THE EVENT WILL AWARD THE CIUDAD DE HUESCA CARLOS SAURA AWARD TO ISAKI LACUESTA, THE PEPE ESCRICHE AWARD TO THE CLERMONT-FERRAND FESTIVAL, AND VICTORIA ABRIL WILL BE HONORED WITH THE LUIS BUÑUEL AWARD.
THE FESTIVAL WILL OPEN ON JUNE 7TH WITH THE PREMIERE OF ALUMBRAMIENTO BY PAU TEIXIDOR, A POSTHUMOUS WORK BY ARAGONESE ACTRESS LAURA GÓMEZ-LACUEVA.
A TOTAL OF 78 SHORT FILMS FROM 30 COUNTRIES WILL COMPETE FOR THE DANZANTE AWARDS, WHICH GRANT DIRECT PRE-SELECTION FOR THE OSCARS.
THE PROGRAM REINFORCES ITS PROFESSIONAL PROPOSAL WHERE FRANCE (GUEST COUNTRY OF THE EDITION) WILL HAVE A MARKED WEIGHT.
Manolo Pérez, Carlos Sampériz, Estela Rasal, Manolo Avellanas y Teruca Moreno
From June 7th to 15th, the 52nd edition of the Huesca International Film Festival will turn the capital of the Alto Aragón region into an international hub for short films. A total of 78 works in competition from 30 countries will vie for one of the three Danzante Awards, which serve as a pre-selection for the Oscar Awards and are endorsed by the Goya Awards. Filmmakers from around the world will be present to defend their productions throughout the 14 free screenings that will take place at the Teatro Olimpia (from Saturday 8th to Friday 14th; every day at 5:00 pm and 7:30 pm). This is the backbone of the festival, complemented by a wide program of parallel activities for all audiences: exhibitions, open-air cinema, professional meetings, project presentations, gastronomy, and distinguished guests such as Victoria Abril (winner of the Luis Buñuel Award) and Isaki Lacuesta (Ciudad de Huesca Carlos Saura Award). The third tribute of the edition, the Pepe Escriche Award, will go to the Clermont-Ferrand Festival, the world’s most important short film festival and the second most attended in France, only behind Cannes. France, Guest Country of Honor in 2024, will be another of the mainstays of the various proposals, especially in the industry section.
The event will kick off on June 7th with the presentation of two of the honorary tributes and the premiere of the feature film Alumbramiento by Pau Teixidor, thanks to the collaboration of Adicine. Two of the leading actresses (Sofía Milán and Alba Munuera) will be present in the Altoaragonese capital to support the feature film before its release in theaters throughout the country. It will also be a tribute to Aragonese actress Laura Gómez-Lacueva in one of her last works. “It will be a very emotional gala where people will enjoy themselves beforehand with the street entertainment and the photocall that always attracts many film lovers,” says Estela Rasal, director of the Huesca festival.
The feature film screenings will be completed with the premieres of Memory by the Mexican Michel Franco (Ciudad de Huesca Carlos Saura Award 2021) starring Oscar winner Jessica Chastain, and the French Les Indeseables by the winner of a Cesar and BAFTA nominee Ladj Ly. In addition, on Monday, June 10th, there will be a space dedicated to Aragonese audiovisuals (sponsored by Aragón TV) with the presentation of the short Los Armarios no se Vacían Solos by the Labordeta sisters (Ángela, Paula, and Ana) together with the documentary Ullate la Danza de la Vida by Elena Cid; the directors of both films will attend the event.
The last session at the Teatro Olimpia will have a Goya Award flavor with a double program where you can see the short and feature films that won these awards in the documentary category of the last edition: Ava by Mabel Lozano and Mientras seas Tu by Claudia Pinto (in collaboration with CADIS Huesca). The latter will be attended by its director in the city to support this moving story about popular actress Carme Elías’ battle with Alzheimer’s.
NIGHTS OF TAPAS, OUTDOOR CINEMA, AND SPECIAL SESSIONS
The festival evenings will also feature two special events where the organization will offer gastronomic and outdoor cinema proposals. On Sunday, June 9th, the “Cinetapas” route will take place, a reinvention of the classic “Gastrocine” that combines short films and tapas in outstanding locations in the historic center and in collaboration with the Huesca Provincial Association of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs. The proposal is complemented by a cocktail contest to choose the “Carlos Saura” cocktail.
