IUS of Time has been selected for DiversimaCine, the social cinema competition of the 11th DiversidArte – Festival of Inclusive Arts, screening June 18 in A Coruña, Spain. The film is part of the open-air “Audience Vote” session of the 9th DiversimaCine Fiction Competition, held at the Campo da Leña, where the public votes for the Audience Award for Best Short Film.

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 joins an exclusive selection of only seven social fiction shorts from around the world.

This is a return to DiversidArte for Almost Red Productions — we previously took part in the festival with our short film Sunken Plum (Chen Li). Coming back, this time with IUS of Time, to a festival built around inclusion and diversity feels especially meaningful.

IUS of Time Screening details

What Is DiversidArte — and Why This Selection Matters

DiversidArte is a Festival of Inclusive Arts held each June in A Coruña, Galicia, and organised by the non-profit association Poten100mos. It defines itself as a cultural celebration of diversity and inclusion, designed to raise awareness around respect, equality and the visibility of communities that are too often left at the margins. Across its programme, the festival brings together music, performance, street culture and cinema, with a strong commitment to accessibility — including sign language interpretation, subtitling, reduced-mobility support and vibrating backpacks for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.

Within that framework, DiversimaCine is the festival’s social cinema competition, now in its 9th edition. Its Fiction section gathers a selection of social fiction shorts from around the world, screened outdoors at the Campo da Leña — a historic public square in A Coruña, between the Old Town and A Pescaría. The session is built around audience participation: the public watches the films under the stars and votes, turning the screening into a shared, communal act rather than a passive one.

For IUS of Time, a film about connection across difference and the quiet ways people come to understand one another, being part of a festival built entirely around inclusion and the social value of cinema is a natural and meaningful fit.

A Rural Story That Travels: The Making of IUS of Time

IUS of Time (IUS del tiempo) is a 25-minute Spanish fiction short film set in the rural heart of Asturias, in northern Spain, with dialogue in Spanish and Asturian (amestáu). It tells the story of an unlikely bond between Luca, a young photography student, and Xuan, an ageing cheesemaker who has spent a lifetime in silence — quietly carrying a homosexuality he was never able to live openly, under the weight of a rural environment that left little room for difference. Their encounter, hesitant at first, becomes a connection that changes them both.

It is a film about loneliness, hidden identity and the gap between generations: what an older man had to bury in silence, a younger one can finally recognise and name. That is precisely why it resonates in a social cinema context like DiversimaCine — a festival built around inclusion, diversity and the visibility of lives too often pushed to the margins.

The film was shot entirely on location in Piloña council and the Picos de Europa, drawing its visual identity from the real landscapes of Asturias: the cheese caves of Cabrales, where the region’s traditional blue cheese matures in the mountain rock, and the green fields of Onís or Piloña. Rather than treating these places as backdrop, the directors built the story around them — the work of the cheesemaker, the rhythm of rural life, and the silence of the mountains are part of the film’s emotional language. It stars Manuel Pizarro and Pelayo Carrizo, with Andy Almar and Laura Ubach, from a screenplay by Roberto F. Canuto, Xu Xiaoxi and Enrique Pérez Romero.

The Most Internationally Selected Asturian Short Film of Recent Years

With more than 65 official selections and 7 awards across four continents, IUS of Time stands as one of the most internationally circulated and successful Asturian fiction short films of recent years. Its journey has taken it from festivals in Spain, the United States and China to India, Australia, Finland, Greece, Bulgaria and Brazil — a reach rarely achieved by a short film rooted so specifically in a single rural region.

What makes that trajectory unusual is not only the number of selections, but their geographic and cultural spread. A story told partly in Asturian, set among cheese caves and mountain villages, has found audiences in contexts that could hardly be more different from rural Asturias — from queer film festivals in Mumbai and Goiânia to inclusive arts festivals on the Atlantic coast of Galicia. That trajectory suggests something the team has come to believe deeply: the more local and honest a story is, the further it tends to travel.

Part of a Wider Body of Work

IUS of Time is the central film in a small creative universe developed by Almost Red Productions in Asturias, alongside two companion shorts conceived during its development: Blow Down (Sketches of IUS I) and Sunset in Paris (Sketches of IUS II). What began as preparatory exercises around the same themes — memory, emotional landscape and human connection — eventually grew into films with lives of their own. In 2026, Sunset in Paris was selected by the ICAA for Aula Corto, the official educational platform of Spain’s Ministry of Culture, entering the country’s official educational circuit.

It is not the first time Almost Red’s work reaches Galicia and A Coruña. The company previously took part in DiversidArte with Sunken Plum (Chen Li), an earlier short film, which makes this new selection feel less like a first visit and more like a continuation of a longer relationship with the festival and its city. Returning now with IUS of Time closes a kind of circle, bringing the company’s work back to a festival and a community that welcomed it before.

