IUS of Time is taking part in the 17th Festival Internacional de Cortos de la Cuenca del Salado (FICCS), running from 4 to 11 October 2026 in Rauch, Argentina. Directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, the film returns to the country after screening at Asterisco in Buenos Aires, bringing its South American journey to nine festival appearances across six countries.
The short screened on Thursday 8 October at 8 pm at Centro Cultural La Pieza, in the “Género de cine” programme. The official FICCS 2026 programme brings together six works exploring gender and diversity in this session. For a story about desire, silence and relationships across generations in an Asturian village, meeting audiences in Rauch extends a conversation that already spans five continents.
FICCS: seventeen editions of shared cinema in Rauch
The Festival Internacional de Cortos de la Cuenca del Salado began in 2010, but its roots reach back to March 2005, when a group of friends founded Cineclub El Gabinete. This edition’s catalogue recalls their first screenings in borrowed spaces, with rented equipment and chairs supplied by neighbours. That initial enthusiasm grew into workshops, encounters with filmmakers, outdoor screenings and visits to rural communities.
The festival was created to showcase local filmmaking and bring films from Argentina and abroad to Rauch. Its continuity over seventeen editions, including an online edition during the pandemic, reflects a belief in cinema as a place to meet. Its significance lies in sustaining a community of viewers while opening an international window from the interior of Buenos Aires province.
Organised by Asociación Civil Cineclub El Gabinete, FICCS 2026 is supported by the Culture Department of the Municipality of Rauch and the Instituto Cultural Bonaerense, with the endorsement of the Faculty of Arts at Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (UNICEN). Its programme combines screenings, education and collaboration with local institutions. In this setting, a film rooted in rural Asturias finds a new place to share its questions about belonging, memory and affection.
The festival also provides a connection to wider short-film awards circuits. Its 2026 regulations identify FICCS as a qualifying festival for the Ibero-American category of Spain’s Fugaz Awards and the short-film category of Argentina’s Sur Awards. The organisers select the festival’s representatives for these awards; participation in the programme does not automatically qualify an individual film.
From Asturias to La Pieza: looking at what remains unspoken
In IUS of Time, Manuel Pizarro plays Xuan, a former teacher and cheesemaker whose life is shaped by memories and silences, while Pelayo Carrizo plays Luca, a young photographer who arrives in the village to develop an artistic project. Luca’s camera focuses on Xuan’s work, but his interest in the older man’s hands and craft opens a relationship that moves beyond their initial impressions of one another.
Photography and traditional cheesemaking suggest two ways of relating to time: observing and preserving an image, or accompanying a slow transformation. Through them, the film approaches ageing, desire and the traces that prejudice leaves in everyday life. The encounter between its protagonists explores which memories are passed on, which remain unspoken, and how another person’s gaze can reveal part of one’s own identity.
Shot entirely in Asturias, principally in Cabrales, Onís and Piloña, the film weaves landscape, domestic spaces and dialogue in Spanish and Asturian/amestáu into its characters’ experience. Rural life shapes their relationships, their work and their way of inhabiting the world. Those specific roots travel with the short into every new screening context.
Directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, the 25-minute Spanish short was completed in 2025. Both directors wrote the screenplay with Enrique Pérez Romero, with cinematography by Fran Córdoba. Andy Almar, Laura Ubach, Martina Bueno and Pablo Valdés complete the cast. The Almost Red Producciones production received support from the Consejería de Cultura, Política Llingüística y Deporte del Principado de Asturias and Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission.
From Asterisco to FICCS: another encounter with Argentina
The return to Argentina follows a particularly meaningful earlier screening. On 23 October 2025, IUS of Time featured in “España, archivo y memoria queer” at MALBA, during the 12th Festival Internacional de Cine LGBTIQ+ Asterisco. Accompanied by a talk by Diego Trerotola and supported by the Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires, the session placed the film in a conversation about representations of the past and queer memory.
Its inclusion in FICCS’s “Género de cine” continues that dialogue in another city and cultural space. Buenos Aires and Rauch offer different settings for the same story: the possibility of recognising shared experiences in lives that may initially seem distant.
Fifteen festival and showcase appearances across Latin America
With FICCS, the festival journey of IUS of Time encompasses nine appearances across six South American countries. Alongside Asterisco and FICCS in Argentina are the 22nd OutfestPerú in Lima; the 14th Rio LGBTQIA+ International Film Festival, the first Festival Internacional Goitacá de Cinema and 12th DIGO in Goiás, Brazil; the 17th CineMovilh in Chile; the ninth Bajo Nuestra Piel in Bolivia; and SANFICI in Colombia. At Goitacá, the film also received an honourable mention from the technical jury, covered in our 2025 festival overview.
Beyond South America, the film has participated in the 29th MIX México and the 12th International Queer Film Festival in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, as well as X Diverso Festival Internacional de Cine GLBT de Panamá. Together, these bring its Latin American journey to 12 festivals.
The journey also includes three country-specific presentations of the sixth Miradas: Armarios Abiertos showcase, in El Salvador, Honduras and Panama. Counting each national presentation separately, this amounts to 15 participations in festivals and showcases across 10 Latin American countries. Part of AECID’s Armarios Abiertos programme in collaboration with the Centro Niemeyer’s LGTBI Film Festival, Miradas connects this Asturian story with cultural spaces devoted to diversity and human rights. These encounters introduce Xuan and Luca to audiences with different cultural perspectives.
An Asturian story travelling across five continents
With more than 70 selections in over 30 countries and 10 awards and distinctions, IUS of Time stands among the Asturian short films with the widest international reach in recent years. Its journey includes the Huesca International Film Festival, FICX in Gijón/Xixón, Chéries-Chéris in Paris, Reeling in Chicago and KASHISH in Mumbai, as well as screenings in Australia and South Africa.
Recent honours include Best Short Film (International) at the eighth NEXT International Film Festival in Kolkata, the Audience Award for Best Fiction Short Film at the fifth Pillusion Film Festival in Austria, and Best LGBTQIA+ Film at the third Power24 International Film Festival in South Africa. Rauch adds another stop to that journey, keeping a perspective on rural Asturias, its memories and the possibilities of connection across generations in circulation.
Questions about IUS of Time at FICCS 2026
When and where did IUS of Time screen?
On Thursday 8 October 2026 at 8 pm at Centro Cultural La Pieza in Rauch, Argentina, in the “Género de cine” programme of the 17th FICCS.
Is this the film’s first appearance in Argentina?
No. The film previously participated in Asterisco 2025, screening at MALBA in Buenos Aires on 23 October 2025.
Where was the film shot, and who directed it?
IUS of Time was directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi and filmed entirely in Asturias, principally in Cabrales, Onís and Piloña. Manuel Pizarro and Pelayo Carrizo play the leading roles.
Watch the official trailer
IUS of Time (2025): official trailer of the film by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi
