Seville Film Fest Highlights Emerging European Cinematic Talents

The 2025 Seville European Film Festival is proving to be a platform for discovering new cinematic talents from across the continent. Variety has highlighted a selection of 7 features and 5 short films that are generating significant buzz and critical acclaim.

Among the standouts is "Dandelion's Odyssey," an experimental animated feature from director Momoko Seto that uses innovative techniques like time-lapse, macro-photography, and robotics to tell the story of four friends who become dandelion seeds floating off into space after a nuclear war. The film has already earned a Cannes Fipresci Award and an Annecy Animation Festival win.

Another highlight is "My Father's Shadow," the feature film debut of Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr. Variety has praised it as a "miraculous gem of auto-fiction" that follows two young boys on a journey with their father from a rural village to the bustling city of Lagos. The film has the distinction of being Nigeria's first-ever selection for the Cannes Film Festival.

The festival is also shining a light on European talents like Italian director Francesco Sossai, whose film "The Last One for the Road" follows a pair of 50-somethings as they chain-drink their way through life. And Serbian-French filmmaker Nastia Korkia, whose drama "Short Summer" set during the Chechen war won the Venice Lion of the Future and the Chicago New Directors award.

With its focus on first and second features, as well as the addition of short films, the Seville European Film Festival is proving to be an invaluable platform for discovering the next generation of cinematic voices.