Follow the Journey of IUS of Time

From the mountains of Asturias to an open-air square in A Coruña, IUS of Time keeps finding new audiences and new ways for its story to be seen. Explore more about the film, its festival route and its companion works:

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.

Sunset in Paris (Atardecer en París) — the 10-minute LGBTQ+ short film directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi and produced by Almost Red Productions — has been selected by the ICAA (Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales) for Aula Corto, Spain’s official educational short film platform.

Through Aula Corto, Sunset in Paris becomes available not only to schools throughout Spain, but also to Spanish educational centres abroad through the “Acción Educativa de España en el Exterior” programme. The selection significantly expands the film’s audience beyond traditional festival circuits, allowing it to reach students, teachers and educational communities in different countries and cultural contexts.

For us, it opens a chapter we hadn’t imagined when we made this film. Until now, Sunset in Paris had lived almost exclusively in the festival world. Now it’s going into classrooms.

What Is Aula Corto — and Why This Selection Matters

Aula Corto is the educational platform created by Spain’s Ministry of Culture, through the ICAA, in collaboration with Siena Educación. Its premise is simple: the short film as the only protagonist in the classroom. The platform currently offers a catalogue of 66 short films from recent years — across fiction, animation and documentary — available for free to registered teachers at primary, secondary, bachillerato and vocational training levels across Spain and at Spanish schools abroad.

Each film comes with a dedicated teaching guide (guía didáctica) with specific activities designed to help teachers get the most out of the screening — whether for values education, audiovisual literacy, or simply as a starting point for conversation. Teachers register for free using their school email address, and each school can have as many registered users as it has teachers.

It is, in other words, a serious institutional infrastructure for bringing Spanish cinema into education. Being part of that catalogue — alongside films awarded at the Goya Awards and screened at major Spanish festivals — is not a minor thing.

Sunset in Paris (Atardecer en París) was selected directly by the ICAA for the film’s cinematic quality and the educational value of its content. On the platform it is recommended for 4º de ESO, Bachillerato and Vocational Training (FP) levels, and catalogued under three UN Sustainable Development Goals — SDG 3 (Health and Wellbeing), SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) — with competencies in citizenship and personal and social development.

When we read that classification, something clicked. SDG 3 because the film is about emotional health — about what happens inside two young people when they finally allow themselves to feel something they’ve been carrying without a name. SDG 10 because the inequality it addresses isn’t economic: it’s the quieter, more intimate inequality of growing up in a world that hasn’t yet made room for who you are. And SDG 4 — quality education — because that’s exactly what cinema can do when it’s used well: teach empathy, teach ambiguity, teach the courage to sit with a question rather than rush to an answer.

The story Sunset in Paris (Atardecer en París) tells is precisely the kind that often goes untold in a classroom. Which is, perhaps, exactly why it belongs there.

A Short Film Born as a Sketch

Sunset in Paris carries a subtitle that gives away its origins: Sketches of IUS II. It was not conceived as a standalone work. It was conceived as a tool.

During the extended development process of IUS of Time — the 25-minute LGBTQ+ drama that has since gathered more than 60 international festival selections and 7 awards — Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi identified the need to explore the emotional world of Luca, the film’s young protagonist, before the main shoot began. The result was two short films made as preparatory exercises: Blow Down (Sketches of IUS I) and Sunset in Paris (Sketches of IUS II). Both were completed and edited by the end of 2024, alongside IUS of Time itself.

What none of them anticipated was that these sketches would develop a life of their own.

Sunset in Paris premiered at the 62nd FICX – Gijón International Film Festival in November 2024, in the Asturies Curtiumetraxes section — the festival’s dedicated showcase for Asturian short cinema. That premiere placed a film made as a preparatory exercise in front of one of Spain’s most historically significant film festivals.

The Story: A Mountain, a Game, and Something That Needed to Surface

During a quiet afternoon on a mountain in Asturias, two young friends — Luca and Ana — play a game of “Truth or Dare.” The rules are simple. The conversation is not. Slowly, through challenges and confessions, what begins as play becomes something harder to name: a recurring dream that resurfaces, an attraction that refuses to stay buried, a desire that neither character has yet been able to speak aloud. Paris appears in the background — as a possibility, as a threshold, as the place where a different life might begin.

The film doesn’t resolve what it opens. We didn’t want it to.

