Summer CinePlaza returns to Matadero Madrid with open-air audiovisual concerts and live-commentary film screenings

• Titled 'Superestrellas 3', the program features hybrid experiences blending music and film, with two audiovisual concerts and three special live-commentary screenings.
• Additionally, 11 films will be screened, ranging from queer musicals to the blaxploitation genre, with stops along the way at lysergic "yeyé" films.
• Musicians such as Christina Rosenvinge and Hidrogenesse, alongside filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, actor Brays Efe, and journalist Alberto Rey, will join this celebration of cinema with their talent and cinephilia.
• Tickets can be purchased online at cinetecamadrid.com and at the box office on the days of the screenings, starting at €3.50.

For another year, throughout the month of July, the central plaza of Matadero Madrid—a contemporary creation center belonging to the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sport—will transform into an open-air summer cinema, offering a hybrid program that connects the seventh art with live music.

Under the title 'Superestrellas 3', the ninth edition of the summer CinePlaza program will host—from Thursday to Sunday nights—two cine-concerts by prominent Spanish musicians who will accompany their songs with live visuals; three sessions featuring films with live commentary; and a constellation of 11 titles that travel from the queer musical (with Marc Ferrer as a special guest) to the blaxploitation genre (with its seductive 70s soul), while also stopping at lysergic "yeyé" films.

This year kicks off with Christina Rosenvinge (Thursday, July 2), a legend of indie music who is also an actress and soundtrack composer. She will explore her relationship with cinema in an evocative concert created ad hoc for this cycle. The most "arty" electropop duo in Spain, Hidrogenesse (Thursday, July 16), will also return to deploy their iconoclastic humor in the Matadero plaza.

Furthermore, the program includes three special passes: a surprise session prepared by Nacho Vigalondo (Sunday, July 5), one of the audiovisual industry's most imaginative minds; an XL edition of ‘Linterna’, the triumphant cycle helmed by Brays Efe and Miguel Agnes (Thursday, July 9); and, to conclude, a special screening of The Witches of Eastwick featuring superstars Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer, commented live by the sharp-tongued Alberto Rey (Thursday, July 23).

CinePlaza also hosts 11 films spanning three refreshing styles: the queer musical, the yeyé film, and the blaxploitation genre, which fought against stereotypical representations of African Americans in cinema during the 1970s.

Popular pricing starting at €3.50

Screened in their original version with Spanish subtitles, the titles will be shown at Plaza Matadero from Thursday to Sunday, between July 2 and 26, at 10:15 PM (except for the ‘Linterna XL’ session, at 9:30 PM). Tickets for the 11 films are €3.50, while live-commentary film sessions are €5, and the two cine-concerts are €10. Tickets can be purchased at cinetecamadrid.com and at the box office on the days of the screenings.

Full Program Schedule

Cine-concert: Christina Rosenvinge: A Cinema Concert. Thursday, July 2, 10:15 PM A career spanning over 30 years, with gems such as Tu labio superior and Un hombre rubio, has made Christina Rosenvinge a legend of indie music in Spanish. But the legend of this artist, who has also tried her hand on stage alongside Marta Pazos and on the big screen, does not live on music alone. Since her acting debut in the 90s with the iconic Todo es mentira, alongside Penélope Cruz and Coque Malla, Rosenvinge has acted alongside Viggo Mortensen in La pistola de mi hermano and starred in Karen, a film about the life of Danish writer Isak Dinesen. Her latest forays into cinema as an actress include Balearic by Ion de Sosa and Después de Kim by Ángeles González-Sinde. During her concert at Matadero Madrid, she will review these filmic incursions, as well as her facet as a soundtrack composer, in an evocative concert where she will also unleash her cinephilia.

Screening: Coffy (Jack Hill, USA, 1973). Friday, July 3, 10:15 PM Coffy is a nurse whose sister has been devastated by adulterated heroin. From there, she embarks on a vengeful crusade against traffickers, pimps, and corrupt politicians. With Pam Grier at the top of her game, the film combines exploitation, action, and social commentary, establishing its protagonist as one of the great female icons of 70s black cinema.

Screening: Bixa Travesty (Claudia Priscilla, Kiko Goifman, 2018). Saturday, July 4, 10:15 PM A portrait of Brazilian artist and activist Linn da Quebrada, a central figure in a scene where music, sexuality, rage, and performance merge into a single political gesture. The documentary, which participated in Documenta Madrid 2018 and received a Special Jury Mention, follows her concerts, her public interventions, and her way of turning the transvestite body into a space of confrontation with racism, machismo, and transphobia.

Commented Film: Surprise evening with Nacho Vigalondo. Sunday, July 5, 10:15 PM Nacho Vigalondo is one of those unclassifiable rarities of Spanish cinema. He made viral shorts before the concept even existed; he has directed giant monsters in Los Angeles; he has revived "tamarismo" and has managed to make humor and science fiction hold hands in a unique way. His vision of cinema is intelligent, playful, and with a touch of tenderness. In this surprise evening, viewers will have the opportunity to get to know his influences and his thinking better through a selection of fragments and films commented live by the filmmaker. A playful and fresh approach, ideal for anyone who wants to laugh, be surprised, and rediscover that cinema can be many things.

