Huelva Ibero-American Fest: Genre Mashups, Vibrant Brazil

Honoring Paulina García (“Gloria”), highlighting the latest from great and fast emerging Latin American directors, the 52nd Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival lifts off Nov. 13 as a film event for our times.

Bulwarked by fast-recovering Europe and Asia, global film production in 2025 edged up to 7,707 features, higher than pre-pandemic levels of 2017-19. Latin America was no exception, up 2%.

In such a context, film festivals are worth their weight in gold as quality filters, and few are more curated than the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival. TIFF screened 293 films in Official Selection this year. Huelva’s total lineup will feature around 100 films, festival director Manuel H. Martín tells Variety.

That’s par for the course for Huelva which will keep its main section, including a main feature and short film competition, Talento Andaluz, framing event films from Andalusia, and Acento. Cine Español, a national movie panorama.

“For us, it’s fundamental to have a festival format in line with Huelva, a friendly, close city where you can walk to places,” says Martín. “We’re aiming for a varied quality lineup with premieres for Spain and a chance to catch-up on Spanish films released during the year, but we’re not interested in growing year after year in volume.”

Huelva’s main competition will, indeed, feature just 12 titles, two more out-of-competition.

Amaia Salamanca, a star of “Grand Hotel” and “Velvet” and key in the lift-off of Spanish TV as an international phenomenon, will pick up a Luz Prize at Huelva’s opening Gala, as will Patrick Criado, good in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas” and sensational in 2023 TV series “Nights in Tefia.”

However tightly curated, Huelva’s lineup also allows a broader vision of which ways Latin American cinema and film industries are heading in Latin America. A few brief provisional takes as the 52nd Huelva Ibero-American…