On Friday, June 14th, cinema will return to Plaza General Alsina with “Lágrimas de San Lorenzo”, a special project by Pablo Berdún and Fernando Núñez that combines a short film with a musical album, all in a unique outdoor setting; two independent but interconnected proposals that can be enjoyed and understood in their entirety in this special performance thanks to the collaboration of ArtLab. This same square (General Alsina) will also be the central stage on Saturday 15th at 7:00 pm for the circus show Silencio, se rueda, by the Capicua Circus School.
In keeping with its public service spirit, the Festival will continue to bring the seventh art closer to the youngest and the elderly with “Children at the Festival” and “Seniors at the Festival”; two classic sections. The first will have a double session on Thursday, June 13th with various school groups from the city (already confirmed) and which will attract around a thousand schoolchildren to the stalls of the Teatro Olimpia; an introductory workshop on the creative process of cinema that is organized in collaboration with “Un día de cine” of the Department of Education of the Government of Aragon and with the sponsorship of Juguettos. The second aims to reach a large number of residences and day centers for the elderly with a session adapted to their concerns and interests, under the coordination of Jesús Bosque. The demand from centers has not stopped increasing year after year.
The nocturnal meeting point will once again be La Catalítica, a space where between Monday 10th and Thursday 13th a parallel program has been consolidated under the name of “Cortolíticos” which adds value to the overall edition. In addition to the premiere of the works of the students of the Universidad de San Jorge (Monday) and a special session of Zinentiendo (Tuesday), there will be two evenings where the “Guest Country” will be the protagonist; on Wednesday there will be a meeting where works from various French film schools can be seen, while on Thursday (“Purple Day”) a selection of short films made by women who have passed through Clermont-Ferrand will be projected, as part of a proposal developed in collaboration with the French Institute and the Huesca Women’s Film Festival.
THE FESTIVAL AS A TRAINING AND PROMOTION TOOL
A new avenue that has opened up this year is “The Film Festival in the Classroom”, a project that seeks to introduce the festival itself into secondary education to make it known to students and generate new audiences. The Pirámide, Lucas Mallada, Sierra de Guara, Ramón y Cajal and Escuela de Arte institutes, in the city of Huesca, together with the Martínez Vargas de Barbastro, have embraced the idea and have each made a short film; thanks to the collaboration of the Universidad San Jorge, ArtLab, UNED de Barbastro, Escuela de Arte and IES Ramón y Cajal (sound module). The culmination of all this action will be on June 8th (11:30 am) when they will be presented in the auditorium of the Huesca Provincial Council.
Other successful lines of work are the collaboration with the Planetario de Aragón, with a special session in Fulldome (June 8th; 6:30 pm); as well as the fruitful relationship with the Universidad San Jorge where among the multiple actions developed this 2024 stands out a talk (Monday June 10th; 10:00 am) sponsored by Aragón TV and where the filmmaker and teacher Lucas Castán will analyze the technical and narrative features that the works that are best received in their distribution phase have in common. In the same way, the symbiosis with the CDAN is repeated, which through its “Cámara oscura” will show Al Paso del Hielo by Dani Romero, a documentary that delves into the research carried out on the recession of glaciers in the Benasque Valley.
Exhibitions are an important area for the festival and the Manuel Benito Moliner Cultural Center has become their “home”. From Thursday, June 6th, We will be able to enjoy to enjoy “A cinematic past” by the Extremaduran artist María José Rodríguez Moreno; it is a historical and sociological review through a list of films that have marked her and with television (as an apparatus) as the common thread.
The Festival is also a tourist showcase for the filmmakers and guests who arrive in the city during those days and therefore various guided tours of the capital have been planned where, in addition to reviewing the rich historical and cultural heritage of the city, there will be brushstrokes of the artistic and audiovisual roots that it treasures. A walk where you can also discover the proposals of the local merchants participating in the “France and cinema” window dressing contest, organized by the Association of Entrepreneurs of Trade and Services of Huesca and Diario del Altoaragón, with the support of the Huesca City Council.
