The “Festival Internacional de Jóvenes Realizadores” returns with Musical Documentary as the program’s major topic

Film in Granada will collaborate by organizing an Industry Conference, aimed at professionals and audiovisual companies in Granada

The twenty-seventh edition of the Festival Internacional de Jóvenes Realizadores (Young Filmmakers International Festival) Festival has been presented via press conference with the announcement of the program’s main theme: the musical documentary. Each day from the 20th to the 24th of October, different artistic proposals that fuse film and live music will be available at the Isabel la Católica Hall.

Concerts and colloquia will accompany the screenings of pictures such as “Sisters with Transistors”, which tells the story of the pioneers of electronic music; “Paco Loco: Viva el noise”, an extravagant portrait of the emblematic music producer; and “Dardara”, a journey to the heart of the band Berri Txarrak’s latest tour. Experimental formats that will take Granadians into a diverse and surprising program, which will feature performances by Abraham Boba (León Benavente), Gorka Urbizu (Berri Txarrak), Ylia and La Trinidad.

Fátima Gómez Abad, deputy for Culture and Historical and Democratic Memory, remarked that the film festival constitutes “a benchmark in the discovery of new cinematographic talents. It is a festival that since its early beginnings has always been a priority for the Granadian Provincial Council”.

Granada City Council’s Councilor for Culture, María de Leyva, welcomed the attendees and wanted to “highlight the quality of the artistic proposals and invite the citizens of Granada and all the foreigners who visit us during these days to enjoy this great festival”.

Finally, director of the festival Antonio Miguel Arenas highlighted “the importance of developing a long-term project for the Festival Internacional de Jóvenes Realizadores, in order to give stability to a festival that deserves it and to a city that has a lot of talent, as the program shows”.

Aside from the news regarding the preview of Jonás Trueba’s “Quién lo impide” after its successful screening at the San Sebastián Movie Festival; and about Javier Tolentino’s honor award for his debut film “Un blues para Teherán” and its presentation at the Encuentro con realizadores (Meeting with filmmakers), it has been communicated that a selection of the festival’s program will be available online on Filmin (streaming platform) during the days the festival lasts, (October 20-24).

Besides, with the aim of strengthening the booming Granadian audiovisual sector, an Audiovisual Industry Conference organized in collaboration with Film in Granada (whose mission is to promote the province as the setting for filming audiovisual productions) will be held on Saturday October 23.

This international festival is going after an unpublished Andalusian cinema, free of genres, labels and without duration limit. This year it will have 4 national premieres and a world premiere, all selected after receiving 370 participation petitions. The final selection is made up of 13 short films, medium-length films and feature films from 6 different countries. All of them aspire to the Val del Omar Award for the best film, valued at €1,500, and the Audience Award, valued at €900.

The International Competition Jury is made up of the Director of the San Sebastián Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, the Granada-born singer and songwriter Soleá Morente and the cinema journalist Javier Tolentino, who will receive the Honor Award for his career at the opening act. In addition, a Young Jury made up of UGR students will be choosing the Youth Award winner, and the Andalusian Association of Women in Audiovisual Media will give the AAMMA Award to the best film with a gender perspective.

Promoted by Fundación AguaGranada, the Aguaespejo Competition invites to reflect on the relationship of the moving image with water and its environment. Water understood as a source of artistic expression and experimentation with audiovisual language, with the work of the Granada-born filmmaker José Val del Omar as a reference. The films that aspire to the Aguaespejo Award, valued at €600, are “Uhina” by Lester Álvarez, “El mar peinó la orilla” by Valentina Alvarado Matos, “Augas abisais” by Xacio Baño and “Urpean Lurra” by Maddi Barber. The jury will be composed by Jesús Villalba (Diputación de Granada’s Jazz Technical Office Director), Amparo Sánchez (leader of Amparanoia, singer, composer, producer and writer) and Fulgencio Martínez (director of photography and filmmaker).

The Palacio de los Condes de Gabia, the Andalusian Film Library, La Madraza, the V Centenario Space, the Faculty of Communication and Documentation, the Euro-Arab Foundation and the José Val del Omar School of Art will be other spaces that host events and screenings related to the festival, which will feature master classes, public debates, training activities and other reflective acts such as “¿Vamos al Cine?”. Under this topic, during the mornings of October 21 and October 22, La Madraza will host a series of talks and public discussions about the place of cinema in our daily lives. It will feature presentations by Pedro Torrijos (author of “Territorios Improbables”), Vicente Monroy (author of the book “Contra la cinefilia”), Silvia Cruz (film distributor), HJ Darger (cultural critic and influencer) and the projection of “Goodbye, Dragon Inn”, directed by Tsai Ming-liang and restored in 4K.