A little more than fifteen days for humor to take the streets of Tarazona again, the Comedy Film Festival of Tarazona and the Moncayo ‘Paco Martínez Soria’ takes another step towards its XXII edition announcing its programming. This appointment, considered the most important Spanish -speaking within this area, will take place from August 16 to 23 at the Teatro de Bellas Artes in the Zaragoza town.
During the presentation press conference held this Thursday in the Ibercaja Xplora space of the Aragonese capital, Raúl García Medrano, director of the Festival, has been in charge of giving all the details of the eight days that will take place this year. Ana Calvo, Councilor for Culture of the City of Tarazona, has accompanied him, who stressed that “this event is positive to publicize the city, comedy and region cinema”, as well as to foster trade, hospitality and the atmosphere in the streets.
On the other hand, Carmen Pardo, head of Business of Institutions of Ibercaja, has recognized that from the entity they are committed to the development of the territory of Aragon And, therefore, they embrace this festival, “an impulse space for the economy and film industry.” “Cinema is culture and culture is the engine of development. With it, we do the community better,” he added.
The festival will start its XXII edition at 10 pm with its traditional opening gala, which this year will be accompanied by the preview of the documentary ‘Raquel Meller: Insumisa and Divina’, a proposal that combines music, memory and cinema to open a week dedicated to humor. “Paco Martínez Soria Apadrina this year to Raquel Meller and that is a very beautiful synergy,” said García Medrano.
The Zaragoza filmmaker Vicky Calavia has been in charge of directing and producing this documentary about the life of the illustrious Turiasonense Raquel Meller, one of the most outstanding Aragonese cultural figures of the first half of the twentieth century and specialized in Cuplé.
As for the official sections that focus each edition the festival’s programming, this year, they change slightly on schedule and advance at 18.30 the projections of the short films and at 22.00 the feature films.
For six days, you can also enjoy the feature films on a large screen. This list is made up ‘everywhere a little’, directed by Álex O’Dogherty and Iván Karras and which is the first documentary selected in this section of the festival throughout its history; ‘Little Calvarios’, a black comedy of surrealist humor by director Javier Polo; ‘Myocardio’, directed by José Manuel Carrasco and Marina Salas, Vito Sanz or Luis Callejo in his cast; ‘Who wants to marry an astronaut?
However, on Friday 22, out of competition, you can discover the newly released film In the cast you can see faces known as Joaquín Reyes, Carmen Ruiz, Miguel Ángel Muñoz and Arturo Valls.
“This film contains a legion of fans and is very successful among the youngest. We are happy to get to Tarazona with its director, who is so dear in Aragon, just a week after its premiere in Salas,” explained Raúl García Medrano.
However, this week of cinema and comedy could not be the same if it were not for the projection of the 47 premieres in the national short film contest, which will be held every day at 6.30 pm.
In turn, in relation to this varied schedule of short films, the director of the festival has added that “comedy is not only laughter, but is a very given gender to mix with others”, so the public can enjoy all its aspects during this movie week.
In addition, the work that the jury award for the best short film, sponsored by Ibercaja and endowed with 1,500 euros and a trophy, will directly opt for the Goya award for the best fiction or animation short film, as well as the Forqué forquite award for best short film and the fleeting awards.
The festival will start its XXII edition at 10 pm with its traditional opening gala
Finally, on Saturday, August 23, at 7:00 p.m., the red carpet will be extended for another year to celebrate the closing gala. In this appointment, in addition to premiere the short film resulting from the performance workshop, the awards of the short films and feature films will be delivered.
In turn, actress Vanesa Romero will receive the comedy talent award, while the Tarazona and Moncayo Awards will fall on actors Luis Zahera (Santiago de Compostela, 1966) and Eduard Fernández (Barcelona, 1964).
Public Special Prize
How could it be otherwise, one more year, the special prize of the public-open television will also be awarded, consisting of the purchase of broadcasting rights by the autonomous channel for a value of 900 euros, as well as its promotion and dissemination under the consent of the authors; and the ‘Spanish cinema blog’ award, awarded by this means of communication and which consists of a trophy and advertising on its website for a value of 200 euros.
