The Valladolid International Film Festival, popularly known as Seminci (short for ; ), is a

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

held annually in

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. First held in 1956 as ('Valladolid Religious Film Week'), the Seminci is one of the longest-standing film festivals in Spain. It stands out in the area of films d'auteur and

independent films An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, in ...

. The Seminci conventionally takes place every

October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the sixth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôc ...

, about a month later than the San Sebastián Film Festival, the most prestigious film festival in Spain.

History

The first edition of the festival began on 20 March 1956 under the name of Semana de Cine Religioso de Valladolid with a goal of promoting Catholic moral values in conjunction with the celebration of Holy Week in Valladolid. For the first two years it was not competitive and no prizes were awarded. In 1958 the Don Bosco gold and silver awards and the Special Mention appeared, which the following year were replaced by the Lábaro and the Ciudad de Valladolid Award, respectively. The films to be shown were already selected according to quality and not quantity criteria, even if that meant having an insufficient number of films. Starting in 1960, the festival was renamed Semana Internacional de Cine Religioso y de Valores Humanos (the International Week of Religious Cinema and Human Values) and the theme of the films was expanded, accepting those in which human and committed values prevailed. That year the Golden Spike also began to be awarded, alongside the existing prizes and (since 1961) the San Gregorio Prize. In 1973 the festival adopted its current name, due to the progressive increase in the films in competition and increased interest from producers. The following year the Lábaro disappeared and the Espiga became the main award. Subsequently, the awards for best actor and actress (1979), best screenplay (1984), best first film (1989), the Jury (1991) and the best new director (1992), among others, were introduced.

Golden Spike

Films compete for the (), the top prize awarded at the festival. A list displaying some of the winners is as follows:

Acknowledgments

In 2016 the Seminci was recognized with the Castilla y León Prize for the Arts, the highest institutional award from the region of Castile and León.

Informational notes

References

;Citations ;Bibliography *

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 41, 39, 14, N, 4, 43, 28, W, region:ES-CL_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Film festivals in Spain Valladolid 1956 establishments in Spain Awards established in 1956 Events in Castile and León October events