This weekend, Cartagena lived and breathed cinema. Groups of young people and adults strolled through the streets wearing orange badges that automatically link them to the International Film Festival, which is in its 61st year.

AL DÍA News spoke with several attendees at the event to pinpoint the five must-see films showing during the festival.

In total there are 150 productions showing throughout the festivals run, but here are the public's favorites.

If God Were a Woman 

This Colombian film is part of the First Medellin Audiovisual Showcase at FICCI. 

It tells the story of Laura and her family in a daily struggle to bring them in line with her new self. Before, she went by Oscar, the boy she was until a few years ago.

La Roya 

The opening film of the festival was one of the must-see films of the weekend. 

La Roya tells the story of Jorge, a young man in his 20s, who is the only one of his friends who has stayed in town, taking care of the coffee farm inherited from his father. In charge of his sick grandfather, with a bittersweet relationship with his cousin Rosa and amid the majestic and imposing solitude of the landscape, Jorge spends his days determined to grow a crop that gives him more and more work and less and less money.

Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers) 

Pedro Almodovar's new film is part of the Special Screenings at FICCI 61. 

Its story tells of two single mothers who become friends when they give birth on the same day in a hospital. From that moment on, the connection they share transforms their lives. 

With Madres Paralelas, Penélope Cruz won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, which was also been nominated for eight Goya Awards.

Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)

This year, the festival pays tribute to Spanish actress Rossy De Palma, and the film in her honor is a must-see.

Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios was the film that gave de Palma her rise as an actress, making her a recurring icon in Almodóvar's films and catapulting her into a brilliant career with more than 60 films from different countries and directors. 

In Mujeres, de Palma plays Marisa, the girlfriend of Carlos (also a very young Antonio Banderas), who will be accidentally involved in the drama of Pepa (Carmen Maura), who is going through a complex situation. It's a feminist comedy that moves between the tragic and absurd. 

Seven Dogs 

This Argentine film tells the story of an elderly man who lives on the second floor of a building in Buenos Aires with the seven dogs. In conflict with the landlords, which does not allow so many animals, the man tries to find owners for some of them. With a careful and subtle central performance, it is a film of minimal dramas beautifully attuned to what Georges Perec calls "the infra-ordinary."