HOME announces return of ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival for 2023

¡Viva!, Manchester’s annual celebration of Spanish and Latin American culture, will be returning to the city’s thriving HOME arts venue for its 29th edition. This year, 25 new feature films, including some UK premieres, from across the Spanish-speaking world will be part of the festival line-up, with more details to be revealed in the New Year. Audiences will also be treated to filmmaker Q&As, film introductions and other opportunities to get involved.

Llenos de gracia (Full of Grace, dir. Roberto Bueso, 2022) has been revealed as the festival’s opening film. The coming-of-age comedy is about a nun who sets up a youth football team at an orphanage, set against the backdrop of the 1994 World Cup.

As well as new productions, there will also be cinematic classics including two classics from Juan Antonio Bardem, the UK premiere of 1970s hidden gems by fellow Spaniard Cecilia Bartolomé, and a programme of shorts from Latin American feminist film collectives.

The festival is curated by Rachel Hayward, Head of Film Strategy, Jessie Gibbs, ¡Viva! Festival Coordinator, and Andy Willis, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford and HOME’s Senior Visiting curator: Film. There is additional programme support from the Instituto Cervantes, the Leading Women project funded by the AHRC, and the Invisible Women archive activist film collective.

The full programme will be unveiled in early 2023.