SOUTHERN BRIDES
(LAS NOVIAS DEL SUR)
a medium-lenght documentary by Elena López Riera, 40', DCP, 2024, color
Women of a certain age talk about their marriage, their first time, their intimate relationship with sexuality. In the repetition of these ancestral rituals, the director questions her own lack of marriage, of children, and with it, a chain of mother-daughter relationships that is dying out.
FESTIVALS
World Première at Semaine de la Critique, Cannes - Séance spéciale / QUEER PALM for short films
Festival de cine de SAN SEBASTIAN - Compétition Zabaltegui
Semaine de la Critique on tour: Cinémathèque Corse, Cinémathèque Française,
Festival du Film de Fesses, Paris
International Film Festival - Curtas Vila do Conde, Portugal
Festival international de cine de Valdivia, Chile
Cork Film Festival
ZINEBI International Festival of Documentary and Short Film, Bilbao
Porto Post Doc Film & Media Festival
Kasseler Dokfest
FIDOCS - Festival Internacional Documentales de Santiago, Chile
L'Alternativa - Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona
Márgenes - Festival internacional de cine de Madrid
Cinespaña Festival du Film Espagnol de Toulouse
Cortocircuito - Festival Internacional de Cine, Spain Best Spanish Film, Audience Award
Mostra de València - Cinema del Mediterrani, Spain
Bogoshort - Bogotá Short Film Festival, Colombia
Festival Internacional de Jóvenes Realizadores de Granada
Archivio Aperto Film Festival, Italy
Elena López Riera was born in Orihuela (Spain) in 1982. After completing her doctoral thesis on contemporary Argentinean cinema, she teaches comparative literature at the University of Geneva, Carlos III University in Madrid and Valencia.
She has been a member of the selection committee of the Festival international de Belfort Entrevue since 2016, collaborator and consultant at the Seville European Film Festival and member of the selection committee of the Festival Visions du réel, Nyon.
She directed the short films Pueblo (presented at the Quinzaine des réalisateurs of Cannes Film Festival 2015, and Las vísceras (presented at the Locarno Festival, international competition Pardi di domani, distinguished by the Mikeldi Silver Award at the Zinebi International Festival).
Her short film Los que desean was nominated for the European Film Awards and won the Pardino d'Oro at the Locarno Festival in 2018.
She participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus of the 2017 Berlin International Festival.
El agua, her first feature film, made its world premiere at the Directors' Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival 2022. It was subsequently selected to Toronto and San Sebastián, and was nominated for the Goya Awards for Best First Film and Best Lead Actress, as well as the Quartz-Prix du Cinéma Suisse for Best Film and Best Editing.
With the support of l'Institut Valencià de Cultura, A punt Media.
With the support of Office Fédéral de la Culture, Succès Passage Antenne, Cinéforom, Loterie Romande and France Télévision.
Production: SUICAFilms (Espagne) / Alina film (Suisse)
Les film du Worso (France)
Script and direction: Elena López Riera
Producers: Rafa Molés, Pepe Andreu, Eugenia Mumenthaler, David Epiney
Executive production: Natalia Maestro
Editing: Ariadna Ribas, Ana Pfaff
Image: Elena López Riera, Alba Cros, Agnès Piqué
Casting: Cristina Pérez
Sound Postproduction: Alejandro Castillo
Colorgrading: Rodney Musso
Finishing: Jean-Baptiste Perrin
Distribution Spain: Vitrine films
International Sales: Marvin & Wayne
