Almost everybody is going to die very soon. Selected & awarded in a lot of festivals, including Quinzaine des Realisateurs and Sundance. Méliès d’Or to the best European Fantastic Short.
The experiment was a success: protomatter exists. Honorable Mention in Sundance.
Chema García Ibarra is an unavoidable name in contemporary Spanish cinema, a creator who has built a filmography as brief as it is fascinating, where the everyday is tinged with homemade science fiction, the absurd coexists with the melancholy, and the extraordinary erupts into the ordinary.
Welcome to the page of Chema García Ibarra, a filmmaker who has made the strange his raw material and the everyday his stage. This site is a window into his filmic universe, where wonder and strangeness slip into the most ordinary lives. Designed for both those who already follow his work and those who arrive for the first time, here you will find a guide to his short films, his recurring themes, and the recognition he has garnered at the most important festivals in the world. We invite you to explore a catalog of stories that, from apparent simplicity, open doors to the inexplicable.
The echo of the impossible in the domestic
Chema García Ibarra's short films take place in recognizable landscapes: peripheral neighborhoods, modest houses, dusty warehouses, summer afternoons that seem eternal. Yet, in those familiar settings, the unusual bursts in without warning. A divine presence manifests in a man's neck, primordial matter springs forth in a home experiment, unidentified objects appear in closed rooms. The filmmaker from Alicante handles the fantastic with disarming naturalness, as if the extraordinary were just another neighbor. His stories don't seek explanations; they simply show the moment reality cracks and reveals something strange, often with a mix of dry humor, tenderness, and melancholy.
That tension between the mundane and the miraculous permeates his entire filmography. Chema builds dense atmospheres with few elements: a trivial conversation, a strange ritual, a revelation in a low voice. His characters accept the wonder without fuss, and that restraint makes his stories even more unsettling. The result is a cinema that recalls magical realism but anchored in contemporary Spain, capable of making you smile and shudder in the same shot.
A career applauded worldwide
Chema García Ibarra's work has been selected and awarded at some of the most demanding festivals on the international scene. His short film ‘Almost Everybody Is Going to Die Very Soon’ won the Méliès d'Or for best European fantastic short film and screened at Directors' Fortnight in Cannes and Sundance. ‘The Experiment Was a Success: Protomatter Exists’ received an honorable mention at Sundance, while ‘They Say That If You Put Your Ear to the Back of His Neck, You Can Hear the Virgin Speak’ was shown at Berlinale and Sundance. Other works such as ‘Things appear suddenly in lumber rooms...’ and ‘The evening is ending and the shadow of the mountain falls over the town’ have shone at festivals like D’A Barcelona, BAFICI, Transcinema Lima, and the San Sebastián Film Festival, where the latter received a special mention and the award for best short film in BAFICI's Vanguardia y Género section.
These accolades are no coincidence: Chema's work connects with very diverse audiences because it speaks of the universal—fear, hope, strangeness before the unknown—from a unique perspective. His ability to infuse the fantastic with an almost documentary texture has earned him a prominent place in the European short film scene and the applause of specialized critics.
Unforgettable stories
Below are some of the most representative short films by Chema García Ibarra. Each one is an invitation to cross the threshold of the known:
Almost Everybody Is Going to Die Very Soon: A dystopian and absurd look at the certainty of the end, unfolding among everyday dialogues and an atmosphere of comic resignation. Selected at Sundance and Directors' Fortnight, it won the European Méliès d'Or.
The Experiment Was a Success: Protomatter Exists: A home experiment hits upon primordial matter, unleashing a chain reaction of cosmic and domestic implications. Honorable mention at Sundance.
They Say That If You Put Your Ear to the Back of His Neck, You Can Hear the Virgin Speak: The rumor of a miracle runs through a neighborhood: just put your ear to the back of a man's neck to hear the Virgin's voice. Selected at Berlinale and Sundance.
Things appear suddenly in lumber rooms, warehouses or in empty houses, always in closed and dark rooms: Inexplicable objects spring up in storage rooms and forgotten chambers, creating an inventory of the unusual. Presented at D’A Barcelona, BAFICI, and Transcinema Lima.
The evening is ending and the shadow of the mountain falls over the town: A Saturday night in summer, five friends with a car, alcohol, and music get ready for fun, while something unsettling looms over the town. Special mention at San Sebastián and best short in BAFICI Vanguardia y Género.
Delve into his universe
If you want to explore the complete filmography of Chema García Ibarra, with details of each project and links to the works, visit the Filmography section. There you can immerse yourself in a body of work that, short film by short film, draws a map of the strange and the wonderful.
