The growth of the Lanzarote Film Festival in recent years has been astonishing. But this edition, the Festival goes even further. The organization has redoubled its commitment to quality culture and more than 70 people from different parts of Spain and the world are expected to arrive on the island. Brazil, Lithuania, Argentina, Chile, Romania, Italy, Cuba, United Kingdom, France, and a long etc. A mosaic of participants, countries and experiences that will also reach almost all the municipalities of Lanzarote.
From November 23rd to December 3rd, the festival will host screenings, workshops, hikes, children's activities, sessions for children, debates, meetings and educational conferences that will make up 11 unforgettable days to enjoy culture in the unique natural setting of the island of Lanzarote.
The president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, highlighted during the presentation that the Festival "has already become a benchmark for national and international independent film events, which gives Lanzarote an extraordinary added value in its cultural offer. Something that gives us special pride since we understand cinema as a powerful cultural tool and also as an economic and tourist driver."
For his part, the Minister of Culture of the Cabildo, Jesús Alexander Machín Tavío, pointed out that the Lanzarote Film Festival is "a festival rooted in the island, which branches out into the municipalities, in different environments, with incalculable natural and ethnographic values. And not only that, it goes further because it is also a family and didactic Festival because it even reaches educational centers. And this says a lot about us, because it cares about telling, transmitting and highlighting our traditions, our identity and what makes Lanzarote different."
According to Javier Fuentes Feo, director of the Festival, the objective of this edition is to "bring quality content and connect it with the territory, link contemporary culture with the natural and historical uniqueness of our island, and thus show Lanzarote as a place where quality, collaborative culture is produced for everyone."
The theme chosen this year for the Trasfoco section has been emigration because, as the director himself pointed out, it is "a fundamental issue for Lanzarote and for the history of humanity. Through cinema, we will analyze the origin, the reasons and the circumstances that led certain people to leave their homes. We will try to better understand how emigration works in our societies and how this phenomenon has marked the way of being of people of all types and conditions, but especially of the most disadvantaged social classes."
In the Trasfoco section, the Festival will feature a program of more than 25 films related to emigration, both classics of film history and current films. In the Official Section there will be five international titles that the selection committee has considered the most interesting of this year's film production and that will compete for the award for best film. And in addition, the Festival renews its commitment to films made in the islands and, in the Filmmakers of the Canary Islands section, five short films will also be screened in competition.
The 13th Lanzarote Film Festival is organized by the non-profit association Tenique Cultural and is sponsored by the Cabildo de Lanzarote, the Sociedad de Promoción Exterior de Lanzarote, through its product brand Lanzarote Film Commission, the Centers for Art, Culture and Tourism and the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts of Spain.
