Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi’s short film closes Programme Three of the London festival, which runs from 19 to 27 September 2026 with nineteen films from eleven countries.
IUS of Time, co-directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, has been selected for the official programme of the 9th Short Focus Film Festival in London, organised by FRAME LIGHT. Produced by Almost Red Productions with the support of the Principality of Asturias and the Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission, the film is the only Spanish title among the nineteen shorts selected this year, and it closes Programme Three.
It is the film’s third appearance in the United Kingdom since its 2025 premiere, and it arrives in London with more than 70 official selections behind it.
IUS of Time at the 9th Short Focus Film Festival
🎬 Festival: 9th Short Focus Film Festival · London, United Kingdom
🏛 Organised by FRAME LIGHT · Festival directors Aya Ishizuka and Dean Archibald-Smith
📅 Dates: 19–27 September 2026
🎞 Section: Programme Three · closing film
🇪🇸 The only Spanish film in the official programme
🎥 Film: IUS of Time (IUS del tiempo) · Spain · 2025 · 25 min · Drama, Rural, LGBTIQ+
Festival: framelight.org
Short Focus Film Festival: nine editions of short film in London
Short Focus is the festival of FRAME LIGHT, a London publisher devoted to short film and to independent filmmakers, which describes its purpose as discovering short films that deserve to reach a wider audience. The festival reaches its ninth edition in 2026 with nineteen titles across three programmes, chosen by a curatorial panel, with live screenings at the Close-Up Cinema in Shoreditch and a jury of seven members: Giulia Carbonaro, Diana Cordova, Vir Datta, Monica Di Fiore, Catarina Gonçalves, Corey Mandelzys and Maryam Raz.
IUS of Time shares Programme Three with Body (Pakistan), A Mother’s Love (Austria), Easy Sell (United Kingdom) and Game Over (United Kingdom). At 25 minutes and 48 seconds, it is the longest film in this year’s festival.
What the programme says about the film
In its brochure, the festival introduces IUS of Time as a story in which a stormy past and an uncertain future intertwine in an Asturian village, and describes the encounter between Luca, a young photographer looking for inspiration and for his roots, and Xuan, a reclusive cheesemaker and former teacher whose initial distrust gives way to an unexpected connection.
“We shot IUS of Time in villages where everyone knows who you are, and it tells the story of a man who spent his life making sure they did not know everything. Seeing it travel to London, next to films from Pakistan, Austria and the United Kingdom, tells us that something in that story is not only Asturian.”
Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi
Cheese caves, amestao and two men who were not looking for each other
IUS of Time was shot entirely in rural Asturias, in northern Spain: in the Picos de Europa, in the cheese caves of Cabrales and across the municipalities of Piloña, Cabrales and Onís, in villages such as Biedes and Asiegu. It is spoken in Spanish and in amestao, the mix of Spanish and Asturian still heard every day in those villages, and it was made with a small crew working inside the real places and the real trade it portrays.
Xuan spends his life in the caves where Cabrales cheese matures, an underground, slow and physical craft that the film follows without explaining it. Luca films that work, and in filming it he begins to see the man doing it. What happens between them is told mostly through silences, gestures and the work of two pairs of hands.
The film also keeps a specific idea at its centre: the lives a small rural community allows and the lives it quietly puts away. Xuan has spent decades hiding his homosexuality under the weight of a village where everyone knows everyone. Luca arrives from a generation for which that concealment is no longer obvious, and the distance between the two is the real subject of the film.
A year on the road: more than 70 selections on five continents
Since its 2025 premiere, IUS of Time has gathered more than 70 official selections across five continents, screenings in 30 countries and 9 awards and distinctions, which makes it one of the most internationally circulated Asturian fiction short films of recent years.
Its international premiere was at the 27th OUTshine International Film Festival in Miami, and it later received the Director’s Choice Award at the 45th Thomas Edison Film Festival, an Oscar-qualifying festival in the United States, which brought the film into the festival’s 2026 touring programme across American cultural venues. Its two most recent awards arrived this year: Best LGBTQIA+ Film at the 3rd Power24 International Film Festival in Durban, South Africa, and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Short at the 5th Pillusion Film Festival in Tyrol, Austria. It has also been selected at the 53rd Huesca International Film Festival (Oscar and Goya qualifying), the 31st Chéries-Chéris of Paris, the 43rd Reeling of Chicago, the 16th KASHISH Pride Film Festival of Mumbai, the 24th Beijing Queer Film Festival, the 27th ReelOut of Canada and the 63rd FICX of Gijón/Xixón. The full list of festival selections and awards is available on the film’s page.
Technical details
- Original title: IUS del tiempo · International title: IUS of Time
- Spain · 2025 · 25 min 48 s · colour
- Languages: Spanish and Asturian (amestao)
- Subtitles available: English, French, Italian, Portuguese (European and Brazilian), Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Spanish
- Genre: drama · rural · LGBTIQ+
- Directed, written and edited by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi · Screenplay with Enrique Pérez Romero
- Cinematography: Fran Córdoba
- Cast: Manuel Pizarro, Pelayo Carrizo, Andy Almar, Laura Ubach, Martina Bueno, Pablo Valdés
- Production: Almost Red Productions, with the support of the Principality of Asturias and the Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission
- Poster design: Ola Podgorska
- Programming and press enquiries: info@almostred.com
Questions about IUS of Time
What is IUS of Time about?
A young photographer arrives in an Asturian village to work on a personal project and stays at the home of an ageing cheesemaker who has spent his life hiding who he is. The film follows the unexpected bond that grows between them.
Where was it shot?
Entirely in rural Asturias, in northern Spain: the Picos de Europa, the cheese caves of Cabrales and the municipalities of Piloña, Cabrales and Onís.
What language is it in?
Spanish and amestao, the mixed Spanish and Asturian spoken in the area. Subtitles are available in seven languages.
What is its festival record?
More than 70 official selections across five continents, screenings in 30 countries and 9 awards, including the Director’s Choice Award at the 45th Thomas Edison Film Festival in the United States.
Who directed it?
Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, who have been working together since 2008 between Spain and China.
More information
Official page of IUS of Time
Complete list of festival selections and awards
Short Focus Film Festival
Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi
Watch the official trailer
