ROMERÍA
Winner of Berlin’s Golden Bear for ALCARRÀS (AFI FEST 2022), acclaimed Spanish auteur Carla Simón made her Cannes competition debut with this brilliant, deeply personal meditation on identity, memory and family. With a digital camcorder in hand, 18-year-old Marina (Llúcia Garcia) arrives in the glittering Galician port city of Vigo ready to meet her father’s family for the first time. Orphaned at a young age, Marina’s paternal family all but disowned her — her mere existence a reminder of a shameful secret. But on the verge of attending film school in Barcelona, Marina needs her grandparents to finally legally acknowledge her heritage in order to claim a scholarship. Marina’s arrival is greeted with a mix of warmth and skepticism by her big messy family with their own individual recollections of the past. As Marina reads her mother’s diary, the truth about her parents and their romance slowly starts to reveal itself, exposing echoes of the past in a breathlessly staged flashback shot on Super-8 film stock. Lensed by acclaimed cinematographer Hélène Louvart (LA CHIMERA, AFI FEST 2023), Simón’s return to the fervent ground of her childhood is a powerful act of cinematic reclamation, interrogating familial mythmaking to chart a new path forward. –Josh Gardner
Official Selection, 2025 AFI FEST and Cannes film festivals. DIR/SCR Carla Simón; PROD María Zamora. Spain/Germany, 2025, color, 115 min. In Spanish, Catalan and French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 115 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, December 06, 2025
Genre: Drama, romance