“The game is part of life, and often, life reveals itself through play. The two teenagers at the heart of this story stand on the threshold of discovery — when everything feels possible, when words flow freely, when play is still, almost exclusively, the essence of existence.” — Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi

Where It Was Made: Monte Cayón and an 18th-Century Attic

The film was shot in a single intensive day in the municipality of Piloña, Asturias. Exterior scenes were filmed on Monte Cayón — a mountain known for its sweeping, hard-to-reach views over the Asturian landscape — where shooting began in the afternoon to capture the warm light of the setting sun. Once darkness fell, the crew moved indoors to the attic of an 18th-century house in Biedes, where the night added a quality of quiet tension to the more intimate sequences.

The small production team deliberately prioritised spontaneity. Improvisation was encouraged in several of the dialogues. The camera began with close-ups — capturing proximity, small gestures, the unspoken — and gradually opened to wider shots as the emotional landscape between the two characters shifted. The Asturian landscape in Sunset in Paris is not backdrop. It is, as in all Almost Red films, an active presence: the mountain as mirror, the attic as confession booth, the darkness as permission.

The Cast: Two ESAD Graduates, One Shared Universe

Pelayo Carrizo plays Luca — the same character he would go on to play in IUS of Time. Born and raised in Asturias, Pelayo graduated from the Superior School of Dramatic Arts of the Principality of Asturias (ESAD) and has been a regular collaborator with Almost Red Productions since his film debut in 2021. His theatre credits include work with Factoría Norte and Susana Gudín Producciones, and tribute productions for the Fundación Princesa de Asturias. The continuity of his presence across the IUS universe — from sketch to feature short — gives the character a coherence that was not scripted so much as lived.

Paula Lasheras plays Ana. Originally from the province of Burgos, she completed her studies at ESAD Asturias in 2024 — the same year this film was made. A multidisciplinary artist — actor, dancer, figure skater, singer. What Paula brings to Ana is hard to name precisely — which is fitting, because Ana is a character who resists being pinned down. She listens with her whole body. Her vulnerabilities surface without announcement. It was exactly what the scene needed.

Festival Journey: From FICX to an International Queer Circuit

The film’s initial distribution was handled by Nueru Distribución, an Asturian short film distributor, during its first year on the festival circuit. It is currently distributed by Almost Red Distribution. Since its premiere at the 62nd FICX in 2024, Sunset in Paris has built a steady festival presence:

• 62nd FICX – Gijón International Film Festival (Spain, 2024) — Asturies Curtiumetraxes Section
• XI Cortogijón Short Film Festival (Spain, 2025) — La Muestrona Section · 🏆 Audience Award for Best Short Film
• III Certamen Cinematográfico Amigos de Ribadesella (Spain, 2025) — 🏅 Finalist, Atalaya Award for Best Short Film
• IV Oriéntate – Asturian Film Festival of Llanes (Spain, 2025) — Oriéntate Official Section
• IX CINESAN Short Film Festival (Spain, 2025) — Asturias Section
• 47th Semana de Cine de Lugo (Spain, 2025) — Official Section
• 12th International Queer Film Festival Playa del Carmen (Mexico, 2025) — Official Section

Its selection at Playa del Carmen brought the film its first international screening and its first LGBTQ+ film festival outside Spain. The Aula Corto selection now adds a different kind of reach: not a festival audience of cinephiles, but classrooms across the country.

A Film Within a Universe

Sunset in Paris does not stand alone. It is part of a creative ecosystem that Almost Red Productions has been building across three interconnected short films.

Blow Down (Sketches of IUS I) was the first preparatory exercise — exploring a different dimension of the same emotional territory. Sunset in Paris came second. And IUS of Time is the work they made possible: a 25-minute rural Asturian drama about memory, silence and intergenerational desire that has become one of the most internationally circulated Asturian fiction short films in recent years, with more than 60 international festival selections across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, and 7 awards — including the Director’s Choice Award at the 45th Thomas Edison Film Festival (USA), Best Cinematography at the 4th Silicon Valley Queer Film Festival (USA), and the Audience Award at the 24th Avilés Acción Film Festival (Spain).

That the sketch has now found its way into Spain’s classrooms, while the film it prepared for continues to travel the world, feels like the natural order of things.

About Almost Red Productions

Almost Red Productions is the company Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi founded to make the films they needed to make. Roberto is from Gijón; Xu is from Chengdu. They met through cinema and have been making films together since 2008 — in Los Angeles, in China, and now in Asturias. Their previous short film Sunken Plum travelled to more than 50 international festivals, including Raindance (London), Seminci (Valladolid), FICX (Gijón), the Málaga Film Festival and Outfest (Los Angeles), and won the Silver Caravel at the Cartagena Film Festival. Sunset in Paris is part of the same universe as IUS of Time — a film that has since become one of the most internationally circulated Asturian fiction short films in recent years.

