The film festival Spanish Meter will take place from May 27 to June 10 in Belgrade and Novi Sad, organized by the Instituto Cervantes. Alongside the main program featuring acclaimed contemporary films from Spain and Latin America, this year’s edition also presents two special side programs: Women’s Perspective and Honorary Goya Award: Gonzalo Suárez.
Curated in collaboration with the platform Filmtopia, the Women’s Perspective section focuses on films exploring the emotional and social realities of young people across different cultures. Through stories of identity, desire, vulnerability, and resistance to the norms imposed by adulthood, the selected films portray adolescence as a transformative and deeply personal life stage.
Among the featured titles is I Have Electric Dreams by director Valentina Maurel, which was successfully screened at the San Sebastián and Locarno film festivals. Set in Costa Rica, the film follows Eva, a teenager trying to reconnect with her parents after their divorce while navigating her own artistic ambitions and emotional turmoil.
Another highlight is Jone, Sometimes by Sara Fantova, a coming-of-age drama centered around Jone, a young woman experiencing first love while confronting her father’s rapidly progressing Parkinson’s disease during Holy Week celebrations in Bilbao.
Directors Clara Serrano Llorens and Gerard Simó Gimeno present Coming of Age, a sensitive story about Bruno, a young man balancing work, youth, and caring for his grandmother until circumstances force him to confront the fear of losing the only family he has ever known.
In Sica, director Carla Subirana transports viewers to the mystical landscapes of Galicia, where a young girl searches for answers following her father’s death at sea, embarking on a painful journey of self-discovery.
The festival also pays tribute to legendary Spanish filmmaker Gonzalo Suárez, recipient of the Honorary Goya Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 40th Goya Awards. As part of this retrospective, audiences will have the opportunity to watch four films personally selected by Suárez himself.
Among them is Detective and Death, starring Javier Bardem in a surreal story about power, mortality, and obsession. The retrospective also includes Epilogue, an introspective drama about two writers reunited after years of separation, and Goalkeeper, a post–Spanish Civil War drama starring Carmelo Gómez and Maribel Verdú.
Another notable screening is Rowing with the Wind, a romantic historical drama inspired by the lives of Mary Shelley and Lord Byron, exploring the origins of Frankenstein.
The main competition program, Contemporary Film, features 11 award-winning productions from Spain and Latin America. Screenings in Belgrade will take place at the Cultural Centre of Belgrade until June 3, while the program continues in the Cultural Centre of Novi Sad from June 5 to 10. Tickets are available for 400 RSD.
The Instituto Cervantes organizes the festival in collaboration with the embassies of Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Chile. Additional information, screening schedules, and trailers are available through the festival’s official website and the social media channels of Instituto Cervantes.
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