Saraqusta warms up with Nastassja Kinski as guest of honor: complete program

Zaragoza is preparing to become a benchmark city for historical cinema from this Friday, April 25th, to next Friday, May 2nd, with the celebration of the 5th Saraqusta Film Festival, Zaragoza’s international historical film competition. As every year, the event, organized by Zaragoza City Council and Cosmos Fan, features a large selection of audiovisual works divided into different sections, both competitive and “unofficial,” demonstrating that audiovisual works with a historical basis have much to offer. In total, 10 works—five documentaries and five feature films—are competing for the 2025 Saraqusta Awards.

Thus, the Saraqusta “dragons” will honor Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Actor, and there will be a Young Jury Award. These statuettes will also recognize the careers in the historical genre of three actors: the internationally acclaimed Nastassja Kinski, Juanjo Artero, and Ana Turpin.

The latter two will collect their awards at the opening ceremony this Friday, and the German will also visit Zaragoza on Friday, May 2, to do the same at the closing ceremony, where all the 2025 awards will also be presented.

FINAL DETAILS BEFORE THE OPENING

This Friday, April 25th, the opening gala will take place at 7:00 PM at the Ibercaja Foundation Patio de la Infanta. After the gala, the activities will move to the Cervantes cinema, where the first screening of this fifth edition will take place at 9:00 PM. It features the out-of-competition documentary “Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre. Discovering Pompeii and Herculaneum,” produced by the Aragonese production company Crew Films.

Directed by Zaragoza-born filmmaker Silvia Pradas , the film aims to give due recognition to one of the fathers of modern archaeology: Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre, an 18th-century military engineer from Zaragoza who carried out archaeological discoveries such as Pompeii and Herculaneum.

“TESS”, STARRING NASTASSJA KINSKI, CLOSING FILM

At the end of the 19th century, the humble Durbeyfield family discovers they are actually descended from the illustrious d’Urberville clan. The young Durbeyfield daughter, Tess, is sent to the nearby d’Urberville mansion to reconnect with her wealthy relatives. This is the plot of “Tess,” starring actress Nastassja Kinski, winner of the 2025 Saraqusta Prize, which will close the 5th Saraqusta Film Festival. The film can be seen on Friday, May 2, at 9:00 p.m. at the Cervantes cinema.

The film, released in 1979, was directed by Roman Polanski and was recognized with three Oscars, a BAFTA Award, three César Awards, and two Golden Globes, among others. For her performance, Kinski was awarded the Golden Globe for Best New Actress and received a nomination for the César Award for Best Actress from the French Film Academy.

The German actress based in the United States will be honored at the 5th Saraqusta Film Festival with the Saraqusta Award in recognition of her film career and contribution to the historical genre. Kinski will collect her award at the festival’s closing gala on May 2 at 7:00 p.m. at the Fundación Ibercaja Patio de la Infanta, where prizes will also be awarded to the films participating in this edition.

“Nastassja Kinski will be the first foreign woman to receive the Saraqusta Award. To date, the only figures from outside our borders to be recognized with this award have been actors Joaquim de Almeida and Fabio Testi. One of our goals as a festival is to honor an international professional each year, as we strive to bring film professionals from other corners of the globe to Zaragoza,” notes José Ángel Delgado, director of the Saraqusta Film Festival.

CAESARAUGUSTA THEATRE MUSEUM, MORNING VENUE

During the festival, the Caesaraugusta Theater Museum will host the morning screenings. From Sunday, April 27th to Thursday, May 1st, the crews from the various productions will parade through the space to present their work at a press conference (at 10:00 a.m.). Afterwards, at 12:00 p.m., there will be screenings of the Aragonese documentaries: “Los fugaces ojodos” (The Fleeting Eyelids) by Marta Horno; “Tamarite Mágicoh” (Tamarite Magico), directed by Isabel Aparicio; “Lux sacra” (Sacred Lux) by Eduardo de la Cruz; “Manolo Kabezabolo” (Manolo Kabezabolo), directed by J. Alberto Andrés Lacasta; and “Los ojos que vio” (The Eyes They Saw) by Erik Salvador. Admission is free until capacity is reached.