Commented Film: ‘Linterna XL’: The Ball (Le bal). Thursday, July 9, 9:30 PM In the film club ‘Linterna XL’, Brays Efe and Miguel Agnes invite viewers to discover their favorite cult films, proposing an irreverent and luminous re-reading through talk, humor, and intelligence. On this occasion, they revisit Ettore Scola’s The Ball, a unique work that condenses half a century of European history through the universal language of music and dance. Considered one of the peaks of European musical cinema, it constitutes a deeply original cinematic experience that demonstrates the power of film to tell history without words. The screening will be preceded by a conversation with Brays Efe and Miguel Agnes.

Screening: Across 110th Street (Barry Shear, USA, 1972). Friday, July 10, 10:15 PM After a bloody robbery in Harlem, two very different policemen and various mobsters set off in pursuit of those responsible. Located on the symbolic border between Harlem and Central Park, the film mixes police thriller, urban violence, and racial conflict in an especially grim portrait of early 1970s New York.

Screening: Reír, cantar, tal vez llorar (Marc Ferrer, Spain, 2024). Saturday, July 11, 10:15 PM Toñi, a middle-aged trans woman, asks in a church to find a boyfriend. Shortly after, Lahcen, a young Moroccan immigrant who has just arrived in Barcelona, enters her life. Ferrer turns this improbable love story into a free mix of melodrama, comedy, and popular musical, crossed by humor, tenderness, and an affectionate look at urban and sentimental margins.

Screening: Un, dos, tres… al escondite inglés (Iván Zulueta, Spain, 1970). Sunday, July 12, 10:15 PM In a pop, zany Spain still suffocated by official grey mediocrity, a group of young people decides to boycott the song chosen to represent the country in a musical festival that openly parodies Eurovision. With that premise, Zulueta constructs an eccentric musical comedy, full of winks to youth culture, performances by groups of the time, and a visual energy that was absolutely anomalous in the Spanish cinema of its time.

Cine-concert: Hidrogenesse: A Cinema Concert. Thursday, July 16, 10:15 PM Carlos Ballesteros and Genís Segarra are the members of Hidrogenesse, the most "arty" group on the national indie scene. The duo returns to CinePlaza to hold a cinephile concert with songs that show their love for the seventh art and their admiration for the great divas (that Super Sara) with an audiovisual montage created by them for each of the tracks. Thus, Catherine Deneuve, Richard Burton, or Liz Taylor will accompany them in this adventure. To paraphrase their legendary song: "There would be nothing sadder than missing this homage to the seventh art and its unique universe."

Screening: Super Fly (Gordon Parks Jr., USA, 1972). Friday, July 17, 10:15 PM Priest, a cocaine dealer who enjoys a luxurious life in Harlem, decides to retire with one last big hit: selling 30 kilos to get half a million dollars. With a soundtrack composed by Curtis Mayfield, considered a landmark of soul and funk that exceeded the film itself in impact, Super Fly became one of the highest-grossing and most controversial works of blaxploitation.

Screening: Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman, Rwanda, 2021). Saturday, July 18, 10:15 PM In an African landscape made of electronic waste, coltan mines, and digital circuits, a fugitive miner and an intersex figure meet and unleash a poetic and technological revolt. An Afrofuturist musical, love story, and political fable, Neptune Frost imagines an anti-colonial queer community that fights global exploitation through music, vision, and hacking.

Screening: Barbarella (Roger Vadim, France, 1968). Sunday, July 19, 10:15 PM Year 40,000. Space adventurer Barbarella embarks on a mission to find a missing scientist and ends up traversing a universe of monsters, tyrants, camp eroticism, and psychedelic sets. An adaptation of Jean-Claude Forest’s comic, the film is a perfect capsule of the pop imagination of the late 60s. Science fiction, kitsch sexuality, and lysergic fantasy mix in a work as naïve as it is delirious.

Commented Film: Alberto Rey and The Witches of Eastwick. Thursday, July 23, 10:15 PM Since he began writing his blog ‘Asesino en serie’, Alberto Rey has become one of the most ironic and sharpest cultural critics in the country. Author of the book Peliculero: Un viaje sentimental por las series, películas y estrellas que han definido a una generación, few figures combine cultural analysis with a humorous tone as well as he does, something he has demonstrated in media such as Esquire, Icon, Vanity Fair, GQ, and El Mundo, among others. In this special screening of The Witches of Eastwick, Rey will comment live on this film starring three great female superstars of the 80s: Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer (in addition to Jack Nicholson, in the role of Satan).

Screening: Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, USA, 1974). Friday, July 24, 10:15 PM Foxy Brown swears vengeance on the criminal organization that murdered her boyfriend. Pam Grier, in the role that finally consecrated her as a blaxploitation icon, plays a heroine who subverts the genre's codes. She is the embodiment of black female vengeance, armed with intelligence, an unforgettable wardrobe, and a physical forcefulness that continues to inspire pop culture decades later.

Screening: And Then We Danced (Levan Akin, Sweden, 2019). Saturday, July 25, 10:15 PM Merab, a young dancer from the Georgian National Ensemble, sees his entire life altered when Irakli, a new partner, appears, awakening in him rivalry, desire, and a deep crisis regarding his identity. Set in a conservative environment where tradition weighs heavily on the body, the film turns dance into a space of discipline, conflict, and possible liberation.

Screening: The Knack… and How to Get It (Richard Lester, UK, 1965). Sunday, July 26, 10:15 PM A shy London teacher tries to discover the secret of seduction of his roommate, convinced that there is a formula for conquering women. Richard Lester takes that premise into a nervous, fragmentary, and playful comedy, an emblem of the Swinging London and a new youth sensibility that mixes sexual freedom, formal irony, and a critique of gender roles.

More information and tickets: cinetecamadrid.com