Published on March 29, 2026
Since 2004, the European Film Festival of Seville (SEFF) has been celebrating and showcasing a wealth of cinematic works created across the continent. The festival champions contemporary author cinema and provides solid support for young Spanish talents and Andalusian productions. It enjoys remarkable success among the public, who attend not only the screenings but also the numerous events organized around the festival.
Every September, two months before the festival kicks off, the official poster that announces the exhibit is unveiled. Since 2008, the creation of this artwork has been entrusted to renowned visual artists and film directors. This year, the poster is designed Curro González, a representative of the Seville school of artists who rose to prominence in the 1980s through figurative painting. This movement contributed significantly to the cultural renewal that took place in the city, rivaling the iconic Madrid scene, known as ‘la movida.’ González is an accomplished artist, with works exhibited in prominent museums both nationally and internationally.
For the SEFF poster, González utilized an original aerial approach to depict the Casino de la Exposición in Seville (the festival’s main venue) and the adjacent Parque de María Luisa, which celebrated its centenary in 2014. However, the scene is interrupted of a man’s foot in one corner of the painting. This surreal element transports viewers to a dreamlike realm and serves as a clear nod to the film “8½” Federico Fellini, a hallmark of Italian cinema in the latter half of the 20th century.
In 2013, fellow Sevillian Miki Leal was responsible for designing the poster for the festival’s tenth edition. His striking design featured a bold yellow striped background reminiscent of Pop art and classical typography, inspired of adult films from Seville’s X-rated theaters that operated in the 1980s.
The illustrator Miguel Brieva reinterpreted Sevillian themes in the poster he created for the festival’s 2012 edition. His work depicted a gypsy adorned with rolls of film as hair combs, projecting a film through her eyes. In the background, a lemur clings to the Giralda, presenting a Southern take on a King Kong narrative, amidst a flooded Seville where small islets emerge. The poster provided a personal vision from Brieva, illustrating a city rich in idiosyncrasies, stereotypes, and contradictions that coexist harmoniously.
Director Fernando Colomo, while immersed in filming “La Banda Picasso,” was tasked with creating the 2011 festival poster. He chose to pay tribute to the Malaga painter, featuring a single-line human figure against a warm color backdrop, which he associated with the light of the Andalusian capital.
In 2010, the Welsh director Peter Greenaway crafted a poster he described as “a suitcase on a pedestal whose combined view resembles a crucifix.” He noted how Spain is still marked church.
The 2009 edition featured a poster , a filmmaker who declared himself a Sevillian . He opted for an image of a flamenco dancer, incorporating warm hues that represent the red of Seville and the yellow of the sun. As he had done in his films, Saura aimed to merge celluloid with flamenco in the poster.
In 2008, Bigas Luna inaugurated the tradition of commissioning visual artists and filmmakers to design the festival posters. Luna, who had worked as a painter before venturing into directing, created a simplistic, thick stroke drawing that could be interpreted as an eye, two faces, or a vagina. He admitted that the creative process was intensely complicated and compared it to the often-challenging task of selecting posters for his films.
The posters that announced the European Film Festival of Seville editions from 2004 to 2007 were marked by a style that diverged from the visual art influences characterizing the past seven editions.
For more information about the European Film Festival of Seville, it is worth visiting its updated website, from which digital content from recent editions can be accessed. Furthermore, Miki Leal explains the creative process behind the 2013 poster in a video. To learn more about the generation of figurative artists from Seville in the 1980s, to which Curro González belongs, several issues of the ‘Figura’ magazine published between 1983 and 1986 are available.
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