MORE THAN A THIRD OF THE 75 SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION WILL BE SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OUR COUNTRY, WITH SCREENINGS AT THE OLIMPIA THEATER AND ONLINE
THE EVENT WILL HOST THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THE DOCUMENTARY VILAS AND HIS DOUBLES AND LAS CLASES, THE NATIONAL PREMIERE OF DOGTANIAN AND THE THREE MUSKEHOUNDS, THE ARAGONESE PRESENTATION OF ARMUGAN AND THE SCREENING OF THE AMERICAN WESTERN FIRST COW
THE HOUSE OF SNAILS, STARRED BY PAZ VEGA AND JAVIER REY WILL OPEN THE SCREENINGS ON JUNE 11, CONCURRING WITH ITS PRESENTATION IN COMMERCIAL THEATERS
THE TRIBUTE AWARDS OF THE 49TH EDITION WILL GO TO MICHEL FRANCO (CIUDAD DE HUESCA CARLOS SAURA AWARD), CIMA (PEPE ESCRICHE AWARD) AND GONZALO SUÁREZ (LUIS BUÑUEL AWARD) WHO WILL PRESENT FOR THE FIRST TIME HIS LATEST SHOT FILM ALAS DE TINIEBLAS
The 49th Huesca International Film Festival officially presents the full program of the event that will turn the capital of Alto Aragón into the benchmark of the film industry between June 11 and 19. An appointment with the short film as a backbone, 75 works in competition (29 the international category, 30 in the Latin American category and 16 documentaries) distributed in 13 free sessions at the Olimpia Theater (at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., except from Sunday 13 with a single session at 4:30 p.m.) and also available online through the festival’s website (www.huesca-filmfestival.com). A total of 27 international and national premieres will be screened with more than a third of works from schools or debut films; These figures show the weight of the event within the sector and its strength as a launching pad. The festival will also offer feature film world premieres, exhibitions, presentations, round tables with the public, activities for adults and children, as well as tributes to some of the great names of the seventh art.
The event will open on Friday the 11th with the Pepe Escriche Award for CIMA, the Association of women filmmakers and audiovisual media, an opening day with a definite feminine accent since the first screening will be for The House of Snails. The debut feature film of Macarena Astorga -who has already made several short films-, is a fantastic thriller starring Paz Vega and Javier Rey which will be launched in Spanish cinemas at the same time as in the capital of Alto Aragón.
The other two tributes of this edition will be for Gonzalo Suárez and Michel Franco. The first one will be awarded on Wednesday June 16 in a unique event where his latest work will be presented for the first time: the adaptation to the big screen of the story Alas de Tiniebla; Gonzalo is one of the most prominent Spanish filmmakers since the second half of the 20th century. He has chosen Huesca to present his most recent short film to the general public. On his part, Franco, one of the most acclaimed Mexican filmmakers today, will collect on Friday, June 18, the Ciudad de Huesca Carlos Saura Award (handed in by the filmmaker it is named after) in recognition of his career; In the tribute ceremony, the festival will present Entre dos, the short film that gave him international fame after winning the Danzante Award in Huesca, as well as his latest work (Nuevo Orden), winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the last Venice Film Festival.
The feature film program will offer many premieres, with two world premiere documentaries: Las Clases from Orencio Boix (Saturday, June 12) and Vilas and his Doubles from Germán Roda (Thursday, June 17). The first one -produced by the COTEC Foundation for Innovation- was shot at the Ramiro Soláns de Zaragoza public school after the confinement; Starting from an analysis of the impact of the pandemic on students, the film deepens into the true challenges of the center: integration, prejudice, and interaction with the neighborhood, among other issues. The philosopher Marina Garcés and the education expert Carlos Magro discuss these issues while having a walk in the streets of Oliver, one of the most humble neighborhood of the Aragonese capital. For his part, Roda, together with the writer Manuel Vilas and the actors José Sacristán and Pepe Viyuela, relive the most important moments of their lives. A reflection on literature, movies, family, death, art and love, in the beautiful scenery of the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park.
