Malaga feasts on Spanish film

There has been a buzz in the air in Malaga this week after the city's annual film festival opened last weekend.

The warm, sunny weather has added the perfect backdrop to the style and glamour provided by the stream of actors and directors posing for cameras on Muelle Uno quayside and outside the Cervantes theatre and Albéniz cinema, two of the main venues for the screenings and events.

Meanwhile, street terraces have been spilling over all week with lanyard-wearing reporters, camera crews and professionals of the film industry, a sign of Malaga's growing importance on the global festival scene.

The Malaga festival is all about Spanish and Latin American film with around 200 screenings throughout this week.

Twenty films are competing in the main competition for the coveted 'biznaga' prizes, named after and made in the shape of the iconic flowers made with jasmine that are traditionally sold in the city's streets.

The events got off the ground last Friday with the opening gala at the Cervantes theatre, where the closing awards ceremony takes place on Saturday. A concert with pop group Amaral rounds off the festival on Sunday.