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Spain Scores a Historic Cannes Competition Double


Guillermo Galoe’s Critics’ Week ‘Sleepless City’ belongs to a newer generation of Spanish talent now breaking out in France.

For the first time since 1988, Spain has two movies in Cannes main competition, neither of whose directors are Pedro Almodóvar: Carla Simón ’s “Romería” and Oliver Laxe ’s “Sirat.” From 1988, the feeding frenzy died for films by Carlos Saura in particular and at large titles picturing Spain’s dark past from which it had happily just emerged with democracy. In late 2015, Spain’s subsidy rules changed, ditching domestic box office performance as a main criteria in favor of a multi-point system, which for artier films prized a producer or director’s festival track-record, plus first features.

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