Another of the highlights of the edition will be the national premiere of Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds. With the collaboration of CADIS, the festival will show for the first time one of the most expected animated films in Spain based on the iconic television series of the 80s, on Sunday, June 13, before its commercial premiere in the United Kingdom (June 18), France (August 11) and Spain (September 3).
The feature film sessions at the Olimpia Theater will also include the Aragonese premiere of the internationally awarded Armugán by Jo Sol and First Cow by Kelly Reichardt (presented at the Berlin Film Festival). Some screenings will be carried out for the first time in the Festival´s own DCP, to offer the city the opportunity to access a wide range of current and classical films.
EVERY CORNERS OF HUESCA WILL FEEL THE PASSION OF CINEMA
Instituciones asistentes a la presentación del 49 Festival Internacional de Cine de Huesca (Foto-Ana Escario)
The 49th edition will return to the streets of Huesca with activities such as the closing event of the festival (June 19) in Plaza General Alsina with a tribute to one of the great names in cinema on the 250th anniversary of his birth, Segundo de Chomón (Teruel). A show called The Electric Hotel revised (scheduled by the Huesca City Council into “Huesca Red de Cultura”) will combine live music from the Huesca composer Juanjo Javierre with Justo Bagüeste, with some of the most outstanding works by the famous Aragonese genius.
Plaza López Allué will once again host the get-together called “Vermú con…” (with limited capacity). Every day at 1pm, the porches of the grocery store “La Confianza” will receive some of the stars of this festival edition; the first one will be the “Violet Vermouth” on June 11 with the support of the Aragonese Institute for Women starring CIMA. Over the following days, the teams of all the premiere feature films will take over successively. The peak vermouth session will take place on Wednesday June 16 with Luis Alegre, who will present his book Farewell, Mr. Berlanga! (a tribute to the Valencian genius in his 100th anniversary).
With regard to the exhibitions, the festival will propose several options in different venues. One of them, the Manuel Benito Moliner Cultural Center will present 2 exhibitions from June 10: European Filmmaker portrayed and Cinematic. European Filmmaker portrayed curated by Oscar Fernández Orengo and organized by Acción Cultural Española, consists of 50 portraits of great European filmmakers in a surrounding they have chosen; many of them have been honored throughout the history of the Huesca festival such as Bigas Luna, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Theo Angelopoulos and Carlos Saura himself. The second exhibition is that of Raúl Suun’s manipulated photography which takes us to a cinematographic environment through the aesthetics of comic (scheduled by the Huesca City Council into “Huesca Red de Cultura” too).
The CAI Exhibition Hall will be another highlighted venues with Huesca, movie set (from June 8). A work by Iván Rodríguez that shows various photo compositions using the “matte painting” technique, also called “glass painting technique”, a special effect that consists of painting a very realistic set on a glass support placed in front of the camera. In this exhibition the viewer will be able to enjoy iconic scenes of the seventh art framed in well-known places of the city of Huesca.
The fourth show will be exhibited at La Carbonería, which is once again linked to the contest for another year through Cosmic Exile (from June 10) by Lorena Amorós. A series of drawings that recreate the incidence of science fiction and B movies in contemporary culture and current experiences.
Finally, from June 7 to 20, the city’s businesses will once again decorate their shop windows -taking inspiration in animated films- through the competition organized by the Huesca Business Entrepreneurs Association and Diario del Altoaragón with the collaboration of the Altoaragonés contest.
A FESTIVAL BY AND FOR ALL
The Huesca International Film Festival has a solid prestige, sustaining its work on and for the territory. Within the organizing team there is a strong will to reach a wide range of sectors and consolidate the love for the seventh art among all types of audiences. For that matter, an important novelty this year will be the presentation of the “Platino Educa” project, an initiative of EGEDA (Entity for the Management of Audiovisual Producers) with the collaboration of FIPCA (Ibero-American Federation of Cinematographic and Audiovisual Producers), whose the main objective is to educate and spread culture through cinema. This activity will take place on Thursday June 17 at 11:30 in the Provincial Council of Huesca.
