The Almería Western Film Festival 2022

One of Western’s Europe most important film festivals is comming: the Almería Western Film Festival, that celebrates its 12th edition from October 28^th to 31^st 2022. Over the years, this festival also known as AWFF, has become an international reference for this genre, combining professionalism, creativity and surprises to share.

The AWFF welcomes every year professionals, enthusiasts, families, and tourists with the objective of showing the new western genre trends around the world and give rise to all formats: feature films, short films, documentaries, and others. Not only offers a meeting point for this genre lovers, but for everybody who wants to enjoy, discover and explore the western cinema, bringing to the public the chance to live a more intense experience.

So, if you love the western culture, fine movies and a unique atmosphere, pack your boots and your cowboy hat: the AWFF awaits you from October 28^th to 31^st, to enjoy an amazing weekend.

Source: Almeria Western Film Festival Official

AWFF 12th edition featured films

Since its creation in 2011, the Almería Western Film Festival is an unavoidable meeting for all enthusiasts about this art, with a schedule where all ages have a place. This festival is needed evocation for this genre, that has given that much to the cinema in general and the western culture in particular. Also works to show the Far West movies newest trends, in all the different formats.

On its 12th edition in this 2022, the AWFF will take place in Tabernas, province of Almería, and the far west villages Oasys MiniHollywood, Fort Bravo Texas Hollywood and Western Leone (Los Albaricoques). Six featured films, four documentaries, and 23 short films will be shown to offer a global vision of actual’s international western. The festival will present the awards ‘Espíritu del Oeste‘ (Western Spirit) to Víctor Matellano, ‘Desierto de Tabernas’ (Tabernas Desert) to Carlos Rosado and ASFAAN to the Malcamino company.

At the Official Western Featured Films section, the competition is very close, because according to the critics, all the films are extraordinary. The are the following:

‘As bestas’, from Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Spain, 2022).
‘Borrego’, from Jesse Harris (USA, 2022).
‘Domingo y la niebla’, from Ariel Escalante (Costa Rica, 2022).
‘Maria Chapdelaine’, from Sebastien Pilote (Canada, 2021).
‘Quantum Cowboys’, from Geoff Marslett (USA, 2022).
‘Utama’, from Alejandro Loayza (Bolivia, 2022).

Source: Almeria Western Film Festival Official

Other selections not less interesting: the Especial Panorama and Short Films

Although in this case they don’t compete for a Jury’s Award, the Panorama Special Selection does for the general public with four very special documentaries:

‘Bitterbrush’, from Emelie Mahdavian (USA, 2021).
‘Black Far West’, from Cécile Denjean (France, 2022).
‘Salvajes’, from Alex Galán (Spain, 2022).
‘The Long Rider’, from Sean Cisterna (Canada-Brazil, 2022).

“Black Far West” is based upon historic recreations filmed in Tabernas, while the other three are actual visions of the modern cowboy.

This year, to the International Western Short Films section joins a new category: Outlaw section, a space for creations from national and international independent directors and producers, that come to break the mould.

Both sections compete for the Audience best short film award, RC Service best photography direction and the RTVA Andalusian creation. They are a total of 23 short films from different places around the world: USA, Spain, United Kingdom, Brazil, The Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Russia and Canada.

Short Films Official Section:

‘A Personal Errand’, from Oliver Griffiths (United Kingdom, 2022).

‘Bang, Bang’, from Andrés Valdivia (Spain, 2021).

‘Don Javier’, from Cadu Rosenfeld (Brazil, 2021).

‘Little Ox,’ from Raf Wathion and Patrick Vandebroeck (The Netherlands, 2021).

‘Lo chiamavano Cargo’, from Marco Signoretti (Italy, 2022).

‘Mátalos y no vuelvas sola’, from Enrique Novials (Spain, 2022).

‘Memorias de sangre’, from Manu Vera (Spain, 2022).

‘Nexo’, from José Puertas (Spain, 2022).

‘Trouble’, from Ben Hurst (USA, 2021).

Outlaw Short Films section:

’30 de los grandes’, from Víctor Castro (Spain, 2022).

‘Aqua Brava’, from Manuel Olaya (Spain-USA, 2021).

‘Desperado Dingoes’, from Phair Elizabeth Haldin (USA, 2022).

‘El asesinato de R. Sánchez por el cobarde Heidi Chester’, from Gabriel Rey (Spain, 2021).

‘El Zorro Negro’, from Adrián Rivero (Spain, 2021).

‘Gol’90’, from Ramses Gallego (Spain, 2021).

‘Just Western’, from Vasilisa Olegovna Koroleva (Russia, 2021).

‘La canción del loco Ralph’, de Alfonso Desentre (Spain, 2022).

‘Living In The West’, from Martin Michiels (Norway, 2022).

‘Llega al amanecer’, from Rafael Aragón (Spain, 2022).

‘Redbridge’, from Cameron Buchanan Smith (Canada, 2022).

‘Rustlers Promenade’, from Charity Buckbee (USA, 2022).

‘The Real Spaghetti Western’, from Alex Masimov (Belarus, 2021).

‘Un verano en el desierto’, from Andreu de Pedro (Spain, 2022).

As you can see, the Almería Western Film Festival 12th edition is more than appealing, and as every year, will welcome you to make you have fun and discover the best of the western genre. See you at the AWFF!