The Tabernas desert enshrines the eternal myth of the "spaghetti western"

The 16th edition of the Almería Western Film Festival crowns Rada Rassimov and the eternal Eli Wallach

Under the relentless sun of Almeria, the myth of the Wild West continues to beat with untamed force and the province is preparing for the 16th edition of the Almeria Western Film Festival (AWFF) between October 8 and 12, 2026. From the town of Tabernas, where the gullies and imposing cannons served as a dusty canvas for Sergio Leone's imagination, the only film event in Europe dedicated exclusively to keeping alive the flame of spurs, duels in the sun and steely gazes. A festival that coincides with the sixtieth anniversary of the filming of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' and where the organization will pay tribute to the faces who chiseled the genre from this land.

"In recent years, AWFF has established itself as a window of encounter between the public and international filmmakers from the five continents," said Juan Francisco Viruega, director of the event, explaining that "this edition is especially dedicated to the bridge, an architectural element that, through artistic disciplines such as literature, painting or cinema, it has represented the connection between different cultures and ideologies."

Thus, the spiritual return of 'the ugly' to his 'Spanish Hollywood' will take place on Friday, October 9, at 7:00 p.m., in a scenario with telluric overtones: the fictitious cemetery recreated in Oasys MiniHollywood. There, the Leone in Memoriam award will be posthumously presented to legendary American actor Eli Wallach, whose interpretation of Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez continues to be claimed by filmmakers of the stature of Quentin Tarantino as the true emotional engine of Leone's masterpiece. His daughter, also actress Roberta Wallach, will travel expressly from the United States to collect the award from a province that already had the honor of receiving her father in life in May 2006 and in what was the last and unforgettable visit of the actor to the province.

Then, with 90 years behind him, Wallach collected the 'Almeria, land of cinema' award within the framework of Almeria in short, alluding to that "small town, without hotels, without cars, with few people, cheap and with a great climate", marveling at finding forty years later "a very beautiful and clean city". About Tuco, the ragged gunman who gave him immortality, he humbly acknowledged that he never imagined such an impact, but that "I had always thought I was attractive." The tribute act this year will include the recreation of a scene from the film, with the music of Ennio Morricone playing under the Almeria sky by the hand of the San Indalecio de La Cañada Musical Group. A commemorative plaque will also be unveiled that will seal the eternal idyll between the actor and this land.