Now in its 29th year, the HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival is rolling into Australia with a first look lineup worth losing sleep over.
Kicking off 10 June, the 2026 HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival spans everything from sweeping historical epics to frothy romantic comedies, with a few crowd-pleasing family films thrown in for good measure.
This year’s centrepiece is Sundays (Los domingos), a quietly devastating Spanish drama from writer/director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa about a family thrown into crisis when their 17-year-old daughter announces she wants to become a cloistered nun.
HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival
- Canberra: 10 June – 5 July, Palace Electric Cinema
- Adelaide: 10 June – 5 July, Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas
- Brisbane: 11 June – 5 July, Palace James Street and Palace Barracks
- Perth: 11 June – 1 July, Palace Raine Square, Luna Leederville and Luna on SX
- Melbourne: 12 June – 5 July, The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Church St, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Palace Balwyn and Pentridge Cinema
- Ballarat: 12 June – 5 July, Palace Regent Cinema
- Sydney: 18 June – 12 July, Palace Norton Street, Palace Moore Park and Palace Central
- Byron Bay/Ballina: 18 June – 12 July, Palace Byron Bay and Ballina Fair Cinemas
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
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It cleaned up at the 2025 San Sebastián Film Festival, taking home the Golden Shell for Best Film, plus five Goya Awards and five Feroz Awards.
The Captive (El cautivo) is the Festival Special Presentation from acclaimed director Alejandro Amenábar. Starring Julio Peña (Through My Window) and Alessandro Borghi (The Eight Mountains), it follows a young Miguel de Cervantes (yes, the Don Quixote guy) finding solace in storytelling while imprisoned in 16th century Algiers.
Then there’s Nothing Between Us (Nada entre los dos), a breezy Argentine-Uruguayan rom-com set at a Mexican beach resort, marking the first ever on-screen pairing of two of Latin America’s most beloved actors, Gael García Bernal and Natalia Oreiro.
The two play colleagues attending a work conference, navigating the tension between personal freedom and social expectations, all with the beach as a backdrop.
Beyond the headliners, the lineup runs deep. Brazilian film Isabel arrives fresh from the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival, following a talented sommelier, played by Marina Person, who also co-wrote the script, navigating São Paulo’s cutthroat fine-dining world while chasing her dream of opening her own wine bar away from a controlling boss.
La Salsa Vive is a vivid Colombian-American documentary tracing salsa from its New York City origins in the 1970s through to Cali, Colombia, the self-proclaimed world capital of the genre, drawing comparisons to the beloved 1990s doco Buena Vista Social Club.
Another League (Pioneras: solo querían jugar) tells the true story of a group of girls in early-1970s Spain who took on an entire football establishment just to play the game they loved, eventually finding an unlikely ally in an ambitious promoter determined to rewrite the history of women’s football in the country.
Families aren’t left out either. My Amazing Grandma (Abuela Tremenda) is a Spanish box office hit pitting overprotective parents against a wildly carefree grandmother across three generations of hilariously bad decisions on a rural farm.
Bear Claw Camp (Campamento Garra de Oso) blends live action and animation in a race-against-time adventure about two nine-year-olds trying to save their summer camp; a genuinely fun one for kids and the adults dragged along with them.
Full programme details and tickets drop in mid-May.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Palace Cinemas.
