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Romania’s Florin Şerban added a Seville Golden Giraldillo to a Golden Leopard at Locarno on Saturday, winning Best Film in main competition at the 2026 Seville European Film Festival which also prized Venice New Horizons
buzz title “Falling House” and Sweden’s Oscar entry “Adult Supervision.”
Seville’s biggest world premiere, Spain’s “The Director,” also scored a high profile award at a festival which works at multiple levels: a new talent springboard, an industry hub, further recognition for the large number ofEuropean films which partly fly under the radar, and a springboard for European productions breaking out to international sales or consolidating their contention for Oscar International Feature Film shortlist recognition.
Notably, victors at Seville’s Saturday’s prize announcement also took in Marcus Schleinzer’s Austrian Oscar entry “Rose” and Abinash Bikram Shah’s “Elephants in the Fog,” a submission from Nepal.
A closer look at Seville main competition winners:
“You Don’t Belong Here,” (Florin Şerban)
Described by Variety as “a somber study of anti-Roma racism in the country, “You Don’t Belong Here” marks the fourth feature from Şerban whose 2010 debut, “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle,” took a Berlinale Grand Prix.
Shot in hallmark drab Romanian cinema tones, which won Bogdan Ionescu Best Artistic Direction, “You Don’t Belong Here” turns on a respected, upright surgeon who discovers his son has helped beat to death a Roma man. Filmed in static shoots with pauses between dialog, the film won four awards at Locarno, including but, as Variety noted at Locarno, failed to impress Variety critic Jay Weissberg who lamented that the film “opens with great promise and finishes with a stupefyingly misguided coda.”
“Falling House,” (Mohsen Gharaei)
Another tale of threatened patriarchy, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Gharaei’s “Falling House” scored Seville’s Grand Jury Prize, plus a nod for Best Editing for Evelyn Rack and Emad Khodabakhsh. Bowing in Venice Horizons, and described by the director as a story about “lost freedom,” it turns on a prison guard who, learning his eldest daughter plans to escape to Turkey for a career in modelling, incarcerates his own family in a house facing demolition.
Sold by Paradise City Sales. “Falling House” has closed a first batch of deals with France’s Jokers Films for France, Italy’s Wanted Cinema and Karma Films for Spain.
“Adult Supervision,” (Alex Schulman)
Much of Seville’s focus is on new or emerging talent. Of all its feature debuts, the biggest winner was “Adult Supervision,” from well-known Swedish author and podcast host Alex Schulman which has has sold widely by Heretic, including to WBD, Place and Vertigo. The film’s double wins – a Puerta América Award and Best Actor prize – will stoke more word around Sweden’s International Feature Oscar entry, which was another buzz title which has struck promising first sales, selling widely for Heretic, including to WBD, Place and Vertigo.
“El Director,” (Dani de la Orden, Spain)
Seville’s biggest new push at Frame, its industry umbrella, saw it partner with Spain’s ICAA film agency to launch Insula, a screenplay market featuring 58 titles. Its jury president this year was AMPAS VP Howard A. Rodman, a screenwriter best known for “Savage Grace” and “August,” So Best Screenplay was a key plaudit, which went to a film where words are crucial: Dani de la Orden’s “El Director,” based on David Jiménez’s lid-lifting autobiographical non-fiction book about his time as editor-in-chief at newspaper El Mundo, and his battle to protect riotous journalism against the vested economic and political interests to often served. The prize went more specifically to two institutions on Spain’s film-TV scene: Alejandro Hernández, a co-writer on films and series by Alejandro Amenábar (“The Captive”) and Mariano Barroso (“The Farad”) and Michel Gaztambide, who broke out co-writing Julio Medem’s debut “Cows,” back in 1992, before penning many of the films and series by Enrique Urbizu plus Victor Erice’s 2023 “Close Your Eyes.”
“Children of the Monkey,” (Tomasso Landucci)
The Seville European Film Festival also highlights movies which merit more recognition. One case in point: Tomasso Landucci’s Venice Horizons Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Riccardo Scamarcio) winner “Children of the Monkey,” which this time round at Seville scored Best Director. In its portrayal of the dilemma of the father of a disabled son, “Children of the Monkey” is both deeply felt and impressively sensitive in the way it explores his painful emotional predicament,”Diego Lerer, one of the critics who did catch the film in Venice, wrote in his blog Micropsia.
“Wild Is the Wind,” (“Tralovento,” Eloy Domínguez Serén)
A second prize for Spain: Galician actress Melania Cruz (“Gangs of Galicia”) won her biggest prize to date, scooping best actress for her lead turn in “Wild With the Wind.” the feature debut of Eloy Domínguez Serén, from a screenplay co-written with top Catalan auteur Meritxell Colell (“Far From the Trees”). Cruz plays Ana, who returns to her home village in rural Galicia after her father’s death, but stays to oppose a utility company’s plans to build a wind farm on community land. Bowing at Mexico’s Morelia Festival, the film won praise, such as in aCriticalia.com review, for its measured pace. Cruz’s performance and nuanced view of the wind farm project.
A list of winners at the 23rd Seville European Film Festival, 2026:
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Golden Giraldillo for Best Film:“You Don’t Belong Here,” (written and directed by Florin Şerban, Romania)
Grand Jury Award: “Falling House,” (Mohsen Gharaei, written with Amir Mohammad Abdi, Irán)
Puerta América Award: “Adult Supervision,” (written and directed by Alex Schulman)
Special Mention, Puerta América Award: “Rose,” by Markus Schleinzer, co-written with Alexander Brom
Best Direction: “Children of the Monkey,” (Tommaso Landucci, co-written with Damiano Femfert, Italy)
Best Screenplay: Michel Gaztambide, Alejandro Hernández for “El Director,” directed by Dani de la Orden, Spain)
Best Actress: Melania Cruz for “Tralovento,”
Best Actor: Gustaf Skarsgård, Fares Fares y Linus Wahlgren for
“Adult Supervision”
Best Editing: Evelyn Rack y Emad Khodabakhsh for “Falling House”
Best Cinematography: Noé Bach for “Elephants in the Fog.”
Best Art Direction: Bogdan Ionescu for “You Don’t Belong Here”
OFFICIAL SELECTION SHORT FILMS
Live Action: “Fresh Cut,” directed by Hadrien Bels, co-written with Jasmine Badr
Animation: “Gently,” written and directed by Jamaica Kindlová
EMBRUJO
Best Film Award: “Revolutionaries Never Die,” Mohanad Yaqubi cwritten with Mathilde Rouxel
RAMPA
Best Film Award; “House of the Wind,” directed and written by
Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
ALUMBRAMIENTO
Best Film Award: “Four Minus Three,” Adrian Goiginger, co-written with Senad Halilbašić.
PANORAMA ANDALUZ
Juan Antonio Bermúdez Best Film Award: “A Man on a Bridge,” written and directed by David Martín de los Santos.
Best Documentary Award: “Como todo mortal,” written and directed by María Molina Peiró.
Jury Special Mention: “200 Lives: Paco Rabal,” written and directed by Vanessa Benítez
Audience Award for Best Film, EFA Selection: “Coward,” Lukas Dhont written with Angelo Tijssens.
Film Lovers of the Future Award: “In Waves,” by Phuong Mai Nguyen from a screenplay by Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux, based on a graphic novel by AJ Dungo.
Europa Junior Award: “Momonsters. La película de Navidad,” by Javier Martínez and Christian Garnez, written by Martínez, David Ramírez Ros and Maider Ávila