On the other hand, there will be activities which will specifically address two population groups that the festival likes to pamper in each of the editions: the children and the elderly. This year’s activity “Children to the festival” is a collaboration with the program “Un día de cine” , which consists of an online stop-motion animation workshop: “Animating at school and with the family”; a course taught by the Goya Award-winning director Coke Rioboó. Furthermore, the elderly who are in various centers and residences in the city and who cannot come to the official screenings, will have their own proposal: “Elderly to the festival”; a selection of short films that brings them closer to the festival with films adapted to them.
The online parallel sections will serve as a perfect complement: a window to other audiences. The festival will repeat some of its classical activities such as the presentation of short films made by the students of the Universidad San Jorge and Zinentiendo, focused on the LGTBQ + collective, in addition to other proposals such as the online Aragonese Window that had a great success last year. Furthermore, CIMA in short will offer a selection of shorts directed by women -through a collaboration with the Embassy of Brazil in Spain-: the public will be able to view some of the most outstanding short films of recent years in the audiovisual of this American country.
All events are free, except from the feature film screenings and galas for which ticket are available on the website: www.huesca-filmfestival.com and at the Olimpia Theater box office.
THE WINNERS WILL SHARE MORE THAN 24,000 EUROS IN PRIZES
The 49th edition of the Alto Aragonese festival will give more than 24,000 euros in prizes, in addition to the Audience Award (sponsored by Aragón TV) that will be elected by the viewers of the sessions, both in the theater and online. The three Danzante Awards of each of the competitions in the official section will be awarded by their respective 3 jury members. The jury of the international competition is made up of the Spanish director and actress Nüll García -who won the audience award at ALCINE and in Huesca with her first short film as a director (Ferrotipos)-, Nathalie Martínez, a producer specialized in animation and CEO and founder of the Wise Blue studio -whose most outstanding works are Animal Crackers, Hero Dad and Blue & Malone. Impossible Cases (Goya Award 2021 for the best animated short film), and the Mexican director and playwright Mariana Gándara, also coordinator of the Ingmar Bergman Extraordinary Chair in cinema and theater at UNAM -the organization that won the Pepe Escriche Prize at the 48th edition of the Huesca International Film Festival-. Both Gándara and Michel Franco will participate thanks to the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC / E) through its Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE) as Visitors.
The Ibero-American contest will have three other members: Mar Abascal, a versatile actress as well as a scriptwriter and poet known to the general public for her role in the series Gym Tony, as well as other television productions such as Aída, Paquita Salas and La Veneno; Alberto Amarillo, an actor with an important career known for titles such as Fuga de Cerebros, El Camino de los Ingleses (role for which he was been nominated for a Goya for Best New Actor), El Internado: Las Cumbres and his latest project: La casa de papel -the Netflix Spanish series with the greatest international success-. The third member is the Venezuelan director, screenwriter, and producer Claudia Pinto: with her debut feature –La Distancia Más Larga– she has won outstanding awards such as the Platinum Award and the audience award at the Panama and Huelva festival, among many others; she is currently preparing the premiere of her long-awaited second feature film Las Consequencias.
Finally, the documentary jury will include Luis Lles, one of the most prominent names in Alto Aragonese culture in recent decades, who was also director of Peripheries, the International Theater and Dance Fair and the Pirineos Sur festival; and Juan J. Gómez, journalist and cultural professional who currently holds the position of Director of Communication and Content at the Ecotec Foundation for Innovation. The third jury member is the director Paula Palacios who obtained the nomination for the Goya Awards and the Torque Awards with her latest documentary, Cartas Mojadas,