This section also includes the talk by the writer Oscar Sipán: “Theory of the six degrees of separation: How to get from Huesca to Woody Allen and other cinematographic curiosities” (Sunday 9th, 12:00 pm. Blue Room of the Huesca Casino). A way to immerse yourself in the links that connect the great Hollywood stars with the city and vice versa, and Aragonese actors who star in films seen by millions of subscribers through platforms.
Along with all this, both visitors and citizens of Huesca can come from Monday to Thursday to the traditional “Vermú con…” outside of Ultramarinos La Confianza. An informal and relaxed meeting with some of the most outstanding presences of the festival, all accompanied by the best local product.
A STRONGER PROFESSIONAL AREA EACH YEAR
The Huesca event has been developing important work throughout the year to strengthen the professional sphere, a clear reflection of this work is the industry activity area that has been expanded and strengthened in the last two editions. In 2024, the morning hours (11:00 am) activities will take place in the Blue Room of the Casino. On Monday, a masterclass will be held led by the two-time Goya winner Gaizka Urresti, which will address everything related to tax deductions to complement the financing of audiovisual productions; on Wednesday it will be the turn of a “pitching” for Spanish-French co-production projects (Organized with the Sponsorship of Aragón TV and the collaboration of Aproar together with the Cluster Audiovisual de Aragón), on Thursday it will be the turn of “Mujeres en foco” (co-organized with the Huesca Women’s Film Festival and the French Institute of Zaragoza and sponsored by Aragón TV) where, again with France and Spain as protagonists, various professionals will address the support and difficulties when it comes to producing, as well as where to learn and support each other to carry out the work.
The culmination of this program will take place on Friday 14th with the presentation of four feature film projects in different production phases: Cariñena, Vino del Mar by Javier Calvo Torrecilla, Queer-me by Irene Bailo, Astronauta by David Matamoros and Tierra Baja by Miguel Santesmases. A poker of titles where genres, fiction and documentary, first works and established directors are mixed, as well as works with a clear Aragonese flavor. The event will feature the directors of the films and part of their teams who will reveal unpublished images, trailers and details of these works that will see the light of day in the coming months.
In addition, the online channel will be maintained to see a great part of the official program for free and through the festival website (www.huesca-filmfestival.com). An open window for those directors and professionals who cannot physically travel, but want to closely follow the trends that the Huesca festival sets.
REPRESENTATIVES OF MEXICO, SPAIN, FRANCE, ITALY AND PORTUGAL ON THE JURY
The 52nd edition of the event will have a “top-level” jury as Rasal defines it. In the international section will be the Frenchman Eric Roux, president of the association “Sauve Qui Peut le Court Métrage” (entity in charge of organizing the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival); together with him, the Oscar-nominated Portuguese filmmaker João Gonzalez and the Goya-winning Aragonese filmmaker Nata Moreno. The Ibero-American competition will feature Armando Casas, president of the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences; Luca Apolito, programmer and head of cultural relations of the Giffoni International Film Festival, one of the leading festivals in both Italy and internationally for young audiences, and the Spanish actress Aida Folch (El artista y la Modelo, Amar es para Siempre, Cuéntame cómo Pasó). Finally, the documentary jury will be formed by Cyndi Portella, head of short film programming at the Biarritz Festival of Latin America; Jesús Garcés (El Sueño de Sigena), filmmaker chosen by ‘Forbes’ magazine as one of the 30 most creative Mexican directors of 2018, and the director of the Espiello Festival, Patricia Español.
The presence of Eric Roux, Armando Casas and Luca Apolito is possible thanks to the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through its Spanish Culture Internationalization Program (PICE) in the Visitors modality.
A group of top-level professionals who will decide the winners of this 52nd edition, which will distribute a total of more than 24,000 euros in prizes. The winning short films can be seen in a special and free session on Saturday, June 15th at the Teatro Olimpia itself (5:00 pm), a golden finale for an event that is “at a sweet moment both culturally and industrially, both citizens and industry agents support and feel the prestige and history of this event as their own,” concludes Rasal.
