IUS of Time has been selected for the 12th edition of DIGO – Goiás International Sexual and Gender Diversity Film Festival, screening June 21 in Goiânia, Brazil, in competition for Best Film in the International Short Film category.

Directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi and produced by Almost Red Productions with the support of the Department of Culture, Linguistic Policy and Sport of the Principality of Asturias and the Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission, the film is one of only ten films selected for DIGO’s competitive International Short Film section from hundreds of submissions received from around the world.

This is the third Brazilian selection for IUS of Time, though not the first time Almost Red Productions takes part in DIGO — the company has screened earlier work at the festival before.

Screening details

What Is DIGO — and Why This Selection Matters

DIGO – Goiás International Sexual and Gender Diversity Film Festival is the leading LGBTI+ film festival in Brazil’s Centre-West region, and one of the most significant platforms for queer cinema in Latin America. Founded in 2016, it has grown into an essential space for resistance, visibility and dialogue — combining film screenings with panels, workshops and cultural activities that extend the conversation beyond the screen.

In its 12th edition, DIGO received hundreds of submissions from around the world. From that pool, only ten films were selected for the competitive international programme — and IUS of Time is one of them. The international selection this year includes strong representation from Spain, Argentina, Chile and Peru, reflecting the festival’s commitment to Latin American and Iberian queer cinema.

DIGO operates as an independent festival without the support of local incentive laws — a fact its director, Cristiano Sousa, names openly. That independence makes its continued existence a political act as much as a cultural one. Being selected here is not only a recognition of the film; it is an invitation to be part of something that keeps going precisely because it has to.

IUS of Time in Brazil

This selection marks the third time IUS of Time has been chosen by a Brazilian festival. The film previously screened at the 14th Rio LGBTQIA+ International Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, and received an Honorable Mention at the 1st Goitacá International Film Festival in Campos dos Goytacazes. Each selection has brought the film to a different Brazilian audience and region — and DIGO, as the leading LGBTI+ festival in the country’s Centre-West, adds a new and distinct geography to that presence, now spanning Rio de Janeiro, Campos dos Goytacazes and Goiânia.

Almost Red Productions’ prior relationship with DIGO makes this selection feel less like a first encounter and more like a return — this time with a film that has already travelled through more than 60 international festivals across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

IUS of Time: An Ongoing Journey

Through its focus on memory, landscape and intergenerational connection, IUS of Time has become part of a wider conversation around contemporary rural queer cinema — stories that move queer experience out of the city and into the mountains, the fields, and the small communities where it has always also existed.

From its first presentation in Asturias at the XI Festival CortoGijón to its international premiere at the 27th OUTshine LGBTQ Film Festival and its Northern European premiere at Manse Pride by the 56th Tampere Film Festival, through to recent selections at the 10th FeCHA Athens, the 11th Geelong Pride Film Festival in Australia, its fourth Indian festival at Out & Loud Pune and its Bulgarian premiere at the 15th Sofia Pride Film Fest, the film’s complete trajectory is documented in our festival selections and awards list.

About the Film

IUS of Time (IUS del tiempo) is a 25-minute Spanish fiction short film, with dialogue in Spanish and Asturian (amestáu), set in the rural landscapes of Asturias, in northern Spain. Directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, it tells the story of an unlikely encounter between a young photographer and an ageing cheesemaker — two solitary lives that cross in an intimate, improbable collision of worlds. Through themes of memory, masculinity, emotional inheritance and intergenerational connection, the film explores queer experience in a rural setting rarely portrayed on screen.

The film was shot on location in the Picos de Europa, including the cheese caves of Cabrales, the fields of Onís and other natural settings across Asturias. It stars Manuel Pizarro and Pelayo Carrizo, with Andy Almar and Laura Ubach, and was written by Roberto F. Canuto, Xu Xiaoxi and Enrique Pérez Romero. With more than 60 international selections and 7 awards across four continents, IUS of Time is one of the most internationally circulated Asturian fiction short films of recent years.

Its international reception suggests that stories rooted in highly specific places can still resonate across very different cultural contexts.

Part of the Almost Red Universe

IUS of Time is the central work in a small creative universe developed by Almost Red Productions in Asturias. During its development, the directors created two companion short films conceived as preparatory sketches: Blow Down (Sketches of IUS I) and Sunset in Paris (Sketches of IUS II). What began as exercises around the same themes — memory, emotional landscape and human connection — grew into films with lives of their own.

In 2026, Sunset in Paris was selected by the ICAA for Aula Corto, the official educational short film platform of Spain’s Ministry of Culture, becoming the first film of the Almost Red universe to enter the country’s official educational circuit. Together, these films reflect an ongoing interest in telling intimate, rooted stories from rural Asturias — and in letting them travel as far as they can, from classrooms in Spain to festival screens across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

Discover More About IUS of Time

With its selection at DIGO, IUS of Time continues a festival journey that has connected audiences across four continents while bringing stories rooted in rural Asturias into international conversations about memory, identity and queer experience.