Official page: Sunset in Paris →

IUS of Time — the film this was a sketch for →

Blow Down — Sketches of IUS I →

About the directors →

Aula Corto educational page →

IUS of Time will make its Bulgarian premiere at the 15th Sofia Pride Film Fest, Bulgaria’s only LGBTIQ+ film festival, screening in Sofia from June 2nd to 12th, 2026. Our Spanish LGBTQ+ short film — directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi and produced with the support of the Department of Culture, Linguistic Policy and Sport of the Principality of Asturias and the Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission — screens on June 6th at Dom na Kinoto (Cinema House), in competition for the Audience Award for Best Short Film.

Some selections are about where your film travels. Others are about what a festival stands for. Sofia Pride Film Fest is firmly the second kind, and being part of its 15th edition means a great deal to us.

IUS of Time at the 15th Sofia Pride Film Fest — Screening Details

🗓 June 6, 2026 — 20:00h
📍 Dom na Kinoto (Cinema House), Sofia, Bulgaria
🏆 In competition: Audience Award for Best Short Film
🎟️ Tickets: domnakinoto.com
📱 Festival: @sofiapridefilmfest · sofiapridefilmfest.org

Our film screens in a short film block alongside Blow (Brazil), If Only You Knew (USA), Stimulants & Empathogens (Poland) and Found at Sea (Bulgaria/Belgium). The festival runs across two venues — Dom na Kinoto and the French Institute in Bulgaria — and for the fourth year running, the audience itself votes for the winning films.

A 25-Minute Asturian Short Film with 60+ Selections and 7 Awards

IUS of Time is a 25-minute Spanish-language fiction short film, set in Asturias and featuring touches of Asturian (amestáu), directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, written by Roberto F. Canuto, Xu Xiaoxi and Enrique Pérez Romero, and produced by Almost Red Productions with the support of the Principality of Asturias. The film stars Manuel Pizarro, Pelayo Carrizo, Andy Almar and Laura Ubach. Since its 2025 premiere, it has gathered more than 60 international festival selections across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, along with 7 awards, making it one of the most internationally circulated Asturian fiction short films in recent years.

The film’s 7 awards and distinctions to date are:

• Director’s Choice Award — 45th Thomas Edison Film Festival (USA)
• Audience Award Asturias — 24th Avilés Acción Film Festival (Spain)
• Best Cinematography — 4th Silicon Valley Queer Film Festival (USA)
• Best Cinematography — 3rd Rural and Mountain Film Festival of Cervera de Pisuerga (Spain)
• 3rd Audience Award — 20th Beijing Queer Film Festival (China)
• Honorable Mention — 13th Goitacá International Film Festival (Brazil)
• Certificate of Merit — 68th Rochester International Film Festival (USA)

From its first presentation in Asturias (XI Festival Cortogijon) 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 and its fourth Indian festival at Out & Loud Pune, the film’s complete trajectory is documented in our festival selections and awards list.

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.

Why Sofia Matters to Us

Sofia Pride Film Fest is the only LGBTIQ+ film festival in Bulgaria. For fifteen editions, it has presented international queer cinema in a country where doing so is neither easy nor safe — since 2019, screenings have faced verbal and at times physical attacks. The festival continues regardless. That persistence is, in itself, a kind of cinema we admire deeply.

This is why the Bulgarian premiere of IUS of Time feels different from other selections. Our film is about silence — about a man who has spent a lifetime keeping a part of himself unspoken, in a rural world where prejudice made silence the safer choice. To screen that story in a place where queer visibility is still actively contested gives it a resonance we couldn’t have planned for. The selection also brings the film into Eastern Europe’s growing network of LGBTQ+ cultural festivals — a context where queer cinema carries a weight, and a risk, that it doesn’t always carry elsewhere.

The festival is organized by LGBTI organization Deystvie, Bulgaria’s largest LGBTIQ+ rights organization and a key defender of the community’s rights in the country. This 15th edition, themed “The Hero Is You!”, brings together 8 feature films and 11 short films — including titles awarded at Cannes and Venice in 2025. We’re honored that IUS of Time is part of that program.

The selection also expands the film’s presence within Eastern Europe’s growing network of LGBTQ+ film festivals and cultural initiatives. With its Bulgarian premiere, IUS of Time continues to expand its presence across European LGBTQ+ film festivals while bringing stories rooted in rural Asturias to new international audiences.

About IUS of Time

IUS of Time follows Luca, a young photography student who arrives in a small mountain village in rural Asturias and rents a room from Xuan — an older cheesemaker, solitary, carrying a past he has never spoken aloud. Through Luca’s camera and their slowly growing connection, the two men begin to rediscover memory, desire and belonging. The film was shot on location in rural Asturias, including the facilities and natural cheese-ageing caves of Quesería Ecológica Asiegu in the Cabrales municipality, along with the Piloña municipality, the valleys of Onís and the Picos de Europa. The landscape is not a backdrop. It carries the story.

