Festival History

They say that the distance between two people is a smile, but between two cultures? Perhaps this is the line that bonds movies in the big screen, and from here the possibilities multiply: a long relationship with Latin America, different European feature films, documentaries, cult directors. And the lastest in technology to give life to one of the oldest short film festivals in Spain. Without doubt, to know our history one has to have lived it; nevertheless, we hope that this brief chronological history will help you know the festival a little better while you prepare your suitcase for the next month of June.

1973

The Festival is born within the Peña Recreativa Zoiti and its film club.
The first short film screened was Nehvizdat, prosim, by Ivan Urban (Czechoslovakia).

1975

Becomes an international Festival. The first short film to receive the Gold Danzante Award is El arte del Pueblo by Oscar Valdés (Cuba).
Inaugural section Cine para Niños, which remains to this day.

1976

Creation of the Specialised Critics Award, with no monetary endowment for the award.

1977

First Aragonese short film in competition: El otro Luis by Alejo Lorén.

1978

The Festival becomes an independent entity from the Peña Recreativa Zoiti which created it and becomes a national association under the name of Asociación Cultural Certamen Internacional de Films Cortos Ciudad de Huesca, being its own legal entity.

1979

The Festival reorganises its contests and its trophies are thus created: Gold, Silver and Bronze Danzante, and the Audiende Award.
The Festival now includes restrospective, informative and tribute sections.
Creation of the Jinete Ibérico Award, conceded by the the Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses, with monetary endowment, for the best Spanish speaking film. Nowdays, it is awarded to the best first work.

1983

Creation of the Federación Aragonesa de Cine Clubs, replacing the old committee in the Confederación de Cine Clubs of the Spanish State.
A square is named in honour of Luis Buñuel, and the Festival remembers him with a monolith by Javier Sauras, symbol of the tribute held that year for his death.

1985

Creation of the first festival newspaper, under the direction of Francisco García de Paso. He was editor for various editions as well as a great contributor to the Festival.

1987

Creation of the feature film section Muestra de Cine de las Comunidades Europeas which later becomes Muestra de Cine Europeo (Showcase of European Cinema).
For our contribution to European film integration, the Festival is awarded the European Parliament Medal.

1989

The Una vida de Cine Award is created. It is inaugurated by Julio Alejandro (scriptwriter born in Huesca) and Fernando Colomo (director).

1991

Creation of the Award Ciudad de Huesca (City of Huesca Award). Carlos Saura, born in Huesca, is the first in receiving this award.

1994

Creation of the Cacho Pallero Award, conceded by the then named Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana and nowdays known as the Agencia de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID).

1995

Holds the XXV Conferencia Internacional del Cortometraje (XXV Interntional Short Film Contest). Previously held in Barcelona (1979) an Bilbao (1984).
Along with the Festival de Valladolid and another 8 European festivals, The European Coordinator of Film Festivals is created. It consisted of over 250 representatives from film and audiovisual festivals from 25 countries of the European Union.
This year also sees the creation of the section El inicio: las Escuelas (The Beginning: Film Schools). Dedicated to the showcase of Film Schools.
Creation of the Francisco García de Paso Award, to the film that best emphasises human values.

1996

During the Festival there is a meeting of the European Coordinator of Film Festivals. The Bulletin 0 is published in both Spanish and English.

1997

Creation of the program Europa en Cortos by the European Coordinator of Film Festivals. This was to be a test program which would later be held annually.

1998

As a result of the huge amount of entries from Spain and Latin American countries, the Iberoamerican Contest is created, with its own jury and awards. It becomes a contest in its own right, separating it from the International Contest which until now was the one being held.
Creation of the Award Luis Buñuel (Luis Buñuel Award), with José Luis Borau, the first in receiving it.

1999

First Meeting of Iberoamerican Short Filmmakers within the Parallel Sections program. Consolidating itself in the following editions.

2000

Creation of the Award de la Juventud (Youth Award), with monetary endowment and its own jury formed by university students, and sponsored by the Fundación Anselmo Pié. This year it consisted of 24 photography and graphic design students from the Escuela de Arte de Huesca.

