Castile and León’s culture minister, Alberto Díaz Pico of Vox, defended his criticism of the Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid (Seminci) during a regional parliament session on Tuesday, accusing the festival and Culture Minister Ana Redondo of political exploitation. Socialist lawmaker Patricia Gómez Urbán countered that cultural work should not have to pass an ideological neutrality test and defended artists’ freedom to address any subject, including democratic memory.
Díaz Pico said his comments were an exercise of freedom of expression and argued that the festival should recover the spirit of its 1982 edition, which awarded the Golden Spike to Andrei Tarkovsky for “Sacrifice”. He described the Russian filmmaker as opposed to both communism and capitalism, and contrasted the award with Seminci’s 2025 prize for Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, whom he characterized as a communist and Marxist.
The minister also cited Redondo’s attendance at the festival’s opening ceremony, where she wore what he called a “sumptuous” dress and Palestinian flags were present, as an example of what he considers political use of the event. He criticized her social media message, “Goodbye, Seminci, goodbye,” despite her attendance at the gala.
Gómez Urbán accused Díaz Pico of behaving like a barroom commentator rather than the region’s culture minister. She said filmmakers and programmers should not have to prove their ideas are acceptable to him, and recalled the initial removal from the Miguel Delibes Cultural Centre’s programme of “Federico. No hay olvido, ni sueño: carne viva”, a play about Federico García Lorca. The production by Proyecto 43-2, directed by María San Miguel, later ran for two weekends at another Valladolid venue, where Gómez Urbán said it sold out.
Díaz Pico said the regional government’s financial support for Seminci was compatible with his criticism. The festival received €250,000 in 2026, and the draft regional budget for 2027 provides the same amount, alongside support for Miniminci, the opening gala and activities by the Filmoteca de Castilla y León. He called Seminci an event of cultural and tourism importance for Valladolid.
He also compared regional and central government funding, saying the Ministry of Culture provides Seminci with €105,000 through a competitive grant, while the San Sebastián Film Festival receives €1.2 million through a designated subsidy.
Two weeks earlier, Díaz Pico announced that his department would set up a committee of technical specialists and experts to assess audiovisual projects applying for regional grants, with the aim of preventing what he called ideological indoctrination. The Ministry of Culture has said it will challenge the new grant conditions in court.
Sources: elDiario.es.