The 21st edition of the Play-Doc International Film Festival was held from May 7 to 11 in Tui, offering a programme that brought together cult cinema, film memory, emerging voices in Galician and international cinema, live music and expanded cinema. Over five days, the border town became a unique meeting point for professionals, filmmakers and a cinema-loving audience.
The festival recorded a total of 6,763 attendees, including 5,327 in-person participants and 1,436 online viewers. The event grew in scale and reach, taking place across six venues in Tui and presenting more than 50 films, 36 screenings —many of them Spanish, European or world premieres—, 6 live audiovisual performances, and several concerts in different locations across the town.
This year, Play-Doc paid tribute to two key figures of the New Hollywood: Elaine May and Monte Hellman. It also hosted the first Spanish retrospective of the recently deceased Michael Roemer, one of the most distinctive and significant voices in 20th-century independent cinema. In collaboration with the Film Heritage Foundation, the festival also presented the Spanish premiere of four restored gems of Indian cinema, which are part of the universal film heritage.
Focusing on local memory, the Sombras section rescued the unknown work of Galician pioneer Bernardino de Lamas, presented with live music thanks to the collaboration with the Professional Conservatory and Music School of Tui.
The International Competition featured films marked by formal freedom and aesthetic exploration, including works by Camilo Restrepo, Jean-Claude Rousseau, Marta Mateus, Ben Rivers, and Julen Etxebarria. The jury awarded 7 promenades avec Mark Brown, by Pierre Creton and Vincent Barré, and gave a special mention to La chambre d’ombres, by Camilo Restrepo.
In the Galicia Competition, the award went to Deuses de pedra, by Iván Castiñeiras, with a special mention for Un dragón de cen cabezas, by Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado.
The festival opened with a fusion of film and music through Traspielas, a performance by Galician singer-songwriter Su Garrido Pombo, which launched the Play-Doc Live! programme, the section devoted to exploring the connections between cinema and live music.
This edition also included concerts and audiovisual performances in heritage sites, reaffirming Play-Doc’s commitment to sound and stage creation as an essential part of the cinematic experience. The expanded programme featured a new edition of Cinema Percorridos, with two performances that transformed the historic site of Santo Domingo: Sacro, by Fon Román and Oswaldo García, and N0WX, by Xoán-Xil López and Iván Torres Hdez.
One of the highlights was a silent film screening with live music at the San Domingos Church, accompanied by the renowned composer and pianist Filipe Raposo, who also gave a masterclass on film music composition.
On the professional side, Play-Doc hosted a public audiovisual policy roundtable with representatives from AGADIC, ICAA, and MEDIA, alongside a presentation of Galician projects in development, encouraging dialogue between creators, institutions, and audiences. The programme was rounded out with other industry events and a series of training activities, including film workshops, masterclasses, podcasts and online roundtables.
Play-Doc is supported by Xunta de Galicia, Agadic, Diputación de Pontevedra, Concello de Tui, ICAA, Estrella Galicia, Gadis, AC/E Acción Cultural Española, along with other public and private partners.