2001

Creation of the section No se quedan cortos (They Don’t Get Short).
Death of Fernando Moreno Visuales on 22nd March, “godfather” of the festival and who boosted the festival since its second edition and forming part of its Board of Directors. In his memory, a book collection, on works and studies on Spanish cinema, carrying his name was created. Various editions have since been published.

2002

Creation of the Award Ciudad de Huesca del Cortometraje (City of Huesca Short Film Award). The first to receive this award is Pavel Koustký (Poland).
Creation of the section titled Cine y Gastronomía (Cinema and Gastronomy), which includes the screening of a film and dinner at a restaurant in the city of Huesca.
Creation of the Concurso Internacional de Relatos de Cine (International Cinema Short Story Contest), sponsored by the Fundación Anselmo Pie.

2003

Beginning of the section Retrospectiva (Restrospective) on classic feature films that in 2008 would become known as Ventana Clásica (Classic Window).
As of this edition, the Critics Award will be known as the Award José Manuel Porquet de la Critica.

2004

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considers our Festival as a qualifying festival for its live action and animated short films for the Oscars.
The Silver and Bronze Danzante awards are now replaced by just one Danzante Award per contest, combining the monetary endowment of each previous award into one. The remaining awards are maintained.
Creation of the Aragonese Short Film Contest and the Award Los Olvidados (Los Olvidados Award), established by the Gobierno de Aragón and endowed with a studies grant in coordination with the Festival de Cine de Fuentes de Ebro.

2005

Creation of the Fundación Festival de Cine de Huesca (Huesca Film Festival Foundation).
The Youth Jury becomes part of the International Contest and its members reduced to five, two of them from Spain.
End of the European Coordinator of European Film Festivals and with it the end of the program Europa en Cortos.

2006

Creation of the European Documentary Contest, with its own jury, Danzante Award and monetary endowment.

2007

Collaboration agreement signed between the Huesca Film Festival, Universidad de Zaragoza and Diario del Altoaragón. This consolidates the program established the previous year, Miradas al Séptimo Arte, which continues in the following years and also with the contribution of the Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses.

2008

March 29th, death of José María Escriche Otal, founder of the Huesca International Film Festival.

2009

The Academia de Cine de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España, through our awarded short films, selects our Festival as a preselection candidate.
The Aragonese Short Film Contest is replaced by the Showcase of Aragonese Cinema, screening the Aragonese short films awarded for that year at the different festivals in Aragón.

2010

The European Documentary Contest is now replaced by two contests, Iberoamerican Documentary Short Film Contest and the International Documentary Short Film Contest, with a duration of 40 minutes and in video and film formats. Each contest has its own jury and Danzante award with monetary endowment.
Jurors are reduced from five to three in each of the four contests.
Creation of the cocktail Albertoni for the Cinema and Gastronomy section, in memory of Alberto Sánchez, its founder, who sadly passed away in 2009.

2011

Is implemented for the four competitions this year and following, as approved last year to admit the short films in film and digital support.

2012

Montse Guiu, patron of the Foundation, became director of the festival.

2013

The festival keeps quality of the competition overcome the cuts resulting from the economic crisis.

2014

A new management team, led by Jesús Bosque, the festival takes over to start the transition to a new organizational model.
The festival celebrates 20 years as batch controller Oscar winner Hollywood.

2016

Screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, honorary Oscar in 2014 throughout his career, receives the Luis Buñuel Prize in Huesca.
Paula Ortiz receives the City of Huesca award in her best year so far with her film “La Novia”.

ORGANIZATION

The Festival reports to the Fundación Festival de Cine de Huesca.

APPENDIX

Award Una Vida de Cine: Julio Alejandro and Fernando Colomo (1989), Jaime de Armiñán (1990), Andrzej Wajda (1991), Fernando Rey (1992), Concha Velasco (1993), Tomás Gutierrez Alea (1994), Francisco Rabal (1995), Nelson Pereira dos Santos (1997) and María Rojo (1998).

