Since it began in 1956, the Valladolid International Film Festival has introduced to Spain directors and cinematography which were previously unknown there. Spanish audiences became acquainted with names such as Ingmar Bergman, Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut, Andrzej Wajda, Federico Fellini, Ermanno Olmi and Yilmaz Gürney from the launch-pad offered by Valladolid. The works of film-makers of the standing of Roberto Rossellini, Stanley Donen, Max Ophüls, Ken Loach, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu and Aardman Animations could be enjoyed and studied in the sections dedicated to their major works, many on view for the first time in Spain.
The Festival’s “spikes” are the awards given to the best competing films in the Official Section. They have become true classics in the world of film awards and some of the most important filmmakers of the last few decades have received them.
They can be gold or silver. “Spikes” are the Valladolid Festival’s main prizes: a status which they inherited from their predecessors—the “Labarum” and, even before, the “Dom Bosco” (the Festival’s original award).