At 12:30 p.m., a space will be set aside for roundtable discussions open to the public. This year, in order of completion, the following will be discussed: “Wikipedia, Cinema, and History,” about this tool as a source of documentation for cinematic events and audiovisual works; “Discovering Pompeii and Herculaneum,” to reveal the ins and outs of the festival’s inaugural documentary; “The VFX of ‘Limitless,'” the Magellan series, produced by the Aragonese studio XReality; “Rock Stars and Classics,” about how audiovisuals have portrayed the gods of music; and “The Historical Cinema of Ridlet Scott,” analyzed by members of the Bruce’s Basement podcast.

ACTIVITY IN THE PATIO DE LA INFANTA AND THE CERVANTES CINEMA

The festival’s activities will move to the Fundación Ibercaja Patio de la Infanta in the afternoons. In this space, in addition to the opening and closing galas, at 5:00 p.m., you can enjoy audiovisual presentations from the non-competitive Panorama Saraqusta exhibition. In order of screening, from April 27 to May 1, the following are included: the film “The Giant of Es Vedrá and Other Legends”; the film “Wild Valley”; the documentary “The First 100 Years”; the series “Without Limits”; and an episode from the documentary series “Archaeomania”: “The Chosen of Aten.”

At 7:00 p.m., the documentary competition will feature: “A Thousand Legends, a Grail,” by Manuel Cabo Sánchez; “The Memory,” directed by Cristóbal Vargas and Antonia González; “Antonio, the Dancer of Spain,” by Paco Ortiz; “Portugal ’74,” a documentary by directors Paul Le Grouyer and Bruno Lorvão; and “Kut Al Amara,” by Koray Demir.

The screenings scheduled for Monday, April 28, at the Patio de la Infanta (‘Wild Valley’ and ‘Memory’) will change location. The location of the screenings will be announced on the festival website, under the ‘Programming’ section.

This year’s screenings will resume in movie theaters, and the competing feature films will be shown in the evenings at the Cervantes cinema (at 9:00 p.m.). The screening order is as follows: “Alone in the Night” by Guillermo Rojas; “Vari” by director Jaak Kilmi; “Obraz” by Nikolas Vukcevic; “Seoul Spring” by Kim Sung-su; and “Battlefield” by Gianni Amelio.

This year, the jury responsible for determining the winners of the festival’s various categories is composed of: Usha Jadiv, actress and producer; Mirella R. Abrisqueta, producer and director; Arturo Méndiz, producer and director; Lucía Álvarez, historian and professor; and Miguel Ángel Sabadell, writer, educator, and member of the editorial committee of ‘Muy Historia’.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Ibercaja Foundation’s Patio de la Infanta and the Cervantes cinema will also host a special screening day on Saturday the 26th. In the morning, two films by Ana Turpin and Juanjo Artero will be shown in the Patio de la Infanta: at 9:30 a.m. “El florido pensil,” starring Turpin, and at 11:30 a.m. “El río que nos lleva,” starring Artero. In the afternoon, the documentary series “Ataúdes blancos” (White Coffins) will be shown at 5:00 p.m. The last screening of the day will be at 9:00 p.m. at the Cervantes cinema: the film “Bartolomé Bermejo. El despertar de un genio” (Bartolomé Bermejo: El despertar de un genio” (Bartolomé Bermejo: El despertar de un genio).

This year, as a new feature, there will be a new screening space open to the public . On Wednesday, April 30th, at 6:00 PM, the Plaza del Pilar will host the screening of “Gladiator,” one of the most renowned historical films. Admission to see Ridley Scott’s film on the big screen will be free until capacity is reached.

Tickets for the opening and closing galas and screenings are available on the festival website (saraqustafilmfestival.com). Aragonese documentaries, Panorama Saraqusta audiovisuals, the special screenings on Saturday, April 26, and “Gladiator” are free with online reservations. Admission to the documentary and feature film competitions costs €4, and the opening and closing galas cost €5. A €15 pass is also available for admission to all the competition screenings and galas. This ticket can be purchased, just like tickets, through the official Saraqusta Film Festival website.

The festival, co-organized by Zaragoza City Council and Cosmos Fan, has the support of the Government of Aragon as an institutional partner, the Ibercaja Foundation as its main partner, and Ibercaja, the Aragon Youth Card, Aragón Alimentos, and Arafilmfest as collaborators.