The project emerged through an extended creative process that also produced the companion short films Blow Down and Sunset in Paris, conceived as “Sketches of IUS” during the screenplay development stage. It also features collaborations with artists such as Elmer Guevara, who created the analogue photographs attributed to Luca’s character in the film.

“Screening in Sofia means something we find hard to say lightly. A film about loving in silence, across generations and against the weight of prejudice, belongs especially in the places where that silence is still being enforced. We’re grateful to Deystvie and to everyone who keeps this festival alive.” — Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi

More About IUS of Time

With nearly 60 international festival selections across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, IUS of Time reaches a new international milestone with its inclusion in the 10th FeCHA – Festival de Cine Hispanófono de Atenas, Greece’s only festival dedicated exclusively to Spanish-language cinema.

The Asturian short film, directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, has been selected for the Diversidad 2026 program, a curated LGBTQ+ section organized in collaboration with Athens Pride and focused on contemporary queer stories from the Spanish-speaking world. This year’s edition brings together only four short films from Spain and Latin America, highlighting works that explore identity, intimacy, memory and resistance through distinct cinematic approaches.

IUS of Time screening in Athens

🗓 Date: May 29, 2026
🕘 Time: 21:00
📍 Venue: Rooftop Terrace · Instituto Cervantes of Athens
🎬 Program: Diversidad 2026
🌍 Online screenings across Greece: May 29–31, 2026

The screening forms part of the closing activities of the 10th FeCHA and will also be available online throughout Greece for a limited period through the festival’s digital platform.

See the Diversidad 2026 program at FeCHA Athens Film Festival.

Founded in 2016, FeCHA has become a major cultural bridge between Greece and the Spanish-speaking world, attracting more than 30,000 spectators over the past decade through screenings, retrospectives, educational activities and collaborations with institutions including the Instituto Cervantes and the Hellenic American Union.

FeCHA and the international visibility of Spanish-language cinema

Over the years, FeCHA has established itself as one of the key platforms for contemporary Spanish-language cinema in southeastern Europe, presenting films from Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Cuba and other countries across Latin America.

The 2026 edition features productions connected to major international festivals and awards including Cannes, Venice, San Sebastián, the Goya Awards and the Academy Awards. The lineup includes films and guests such as Helena Taberna, Albert Pintó, Asier Urbieta and Avelina Prat, combining auteur cinema, social narratives, documentary filmmaking and contemporary queer storytelling within a broader cultural dialogue.

Within this context, the inclusion of IUS of Time reinforces the growing international circulation of queer Spanish-language cinema and the increasing visibility of independent films rooted in local landscapes, identities and cultural memory.

Since its premiere, IUS of Time has screened at festivals including:

— 53rd Huesca International Film Festival (Spain)
— 31st Chéries-Chéris – Paris LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (France)
— 16th Écrans Mixtes Queer Film Festival in Lyon (France)
— 43rd Reeling: Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival (USA)
— 63rd FICX Gijón International Film Festival (Spain)
— 42nd Schwule Filmwoche Freiburg – Freiburg Gay Film Festival (Germany)

Earlier this month, the film celebrated its Australian premiere at the 11th Geelong Pride Film Festival, marking its first screening in Oceania and further expanding its international reach across five continents.

With its growing international trajectory, IUS of Time is emerging as one of the most internationally visible fiction short films to emerge from Asturias in recent years.

Rural Asturias, queer memory and landscape-based cinema

Set in rural Asturias in northern Spain, IUS of Time follows Luca, a young photographer who arrives in a small mountain village to work on an artistic project and develops an unexpected emotional connection with Xuan, an older cheesemaker marked by silence, rumors and prejudice from the past.

Blending rural realism with poetic and symbolic storytelling, the film explores queer memory, emotional inheritance, masculinity, landscape and intergenerational connection. Through Luca’s camera, photography becomes both a narrative device and a form of emotional archive linking past and present.

Shot in locations including the Picos de Europa and villages such as Cabrales and Onís, the landscapes of Asturias become central emotional and narrative elements within the film, reinforcing its atmosphere of intimacy, isolation and suspended time.

IUS of Time was also supported by the Department of Culture, Llinguistic Policy and Sport of the Principality of Asturias, with the collaboration of Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission during the film’s development and production process.

The project evolved through an extended creative process that also generated the companion pieces Blow Down and Sunset in Paris, conceived as “Sketches of IUS” during the screenplay development stage. These works allowed the filmmakers to further explore character psychology, visual language and fragmented memory before the final structure of IUS of Time fully emerged.

