It is not its usual date, as it is usually held in April or May, but the Lanzarote International Film Festival (FICL) did not want to miss its annual appointment with the public of Lanzarote and will celebrate its twenty-first edition between October 15 and 23, developing the screenings of the sections in competition between Monday 18 and Friday 22 at the Víctor Fernández Gopar “El Salinero” Theater.
After an edition, that of 2020, in which digital screenings were combined with face-to-face screenings, the FICL returns to face-to-face screenings in all its screenings and recovers many of the sections that could not be carried out last year. The meeting dedicated to the seventh art, organized by Fisme Producciones and the Culture area of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, rescues the Express Shorts contest (this year dedicated to the figure and work of José Saramago), the directed sections (Seniors without hesitation, Children's Shorts, Youth Shorts), the talks-meetings with film professionals, and even introduces novelties, such as the Film Showcase Contest, which rewards and promotes the creativity of local businesses while visualizing the FICL itself.
Official Sections, Children's and Youth Shorts, Seniors without hesitation
As always, the bulk of the program is monopolized by the five official sections in competition that, as already announced, bring together a total of 63 works from 28 nationalities. These are divided between International Fiction Shorts, National Fiction Shorts, Documentary Shorts, Animation Shorts and Canary Shorts and will be the ones that can be seen at the El Salinero Theater from the 18th to the 22nd at the symbolic price of 1 euro per ticket.
In turn, the screenings of Children's and Youth Shorts for schoolchildren on the island are maintained, with the novelty that this year they are screened in the 30 centers attached to the festival, instead of having to move the students to the theater. The Seniors without Hesitation section, in which the residences for the elderly of Tinajo, Tías, Haría and the Insular Hospital participate, is held today at the Arrecife Civic Center.
Express Shorts, Showcase Contest and Closing Gala
Meanwhile, the Express Shorts contest, in which audiovisual students from the Pancho Lasso School of Art participate, kicked off yesterday, when the 48-hour period to carry out the works began. This year it is dedicated to the figure and work of José Saramago (one of his books has to appear or be cited in the short) whose birth centenary is celebrated. The Jury of the Express Shorts is made up of Roberto Cabrera, Alba Cantón and Jose Pedro Carrión and can be viewed on Sunday, October 17 at the Multicines Atlántida in Arrecife. Free entrance.
One of the novelties of this year is the window dressing contest, in which the commerce departments of the Cabildo and the Arrecife City Council participate and whose objective is to promote the creativity of merchants when presenting their establishments and products, so that they are attractive to residents and customers, while contributing to promoting and boosting local commerce and business revitalization, as well as visualizing the Festival.
The Closing Gala will take place on Saturday, October 23 at the Víctor Fernández Gopar “El Salinero” Theater and in it the Jury will announce the winners and the awards will be presented. You can enjoy the winning shorts and musical performances. Tickets can now be purchased on the Festival website.
A jury of relevance
The Jury for this 21st edition is of national and international relevance. The one for International Fiction Shorts is made up of Imanol Uribe, Kimberley Tell and Christopher Gaziello (Gazz); the one for National Shorts María Pujalte, Usoa Ibarra and Roberto Casañas; the one for Documentary Gustavo Salmerón, Alberto Durán and Dariam Coco; the one for Animation Alex Zacharías, Rufina Santana and Germán Barrios; and the one for Canarian Shorts Carlos Santos, Nadia de Santiago and Daniel Jordán.
In addition to the FICL trophy and the €1,500 prize established for each category, the authors who are awarded in the Documentary Shorts category (only if it is a Spanish production) and in National Fiction Shorts will achieve pre-selection in the Goya Awards, a phase prior to the nominations that the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain will announce at the end of the year.
All the data of this 21st edition were presented this Friday at a press conference by the Minister of Culture of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Alberto Aguiar, and the director of the FICL, Ismael Curbelo.
Aguiar highlighted “the extraordinary work that has been done from the Culture area of the Cabildo and from Fisme Producciones to carry out this edition. The Festival is one of the flagships of the cinematographic, and cultural, programming of the Cabildo, and we wanted it to be resumed in person. In general, from the Culture area we are making an enormous effort to recover the cultural programming prior to the pandemic, with special emphasis on the cultural fabric of Lanzarote, and we are achieving it”, Aguiar clarified, who concluded by thanking all the collaborating administrations and companies.
For his part, Ismael Curbelo recalled that a total of 1,485 shorts from 110 nationalities have been submitted, “which we did not expect given the situation that has been experienced with the pandemic, which gives an idea of the reception that the FICL continues to have”. Curbelo also wanted to thank the collaboration of institutions and private companies and, as the Minister of Culture did, expressed the intention that the event return to its usual spring dates.
The FICL 2021 is organized by Fisme Producciones and the Culture area of the Cabildo de Lanzarote. It is sponsored by the Tourist Centers of the Cabildo de Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands. The Arrecife City Council (through the Culture and Commerce councils), the Commerce council of the Cabildo, and the private companies CICAR, Arrecife Gran Hotel and Clínicas JMD collaborate.