Award Luis Buñuel: José Luis Borau (1998), Michel Piccoli (1999), Silvia Pinal (2000), Patrice Leconte (2001), Aki Kaurismaki (2002), Jerzy Kawalerowicz (2003), Jean Troell (2004), André Techiné (2005), Pedro Armendáriz Jr. (2006), Vittorio and Paolo Taviani (2007), Bertrand Tavernier (2008), Theo Angelopoulos (2009), Angela Molina (2010), Elías Querejeta (2011), Stephen Fears (2012), Adolpho Arrietta (2013), Carlos Saura (2014), Laurent Cantet (2015), Jean-Claude Carrière (2016), Costa Gavras and Alex de la Iglesia (2017), José Sacristán (2018), Marisa Paredes (2019) and Isabel Coixet (2020).

Award Ciudad de Huesca: Carlos Saura (1991), José María Forqué (1992), Fernando Trueba (1993), Imanol Uribe (1994), Arturo Ripstein (1995), Gerardo Herrero (1996), Francisco J. Lombardi (1997), Manuel Gutierrez Aragón (1998), Bigas Luna (1999), Ventura Pons (2000), Juanjo Puigcorbé (2001), Vicente Aranda (2002), Zelimir Kilnik (2003), Mercedes Sampietro (2004), Julio Medem (2005), Gracia Querejeta (2006), Marc Recha (2007), José María Escriche (2008), Basilio Martín Patino (2009), Montxo Armendáriz (2010), José Luis Guerin (2011), Icíar Bollaín (2012), Adriana Ugarte (2014), Silvia Abascal (2015), Paula Ortiz (2016), Leticia Dolera (2017), Aura Garrido (2018), Rodrigo Sorogoyen & Isabel Peña (2019), and Anna Castillo (2020).

Award Pepe Escriche: Escuela de San Antonio de los Baños (2009), World Cinema Fund (2010), Cinergia (2011), Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia (2012), Filmoteca Española (2014), Cine en Construcción (2015), Pilar Martínez-Vasseaur (2016), Ibermedia (2017), Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (2018), Egeda (2019) and Bergman Chair (2020).

Award Ciudad de Huesca del Cortometraje: Pavel Koustký (2002), Tomás Wells (2004), Antonia San Juan (2005), Gerrit Van Dijk (2006) and Marivi Bilbao (2008).

Bruno Bozzetto (Italy) in 1976; director Antonio Mercero (Spain) with his productions for TVE (1977); to Charlie Chaplin in memoriam and to Alain Resnais (France) with his short films and to American documentary filmmaker and Oscar winner Robin Lehman (1978); to documentary filmmaker Bert Hanstra (The Netherlands) and to the short films of Kart Theodor Dreyer (Denmark) (1979); Cesare Zavattinni, Luís Buñuel (1983), Francois Truffaut (1984); Eduardo García Maroto (Spain) screening his series Una de… (1986); Estela Bravo (Cuba) (1988), short film Oscar winner Zbigniew Rybczynski (Poland) and his experimental films (1988), photographer Néstor Almendros (1992), and to the actress Marlene Dietrich (1992).

To Festival of Festivals: Clermont Ferrand (1993) and Festivals from Bilbao and Vitoria (1994); Filmoteca Española (1994), to the Aragonese Antonio Artero (1994 and 2005); Filmoteca de Zaragoza (1995); Filmoteca de Valencia (1996); British Film Institute: Peter Greenaway, Great Directors, New Filmmakers (1996); Argentine director Cedrón, un cineasta comprometido (2003); Daniel Montorio: 100 años de Música (2004); Julio Alejandro (2006); De la luz a la Oscuridad: Luís Ortega (Argentina) (2006); Pilar Miró in the tenth anniversary since her death (2007) and many others…

To Hans Richter, within a restrospective of german cinema in its day provided by the Deutches Institut für Filmkunde of Wiesbaden and Walt Disney (USA) (1976); short films of the nouvelle vague and Larry Semon (1977); Cinema of the Republic of Weimar (1977); Revolutionary Chilean Cinema (1978); Short Films with Oscars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1980), experimental works from Germany, France and Poland; documentaries on the Nazi extermination camps (1979); short films by Walerian Borowczyk Militant Iberoamerican Cinema (1982); Creación y desaparición de “NO-DO” (1982); Cine documental canadiense (1983), La guerra civil española (The Spanish Civil War) produced by Granada TV. (R.U.) (1985).