On the other hand, the Palmarés will be completed with the mentions for Best Actor and Actress -which have the collaboration of AISGE Foundation-, address, script, photography address -patrocated by the WELAB audiovisual material rental company and equipped with 2,000 euros in discount on cinematographic material -, assembly, artistic direction and original music, which will be rewarded with a trophy.
As a novelty this year, thanks to the sponsorship of illusion lighting, the winner of the public prize of the short film section will have a discount of 500 euros in lighting material for the next work of the winner. In addition, all selected projects to be part of the official section will have a 20% discount on lighting material.
Raúl García Medrano is the director of the Tarazona Comedy Film Festival
The winning works will be known during the final gala of the XXII Comedy Film Festival of Tarazona and the Moncayo ‘Paco Martínez Soria’, which will take place at the Fine Arts Theater in the Zaragoza town on Saturday, August 23, 2025.
Encounters, monologues and music
In parallel to the festival, on Saturday, August 16 at 5:00 p.m., the Short Film completion workshop will start, which will take place in the Hall of the Center for the Elderly and to which students of the region and other corners of other corners go every year Spain. As valued by the director of the festival, the course allows “citizens to live what it is to make a short film from within age”, since there are participants from 13 to more than 70 years.
At the same time, from Monday 18 to Friday 22, at 11.00, children’s programming will travel different Zaragoza locations such as Fayos, Novallas, Alcalá de Moncayo, Malón, Tarazona and Lithuiego.
To this program, theatrical and musical activities will be added in the ‘Off Festival’ section, as is the work ‘Power’ of Virginia Riezu, who will take the nap stage on Wednesday, August 20. She will be followed in this same space, but on Thursday 21, the humorist Diego Peña with ‘All You Need Is Laugh’.
In addition, on Friday 22, the Galician actor Luis Zahera will bring his show ‘Chungo’ to the Theater of Fine Arts of Tarazona. In this case, tickets to attend have a price of 12 euros and 9, in the case of possessing the cultural card. The information on how to acquire will be on the festival website.
This same day, on August 22 at 1:00 p.m., the presentation of the book ‘We want Laura’, where more than 50 people have put their creative ingenuity at the service of paying tribute to the Aragonese actress Laura Gómez-Lacueva that died in 2023 and that since that year gives name to the prize for the best actress of the festival.
To close these days of learning, projections and talent, on Saturday, August 23, at 1:00 p.m., the Terrace of the Amadeo I will host, thanks to the collaboration of the Tarazona Merchants Association the session ‘A vermou with …’, whose protagonist will be the Aragonese director and screenwriter Miguel Ángel Lamata.
To put the gold brooch to this appointment full of humor and good cinema, once the closing gala, at 23.00, can be enjoyed at the Eguarás palace of the Will Miller and The Pop & Roll Band concert and a session of the DJ Easy Rider, alter ego of the director of the Earth Pablo Aragüés.
Aragon Tourist Interest
Another novelties of this edition is that, in order of the Minister of Environment and Tourism of the Government of Aragon, the Comedy Film of Tarazona and the Moncayo ‘Paco Martínez Soria’ has been declared as a activity of tourist interest in Aragon.
From the Executive, the original and differentiated proposal of this quote from the seventh art has been highlighted, as well as its cultural and educational value. With the passage of time this festival has established itself as one of the most relevant cultural activities of our community by promoting, in a remarkable way, the interest in cinematographic comedy in the country.
In addition, for the granting of this seal, it has been relevant that it is one of the preset festivals for the Goya Awards by the Cinema Academy, so the winning short film may opt for said award in addition to those projects that are selected in seven of said festivals.
The Festival, organized by the City of Tarazona and ACA sequences, has the collaboration of the Tarazona Region and Moncayo, Provincial Council of Saragossa, Ibercaja Foundation, Aisge Foundation, Aragón TV and Aragón Radio. The sponsors of this year are the Association of Merchants of Tarazona, Amber, Bodegas Aragonese, Fingerprint, the Spanish cinema blog, Welab, Illusion lighting, events Tarazona, Zaragoza Comedy, Film & Co, Photofhash and Arafilmfest.
