film

The 17th edition of the International Animated Movie Exhibition of Catalonia, Animac, will take place once again in the Catalan city of Lleida, in western Catalonia. From the 28th of February to the 3rd of March, Lleida will become the capital city of international animated cinema once again, playing host to a large number of conferences, presentations, workshops and related activities about this entertainment industry. The exhibition’s program was announced in Barcelona at the CCCB, where the documentary maker Hanna Heilborn was invited to talk about her anti-slavery work ‘Slavar’. More than one hundred movies will be shown over five days in Lleida’s Animac.

The 63rd International Film Festival in Berlin is taking place at the moment through to the 17th of February. This year a film made by Catalan production company El Kinògraf is on show: ‘La Plaga’ (‘The Plague’ in English), a film shot by Neus Ballús, had its world premiere in Berlin. It is a combination of reality and fiction, presenting five different characters living around Barcelona at the time of the economic crisis. Ballús explains that the film is based on true life stories, real emotions, situations and genuine characters.

The Catalan ‘Gaudi’ Film Awards had a true international feel this year as ‘The Imposible’, directed by Barcelona-born moviemaker Juan Antonio Bayona, came out on top. Starring Ewan McGregor and Oscar-nominated Naomi Watts, the film won the six awards for which it was nominated, including Best Director and Best European Film. The Catalan-Spanish production ‘Blancanieves’, directed by Pablo Berger, was voted Best Catalan Film. Àlex Monner – famous for his ‘Red Band Society’ part – was recognised as Best Actor for the film ‘Els nens salvatges’ and Maria Molins won Best Actress for ‘El Bosc’.

‘Blancanieves’ with 12 nominations and ‘El Bosc’ with 11 are leading the race at this year’s Gaudí awards ceremony. They are followed by ‘Els nens salvatges’ and ‘Fènix 11-23’, who are also candidates for the Best Film in Catalan. The Premis Gaudí are organised by the Catalan Cinema Academy and they recognise Catalan productions or movies with a significant presence of Catalan artistic and technical staff. They also award a prize for European productions. Out of the 89 films in the competition, 30 have received one or several nominations, becoming candidates to receive one of the 22 awards. ‘The Impossible’, ‘In The House’, ‘Le Havre’ and ‘The Intouchables’ are candidates for the Best European Movie.

The world’s most important international film festival specialising in fantasy and horror films ended its 45th event in the Catalan coastal town of Sitges. Leos Carax wins the Best Director award. ‘Chained’, by Jennifer Lynch, receives the Jury’s Special Prize and the Best Actor Award for Vincent d’Onofrio. Alice Lowe, with ‘Sightseers’, wins the Best Actress Award. The festival has increased spectator figures by 3% compared to last year.

The second film by the Catalan director Juan Antonio Bayona stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival with the two stars in attendance. The main character Ewan McGregor faces the tsunami that devastated the Asian coast in 2004. The film will be released in Spain on October 11th.

Phonetastic Sitges Mobile Film Festival will be held next summer and aims to promote new audiovisual media and film distribution. The MWCapital, based in Barcelona as the organiser of the Mobile World Congress, and the Sitges’s International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia are organising lectures and workshops on the subject. It will be held with in the Mobile World Festival’s Summer Week, the week of cultural activities related to mobile technology that will be organised each summer. A new feature at the Sitges Film Festival will be an award for the best short films made using mobile phones and touch tablets.

With the short movie ‘La Culpa’ (The Guilt), the Catalan filmmaker David Victori has won Youtube’s ‘Your Film Festival’ competition, beating 15,000 other candidates. The award consists of a $500,000 audiovisual project which the winner will direct with the assistance of Ridley Scott as the Producer. Furthermore, the actor Michael Fassbender (Shame, Hunger, Inglorious Basterds, Jane Eyre and 300) will play the main character. The project will consist of a science-fiction mini-series with four or five chapters, which will be broadcast on Youtube.

The 10th edition of the Barcelona International Music Documentary Film Festival will run from October 25th to November 4th this year. To celebrate, the festival will screen the six best films from the last ten years chosen by a public vote in a section named ‘Your 10 Years’. Other initiatives this year include the introduction of the ‘Fan’ ticket which includes extra benefits and the launch of its online platform ‘In-Edit TV’ where it is possible to pay to watch the documentaries online. Alongside this year’s festival is the 3rd edition of the Barcelona International Music Documentary Film Market.

Catalonia and the Balearic Islands opened their own pavilion and exhibition at the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice on Monday. They are participating in the ‘Collateral Events’ alongside the official programme. The exhibit shows the work of 9 young Catalan and Baleric architects, focusing on an architecture with a greater human dimension.

Catalan filmmaker David Victori’s short film has passed a rigorous selection process and will be shown at the Venice Film Festival. His submission, ‘La Culpa’ which deals with the emotions of guilt and revenge, participated in ‘Your Film Festival’ that is organised by Youtube. Victori’s submission is one of the ten short-listed, out of 15,000 original entries. The winner will receive a prize of $500,000 for the production of a short film.

How can you reach out and touch the sky with your fingers? Is it better alone or together with others? Ram Devinevi and Cano Rojas give a clear answer to this question in their documentary which shows how three different cultures -the Catalan, the Indian and the Chilean- all with a common aim: to build the highest human constructions. A formidable challenge which can only be achieved thanks to the huge effort of three hundred bodies climbing and the technical guidelines of an experienced coach.

EVA has been one of the last hits of Spanish cinema. The success achieved by the science fiction picture has earned Catalan director Kike Maïllo five Gaudí Catalan cinema Awards, 3 Goya at the Spanish Film Awards and recognition at the prestigious Sitges and Venice film festivals. The success of EVA is not solely down to its director, but also to the Cinema and Audiovisual School of Catalonia (ESCAC), one of the most important film academies in the world.

Over 300 short films from more than 35 countries in 12 days. This is the summary of the 14th edition of Mecal, the Barcelona International Short Film Festival, which takes place in the capital of Catalonia until April 29th. In this 2012 edition more than 4,500 short films have been received, 1,000 more than the last edition (about 30% more than 2011). With these figures, Mecal becomes the most important festival of its kind in Spain according to the number of film entries. Mecal’s Director, Roberto Barrueco, explained that the festival’s objective is to show the best of work from Catalonia and across the globe.

‘La boda de la Rita: història d’una família iraquiana II’ ('Rita`s wedding: The story of an Iraqi family II') is the second part of ‘El viaje de Mazin’ (‘Mazin’s trip’), a unique Catalan documentary made in Iraq. The plot of the documentary talks about three Iraqis, members of the same family, who came to Barcelona in different moments.