borja Cobeaga. An out-of-work group of fathers step up to chaperone their daughters at a rhythmic gymnastics tournament in Berlin with hilarious and heartwarming results.
In the charming romantic comedy from beloved director Cesc Gay MY FRIEND EVA (Mi amiga Eva), a married woman with grown up children decides to upend her life and pursue love after a serendipitous trip to Rome.
Watch the MY FRIEND EVA trailer here.
Starring the remarkable Guillermo Francella, Argentinian box office hit black comedy HOMO SAPIENS? (Homo Argentum) from Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, is a series of vignettes about identity and human behaviour reflecting identifiable characters from modern times.
Watch the HOMO SAPIENS trailer here.
In the comedy WELCOME TO LAPLAND (Lapönia) a Spanish woman and her family travel to Lapland to spend Christmas with her sister’s family. Cultural and personal clashes erupt when one young cousin reveals the truth about Santa Claus, turning the ‘perfect’ family holiday on its head in this witty and incisive comedy.
FAMILY FAVOURITES:
For families and budding Spanish speakers there are two fantastic films. MY AMAZING GRANDMA (Abuela Tremenda) is an entertaining family comedy about three generations of women, pitting overprotective parents against the wild and carefree energy of a mischievous grandmother played by Elena Irureta Azanza. When abuela crashes the corporate retreat of her daughter and granddaughter at a rural farm, the hilarious disasters ensue.
And in BEAR CLAW CAMP (Campamento Garra de Oso) fun is guaranteed when two nine-year-olds race against time to save their summer camp, combining live action and animation for a stellar adventure about the power of friendship and teamwork.
Watch the BEAR CLAW CAMP trailer here.
The 2026 HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival takes place nationally from 10 June to 12 July (dates vary) in Melbourne, Ballarat, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Byron Bay and Ballina.
Tickets are now on sale at the website. Downloadable program is here.
Website: https://spanishfilmfestival.com/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/spanishfilmfest/
Hero image: Still from Ladies Hunting Party
Listing details:
Canberra 10 June – 5 July: Palace Electric Cinema
Adelaide 10 June – 5 July: Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas
Brisbane 11 June – 5 July: Palace James Street and Palace Barracks
Perth 11 June – 1 July: Palace Raine Square, Luna Leederville and Luna on SX
Melbourne 12 June – 5 July: The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Church St, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Palace Balwyn and Pentridge Cinema
Ballarat 12 June – 5 July: Palace Regent Cinema
Sydney 18 June – 12 July: Palace Norton Street, Palace Moore Park and Palace Central
Byron Bay/Ballina 18 June – 12 July: Palace Byron Bay, Ballina Fair Cinemas