Through its combination of rural realism, queer storytelling, landscape-based cinema and poetic visual language, IUS of Time is becoming part of a growing body of contemporary queer rural cinema emerging from the Spanish-speaking world.

“The international journey of IUS of Time has shown us how stories deeply rooted in local realities can emotionally connect with audiences across very different cultural contexts.”

— Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi

More information about IUS of Time

Official page of IUS of Time with festival selections, awards and production details.

Watch the official trailer of IUS of Time.

Header image: analogue behind-the-scenes photograph from IUS of Time by photographer Elmer Guevara / Almost Red Productions.

]]> https://almostred.com/ius-of-time-positively-different-festival-2026/ Mon, 16 Mar 2026 20:51:00 +0000 https://almostred.com/?p=13669 The short film IUS of Time, directed by Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi, continues its international festival run with its Greek premiere, following its selection for the official section of the 7th edition of the Positively Different Short Film Festival (PDSFF), which will take place from March 18–22, 2026 in Athens.

The film will be part of the session “Love Through the Storm,” scheduled for Sunday, March 22 at 21:00 at Cinobo Patision, one of the most active cinema venues in the Greek capital. The screening will be followed by the festival’s awards ceremony.

With this new selection, IUS of Time strengthens its presence on the international festival circuit, consolidating its trajectory within contemporary independent and queer cinema. Among its 2026 selections are festivals such as the 45th Thomas Edison Film Festival in the United States and the 27º Spokane International Film Festival, among others.

For more information about the short film, its full synopsis and its festival journey, you can visit the official page for IUS of Time on Almost Red Productions.

The Positively Different Short Film Festival in Athens: a space for socially engaged and diverse cinema

The Positively Different Short Film Festival (PDSFF) has established itself in recent years as one of the leading European platforms dedicated to socially and politically engaged short films.

Held annually in Athens, the festival seeks to highlight stories that challenge structures of discrimination related to gender, sexuality, origin, religion or social class, offering a space where cinema and cultural activism meet.

In this context, the selection of IUS of Time is part of an international programme that highlights intimate stories that engage with contemporary social issues.

The 2026 edition, under the theme “The Urge”, presents a programme that reflects on the current political and cultural challenges, bringing together stories that explore the diversity of identities and experiences from different parts of the world.

IUS of Time in the session “Love Through the Storm”

The short film will be screened in the session “Love Through the Storm”, dedicated to stories that explore emotional bonds and resilience in contexts shaped by social and cultural tensions.

The session brings together films from different countries that address themes such as identity, memory, desire and the social pressure surrounding human relationships.

IUS of Time consolidates its international festival run

Set in the rural landscape of Asturias, IUS of Time follows the encounter between Luca, a young photographer, and Xuan, a cheesemaker who lives in isolation after years of rumours about his past, in a story that reflects on memory, inherited prejudice and the possibilities of connection between generations.

Since its premiere less than a year ago, IUS of Time has built a strong international festival run, already surpassing the 50 selections at festivals across Europe, the Americas and Asia and consolidating the presence of the work of Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi within the contemporary independent cinema landscape.

The participation in the Positively Different Short Film Festival also represents the film’s first screening in Greece, expanding its presence within the European festival circuit.

At the same time, it strengthens its international trajectory with new selections across Europe and the United States throughout 2026.

Header image: photograph taken during filming by Jorge Fernández Artime © Almost Red Productions.

Official trailer below.

Screening in the Queer Shorts Section of the Spokane International Film Festival

IUS of Time will screen on March 8, 2026, at 4:00 PM at the Magic Lantern Theater (25 W. Main Ave, Spokane), as part of the Queer Shorts program, a curated showcase dedicated to works that explore LGBTQ+ identities and experiences across diverse cultural contexts.

• 📅 March 8, 2026
• 🕓 4:00 PM
• 📍 The Magic Lantern Theater
• 25 W. Main Ave, Spokane, Washington

🎟 More information and tickets available on the official website of the Spokane International Film Festival.

One of Washington State’s Leading Film Festivals

Founded in 1999 and organized by the Contemporary Arts Alliance, the Spokane International Film Festival is one of Washington State’s leading film festivals and a key platform for independent cinema in the Pacific Northwest. SpIFF is known for its carefully curated selection of international feature films and short films that have not yet received commercial release, while also fostering direct engagement between filmmakers and audiences.

IUS of Time Strengthens Its Presence in the United States

The selection at SpIFF further reinforces the international trajectory of IUS of Time within the independent and queer cinema circuit in the United States. In recent months, the film has also been recognized at the 45th Thomas Edison Film Festival, where it received the Director’s Choice Award, and at the 4th Silicon Valley Queer Film Festival, where it received the Best Cinematography Award, along with nominations for Best Short Film and Best Drama.

