Las Palmas Celebrates 25 Years: A Cinematic Montage of History and Discovery

The 25th Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival kicks off with a focus on auteur discovery, film history, and a major push to engage younger audiences.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 23, 2026, 10:37 AM EDT

Source: Variety

Bridging Film History and the Present

The festival’s programming strategy treats film history not as a separate archive, but as a living dialogue with current works. This "montage" approach is evident across several key sections:

Camera Obscura: Opens the festival with F.W. Murnau’s silent masterpiece Faust, accompanied by a live score from psychedelic band GAF y La Estrella de la Muerte.

Déjà Vu: A collaboration with the Film Heritage Foundation showcasing South Asian classics by masters like Satyajit Ray and Bimal Roy.

Banda Aparte: A restructured, non-competitive section dedicated to radical experimentation, featuring a retrospective of Chilean filmmaker Ignacio Agüero.

The Bi Gan Tribute: "A Love Song to Cinema"