When happiness is a good thing, there’s never really a wrong time to pursue it. The Malaga Film Festival paired with TVE reached its twenty‑sixth edition as a proud official sponsor, a milestone that prompted questions about why the partnership took some time to materialize. The guiding motto over the years, We are the cinema, highlighted the truth that roughly eight out of ten euros invested in Spanish cinema come from this very collaboration. Yet even with such a powerful engine behind it, there are moments when the sea feels rough, and the voyage demands steadier hands on deck.
Progress thrives on constructive critique, and this voyage is no exception. Public television, with its many bosses and competing agendas, often wrestles with aligning criteria and making decisions that do not leave anyone feeling sidelined. The festival, which began on a Friday, has long held a tradition of Cinema Days each Friday, a rhythm that has become almost canonical. In this season, a small shift occurs: when the RTVE Orchestra’s subscription concert streams live, the program moves to Saturday mornings, adjusting the schedule to fit audience habits.
So what happened on this occasion? The clash appears to be a matter of program allocation rather than data or content quality. The country’s most trusted cinema magazine on television, on air for thirty one years, faced a clash with its Malaga premiere. The show’s duration was trimmed in half, going from sixty minutes to thirty. The content, by its nature, usually exceeds the allotted minutes, making the shortened episode feel tight and potentially insufficient to convey everything that listeners and viewers expect. The usual red carpet moments were present—galas, and the commemoration of Women’s Day at the cinema—emphasizing the festival’s ongoing celebration of diverse voices and persistent storytelling.
Was it really hard to move the broadcast forward by half an hour, or to revise the Friday schedule to better accommodate peak viewing? The core issue appears to be that cinema was competing with cinema, with the opening premiere consuming time that could have reinforced Cinema Days by transforming Friday into a rich, themed night. The result was a feeling of missed opportunities and a sense that some opportunities for synergy were not fully realized, leading to apologies for the disruption and a wish to do better in future cycles.
In the end, the experience serves as a reminder that balancing programming integrity with audience expectations is a constant challenge for public broadcasters. The Malaga festival remains a beacon for independent cinema and a proving ground for new voices, even when the schedule hurdles or production constraints momentarily complicate the narrative. The collaboration between festival organizers and national television continues to evolve, aiming to amplify cinematic art while keeping the audience at the heart of every decision. The sea may be unpredictable, but steady leadership and clear priorities can steer the course toward a more cohesive and impactful celebration of film each year.