The film has also been included in the official selections of major festivals such as the 43rd edition of Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival, the 30th edition of OutSouth Queer Film Festival, and the 14th OutReels Cincinnati International Film Festival, among others. An overview of IUS of Time’s 2025 festival run is available on our website.

This new selection further strengthens the film’s presence in North America and expands its dialogue with United States audiences, reinforcing its international visibility.

Memory and Intergenerational Queer Experience

Set in rural Asturias, northern Spain, IUS of Time follows an encounter between two men from different generations, exploring themes of memory, solitude, and inherited tensions through an intimate and restrained lens.

The cast is led by Manuel Pizarro, an actor with more than three decades of experience in theater, film, and television, alongside Pelayo Carrizo, an Asturian performer trained at ESAD and a frequent collaborator of the directors. The ensemble is completed by Andy Almar and Laura Ubach, who have appeared in productions such as Poquita Fe (Movistar+) in the case of Almar, and Alma or Olympo (Netflix) in Ubach’s case, bringing a contemporary dimension to the narrative.

🔎 You can find the complete film profile of IUS of Time and an overview of its international festival journey on its film page on the Almost Red Productions website.

Header image: analogue photograph taken during the filming by Elmer Guevara © Almost Red Productions.

🎬 Official trailer below.

IUS of Time, a short film directed by Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi, has been selected for competition at the 16th edition of Écrans Mixtes – Queer Film Festival of Lyon, one of the most important LGBTQI+ film festivals in France and Europe. The event will take place from March 4 to 12, 2026, in Lyon and its metropolitan area, featuring an extensive international program of feature films and short films spanning fiction, documentary, and experimental cinema.

Within the short film competition, IUS of Time takes part in the European program, which brings together a total of ten works from across the continent. In this section, the film is the only Spanish title selected, sharing the lineup with works from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, and Italy.

The Écrans Mixtes 2026 short film selection is further expanded by an international section featuring six works from Iran, Brazil, Lebanon, and Cambodia, alongside a French program comprising five titles. Together, they form a diverse selection reflecting the aesthetic, political, and cultural plurality of contemporary queer cinema.

A Key Festival for Queer Cinema in France and Europe

Founded in 2011, Écrans Mixtes has, over sixteen editions, established itself as one of the most relevant queer film festivals in France and across Europe. Based in Lyon and its metropolitan area, the festival is known for an ambitious program that combines contemporary cinema, retrospectives, talks, and parallel activities, placing questions of gender, sexuality, identity, and representation at the centre of cultural debate.

Beyond its cinematic dimension, Écrans Mixtes is defined by a critical and political approach, with a particular focus on feminist, trans, and dissident film practices, as well as by its commitment to creating spaces for dialogue between filmmakers, audiences, and contemporary thought. In this context, the participation of IUS of Time in competition represents a particularly significant recognition within the European circuit of specialised festivals.

Official Short Film Competition and Awards

The participation of IUS of Time entails its inclusion in one of the festival’s most significant sections, evaluated by an international professional jury. Within this competition, the festival awards the Écrans Mixtes Prize for Best Short Film, as well as an Audience Award, reinforcing both artistic recognition and a direct connection with audiences.

The presence of IUS of Time within this competitive context highlights the festival’s attention to auteur-driven works that explore identities, affects, and memories through non-normative approaches, and positions the film within a selection that brings it into dialogue with some of the most active voices in contemporary European and international queer cinema.

Screening of IUS of Time at Écrans Mixtes 2026

The screening of IUS of Time will take place on Saturday, March 7, 2026, within the European Short Film Program – Program européen 2, included in the festival’s official competition.

This session brings together a selection of European works that explore queer experience from diverse cultural, generational, and aesthetic perspectives, fostering a dialogue between territories and contemporary sensibilities. Here, the film stands as the only Spanish production in the short film programs, reinforcing its distinct position within the selection.

The festival unfolds its program across multiple cultural venues throughout Lyon and its metropolitan area, promoting a decentralised exhibition model that broadens the encounter between the films, audiences, and the city’s cultural fabric.

A European Short Film in Dialogue with the Queer Present

Within the context of Écrans Mixtes—a festival that has historically fostered a space for reflection between cinema, body politics, and sexual dissidence—IUS of Time aligns itself with a strand of European queer cinema that privileges observation, duration, and lived experience over normative and accelerated narratives.

The film shapes its perspective around the encounter between two men from different generations, exploring how desire, care, and memory are passed on—or silenced—within contexts shaped by tradition and the passage of time. This intergenerational dimension, still uncommon in contemporary queer cinema, invites identity to be understood not as something fixed, but as a process constructed in relation to the other.