The Anti Cine short films by Javier Aguirre and Historias Impúdicas by Bigas Luna (1988); Cine argentino en democracia, with 8 feature films and 8 short films (1988), 50 aniversario de la National Film Board of Canada (1989); 16 episodes of section titled Metrópolis by TVE (1992). Un cineasta aragonés: Florián Rey (1993); Decenario: Luis Buñuel al cumplir 10 años de su fallecimiento and Latinoamérica en el Corazón: Cacho Pallero (1993).

El naufragio de la calle providencia by Ripstein (1995); Cortometrajes Neorrealistas (1998); El Hotel Eléctrico, un espectáculo multimedia sobre Segundo by Chomón with various short films and live music by Juanjo Javierre and Iberia Animada (1999); Centenario de Luis Buñuel, (2000); Tangos de Gardel (2001); Nuevo Cine Alemán –Tras el Manifiesto de Oberhausen, y Julio Verne en el cine (2003), Jean Gavin (France) and Anarquistas: La revolución traicionada.(2004); Phil Mulloy (United Kingdom) an animated short film series titled: Intolerance (2004).

In 2005, El Óscar más corto, Rulfo en el cortometraje. Kurt Gerron, entre el cabaret y Auschiwtz, Bailando con el demonio: Los films de Bela Tarr (Hungary) and Lisandro Alonso: Los caminos de la libertad (Argentina). Nuevo cine alemán en cortometrajes and San Antonio de los Baños: 20 años Aprendiendo Cine (2006); Nicolas Philibert, el curioso pertinente (2007), Mikhail Kobakhidze, (Russia) (2007), Humphrey Jennings (United Kingdom) and Larry Jordan (USA) (2008), Jens Jonsson (Sweden) (2009), Luc Moullet (France) (2010), Raoul Servais (Francia) (2011).

In our showcase of short films from various countries, amongst others, there is República Dominicana; 10 años de cortometrajes de Suiza (1979); de animación de Canadá (1980); México, íntimo y profundo (1999); 10 años de ficción del cortometraje brasileño (2000), from Chile (2004), from Peru (2005), from Hungary (2006), from Ecuador (2007), from Uruguay (2009).

Cartelería de Arte y Ensayo y dibujos de Eisenstein para Iván El Terrible (1977), Cuban film posters provided by the ICAIC (1978), 60 Years of Russian Fimmaking, The Kobal Collection, Luces de Leyenda (1998). La gran aventura del cine (1984) and 50 Years of Spanish Cinema, both by José Ramón Sánchez. Los Pioneros del Cine by Pablo Núñez (1985 and 1993); Polish film posters provided by the Instituto de Cine Polaco Film Polski (1976 y 1996), El Cine Neorrealista Italiano (1998).

Luis Buñuel, El Ojo de la Libertad y Soñar el Cine, backgrounds by the Filmoteca Española (1999); Luis Buñuel, Los enigmas de un sueño (2000); Julio Verne en el cine and Federico Fellini. Dibujos 1930-1970 (2003), México fotografiado by Juan Rulfo (Mexico), Gabriel Figueroa (Mexico) (2004), Film postres from 1915 to 1930. Collection Fernández Ardavín (2005), Libros y Carteles Anónimos by Alejandro Magallanes (Mexico) (2006); Carlos Saura: Los sueños del espejo (2007), Furtivos_Borau (2009), Benjamín Fernández: Director Artístico (Spain) (2010), and Sergio Belinchón. Western (2011).

The Festival has published 38 editions, one per edition and has edited over 50 publications, in different collections under the theme of filmmaking and the audiovisual.