The Annaba Mediterranean Film Festival announces the selection of Spain as the guest of honour for its 5th edition, which will take place from September 24 to 30, 2025. This choice recognises Spain’s remarkable contributions to the seventh art and aims to strengthen cultural and cinematic cooperation across the Mediterranean shores.
In this regard, the festival commissioner, Mohamed Allal, highlighted that Spain is one of the world’s leading countries in the field of cinema, having produced a total of 375 feature films in 2023, placing it fifth worldwide in terms of film production volume. He stated that by honouring Spanish cinema, the Annaba Festival aims to offer Algerian and Mediterranean audiences a unique opportunity to discover works from a country that has stood out for decades thanks to great directors, artistic boldness, and a strong commitment to social, human, and historical causes.
In this context, the festival commissioner noted that many Spanish film stars are distinguished by their humanitarian stance in favour of the Palestinian cause, which gives their presence at the Annaba Festival a strong symbolic significance and makes them particularly prestigious guests for this major cultural event.
For his part, His Excellency Fernando Morán Calvo-Sotelo, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Algeria, expressed his pride in this tribute:
“It is with pride and gratitude that Spain takes part in the Annaba Mediterranean Film Festival, an initiative carefully organised by its organisers, and we are happy to be part of it in such an exceptional setting. The distance separating our shores is minimal, as if a camera lens could capture both coasts at once.”
The ambassador also added: “Algerian cinema and its artistic production have always aroused great interest in Spain, just as the Spanish film industry is among the most important in the world. The rapprochement promoted by this festival between our two audiovisual cultures carries the promise of rich creative fruits.”
His Excellency further emphasised the profound symbolic dimension that the festival consistently gives to the Palestinian cause, seeing it as the embodiment of the shared human values that unite the peoples of the Mediterranean.
The 5th edition of the festival will feature six official competitions reflecting the diversity of cinematic expression:
● Best Feature Fiction Competition
● Best Feature Documentary Competition
● Best Short Film Competition
● Amar Laskri Award
● AI Award (Artificial Intelligence Prize): awarded for the first time in Algeria to a cinematographic work produced with artificial intelligence technologies, marking the festival’s openness to emerging technologies and arts.
On this subject, the festival commissioner, Mohamed Allal, praised the remarkable growth of the media and entertainment sector in Spain regarding the adoption of AI technologies, whose market value reached around USD 291 million in 2022, with forecasts exceeding USD 3 billion by 2030.
It is worth noting that Spain’s participation as guest of honour will include selected film screenings, meetings with Spanish directors and actors, as well as other activities highlighting the history and experiences of Spanish cinema.
For more information:
Annaba Mediterranean Film Festival Directorate – Annaba, Algeria
Press contact:
Ania Boumaza – Head of Press Relations
📩 press@annabafilmfestival.com / ania.boumaza.pro@gmail.com
📞 +213 776 13 00 65 / +213 556 20 77 83