Shot entirely in the rural landscape of Asturias, IUS of Time also reflects on the countryside as a possible space for queer experience, moving away from dominant urban representations. In this sense, the landscape, traditional trades, and the rhythms of manual labour do not function as a backdrop, but as active elements that shape forms of relationship, intimacy, and resistance.

The film’s inclusion in competition within the European program at Écrans Mixtes highlights the festival’s interest in works that expand representations of queer experience through situated, sensitive perspectives that are deeply rooted in their territory.

A Sustained International Journey Across Diverse Contexts

Since its premiere, IUS of Time has developed an international trajectory that has positioned it within a circuit of generalist festivals as well as festivals specialising in queer and independent cinema, combining competitive sections with exhibition contexts that foster a sustained relationship between films and audiences. This circulation has enabled the short film to maintain a continued presence across diverse cultural, institutional, and community settings, organically expanding its international reach.

Beyond its participation in European competitions, the film has been screened in 2026 at festivals such as the 4th Silicon Valley Queer Film Festival (United States), the 14th Pink Life QueerFest (Ankara, Turkey), the 27th ReelOut Queer Film Festival (Canada), or the 45th Thomas Edison Film Festival (United States), a touring festival that awarded IUS of Time the Director’s Choice Award, recognising its artistic singularity and narrative strength.

This journey reflects the short film’s ability to engage with very diverse audiences and to place an intimate story—written by Roberto F. Canuto, Xu Xiaoxi, and Enrique Pérez Romero, and deeply rooted in the rural world—within contemporary conversations around identity, memory, and queer representation.

The international trajectory of IUS of Time thus continues in line with a filmography that has previously explored other cultural contexts and forms of dissidence, such as Sunken Plum, the most awarded short film to date by its directors, consolidating a coherent presence within contemporary independent queer cinema.

For more information about the short film, its full synopsis, and the complete list of selections and awards, please visit the official page for IUS of Time on the Almost Red Productions website.

Official Trailer of IUS of Time

Below, you can watch the official trailer of IUS of Time, a short film produced by Almost Red Productions, which accompanies its international festival journey and offers a first glimpse into its visual and emotional universe.

Through a restrained mise-en-scène and a close attention to time, gestures, and spaces, the trailer anticipates the film’s intimate gaze on memory, desire, and queer experience in the rural world—elements that have shaped its reception at international festivals.

Header image: photograph taken during the filming of IUS of Time in Asturias, used for illustrative purposes.

The selection at FilmPride marks a further milestone in the film’s international journey, strengthening its presence within spaces dedicated to contemporary queer cinema, diverse perspectives, and intimate storytelling focused on memory, identity, and emotional bonds.

For more information about the short film, including its full synopsis and its festival and awards journey, you can visit the official page for IUS of Time on our website.

Screening at FilmPride 2026

IUS of Time will screen on Saturday, February 7, 2026, as part of the program:

• Family, Home & What We Carry
• 🕗 20:00 – 22:00
• 📍 St George’s Church, Kemptown, Brighton & Hove (UK)

A program dedicated to stories exploring family, memory, emotional inheritance, and notions of home — both biological and chosen — through diverse and deeply personal perspectives.

Tickets and further details about the screening are available via the official website of the FilmPride – Brighton & Hove LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

A Key LGBTQ+ Film Festival in the United Kingdom

Now in its 7th edition, the FilmPride – Brighton & Hove LGBTQ+ Film Festival has established itself as a key fixture within the UK’s cultural landscape, presenting a carefully curated selection of short and feature films spanning fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental cinema.

The 2026 program places a strong emphasis on stories exploring love, identity, community, family, and resistance, celebrating the creativity and resilience of LGBTQ+ lives through intimate perspectives and diverse contexts.

IUS of Time: Memory, Place, and Silenced Affections

Set in the rural landscape of Asturias, IUS of Time portrays an encounter between a young photographer and an elderly cheesemaker, two men from different generations whose lives cross in unexpected ways. Through everyday gestures, silences, and shared spaces, the film reflects on the passage of time, memory, inherited prejudice, and the possibility of connection beyond labels.

Moving away from more familiar urban queer narratives, the short film offers a restrained, deeply place-based perspective, in which landscape, light, and the rhythms of rural life become an essential part of the storytelling.

A Growing International Festival Journey

The selection at FilmPride adds to a strong international trajectory that has already seen IUS of Time surpass 50 official selections at festivals across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, as well as multiple awards and recognitions highlighting both its narrative strength and visual identity.

Directed by Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi, the film continues to expand its presence throughout 2026, engaging with new audiences and further consolidating its place within contemporary independent queer cinema.

Official Trailer for IUS of Time

Below is the official trailer for IUS of Time.

Header image: photograph taken during the filming of IUS of Time by Jorge Fernández Artime, used for illustrative purposes.