The international competition of the 33rd edition of the festival includes 18 national works and 18 European, American and Asian productions, with a marked youthful spirit and a strong involvement in emerging talent
The winner of the Best Spanish Short Film Award will obtain the Golden Cookie and direct access to the initial selection of the Goya Awards 2023
The Official Section of the 33 Aguilar Film Festival, which takes place from December 3 to 9 in Aguilar de Campoo (Palencia), will feature 36 short films this year, of which 18 of them are international productions, while the remaining half are Spanish movies.
The highest competitive category of the festival has programmed a selection where fiction meets, with 14 short films; the documentary, with 11 titles; and animation, with 12, of which 4 of them are also of the documentary genre. The festival again combines titles directed by longtime directors with others made by new and emerging talents.
Among the first is David Pérez Sañudo, whose film Ane has recently been awarded three Goya Awards, which presents Watts, a film in Spanish and Basque that addresses the drama of a Basque cyclist who combines doping with confinement in 2020. Brandán Cerviño, is another young filmmaker who competes with A comuñón da miña prima Andrea (Best Short Film in Visions du Réel). He introduces humour in a documentary film where the point of view of a girl is shown, from the video edition, of the religious moment that she is living.
Guillermo Benet, who has just released his first feature film, Los inocentes, returns to Aguilar FF with It is amanejando, who like Sañudo also competes for the Castilla y León award. The Canary Víctor Moreno, with a long filmography of award-winning long documentaries and short, he jumps into fiction in Lovebirds, where the loneliness of a man in a hotel during the pandemic takes on surreal overtones.
Among the premieres in Spain of the 33rd edition of the Aguilar Film Festival we find Memory, a short documentary by Nerea Barros, winner of a Goya for Best New Actress for La isla mínima in 2014. It tells the living conditions of a family that lives in a region, where decades ago there was a sea that has now disappeared. The festival also hosts the world premiere of 25, a different and original documentary that combines a short film with a kind of videoblogging, all as part of a musical project by the singer Roberta Nikita.
In this selection, you will also be able to enjoy shorts made in film schools such as La fiesta del fin del mundo. This proposal was framed during the confinement, by the Madrid Community Film and Audiovisual School (ECAM) and recently awarded in Alcine. This work, directed by Gloria Gutiérrez, Paula González and Andrés Santacruz, is a journey through space and time of two people who, despite being confined, use technology to imagine themselves in other places together.
Other interesting bets are the Andalusian fiction short Calor infinito, by Joaquín León; and El Amor amenazado, by Héctor Herce, two rabidly youthful works, one of the dominant themes in this new edition of Aguilar Film Fes
Animation and documentary
The international competition offers outstanding documentaries, such as Imperdonable, by Marlén Viñayo from Leon, that short film deals with homosexuality inside a prison in El Salvador. This short film was awarded the prize for best short film at the prestigious IDFA and also awarded in Alcine. Descartes, directed by Alejandro Alvarado and Concha Barquero, is a short film that uses images of the first documentary judicially kidnapped in Spain. It combines historical investigation and formal exploration, in addition to the aforementioned Memory, Ecoutez-Moi and 25.
Four of the twelve documentaries of the Official Seccion uses animation, such as Las heridas de mi casa, a delicious miniature by Claudia Estrada. And Ecoutez-Moi, Paula Armijo‘s debut, and another example of the commitment to emerging filmmakers. This mix of genres also includes the American Forever, by Mitch McGlocklin. This story based on real events won Best Animation in Raindance after going through Sundance, Animafest, AFI Fest or Annecy. And the French VO, by Nicolás Gouralult, which also approaches the challenges of technology from the point of view of autonomous car workers and, even with an enviable festival career (Annecy, Hot Docs, Vila do Conde, Guanajuato …), premieres in Spain at Aguilar Film Festival.
The Spanish animations included in this competition are The last matador, a Hispanic-Finnish co-production directed by Katariina Lillqvist, a veteran of European animation, which proposes a satirical story and theatrical aesthetics. It mixes bullfighting with Vladimir Putin. And with a very different visual approach, the Spanish Ur azpian lore, by Aitor Oñederra, one of the great talents of Spanish animation; and Muerte Murciélago, by Carlos Sáiz, who after his celebrated La hoguera, leaps animation stand out. Finally, we highlight the presence of the French production Swallow the Universe, by the prestigious Spanish animator Nieto.
International short films
Along with the national works, the Aguilar Film Festival has programmed in its Official Section 18 short films from Finland, Mexico, Belgium, the Netherlands, USA, Argentina, France, Turkey, Romania, El Salvador, South Korea, Germany , Portugal, France, Iran, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Among the animations we find the German film Der Schornsteinsegler in which Frédéric Schuld is part of the documentary genre. This short has gone through such relevant festivals as Hot Docs, POFF / Talin Black Nights, DokLeipzig, Interfilm o Chicago and awarded at Regent Short Film Week, and Aesthetica Short Film Festival. Also, the short KKum (Kim Kang-min. South Korea), Audience Award and Best Independent Short Award at Otawa Animation Film Festival; Jeijay (Petra Stipetic, Maren Wiese. Germany), awarded by the Young Jury in Dresden and Easter Eggs, by the Belgian Nicolas Keppens, one of the most successful animations of the season, with more than ten awards to his credit at festivals such as Annecy, Berlinale, Brussels or Dresden.
In Flow of Words (Bots Eliane Esther. Netherlands) is an emotional work that gives a voice to the translators of the trials for crimes against humanity after the Balkan War. This short won the Best Director Award pardi di Domani in Locarno and the Best Documentary Award at the Hamptons festival. It completes the selection of international non-fiction works alongside VO and Forever.
The group of works of fiction in this competition includes seven impressive works. The American Fun sized trouble is a brave and provocative short film, which premieres in Spain at the Aguilar Film festival, where the director, Qiyu Zhou, is being labelled as one of the most promising and outstanding filmmakers of her generation. Creature from Argentina’s María Silvia Esteve is also a surprising new talent, after winning the Golden Leopard at Locarno. The co-production between France, Turkey and Romania Les Criminels (Karaaslan Serhat) is a powerful drama about a young couple looking for a hotel room, arriving at the festival after a brilliant journey, including awards in Sundance, Istanbul, Guanajuato, Lille or the Seminci.The competition is completed by the emotional humanist drama Luz de Presença (Diogo Costa Amarante. Portugal) Best International Short Film at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal; Be hichkas nagoo (Sahar Sotoodeh. Iran), Best International Short Film at Interfilm Berlin; the tragicomedy Coiffeur (Simon Zhou. New Zealand), Best Actress in Alfama Cinema; and the shocking L’effort commercial (Sarah Arnold. France), selected in Alcine, Rhode Island, Clermont-Ferrand and nominated for the Cesar Awards of the French Academy.
The international competition of the 33rd edition of the festival includes 18 national works and 18 European, American and Asian productions, with a marked youthful spirit and a strong involvement in emerging talent
The winner of the Best Spanish Short Film Award will obtain the Golden Cookie and direct access to the initial selection of the Goya Awards 2023
The Official Section of the 33 Aguilar Film Festival, which takes place from December 3 to 9 in Aguilar de Campoo (Palencia), will feature 36 short films this year, of which 18 of them are international productions, while the remaining half are Spanish movies.
The highest competitive category of the festival has programmed a selection where fiction meets, with 14 short films; the documentary, with 11 titles; and animation, with 12, of which 4 of them are also of the documentary genre. The festival again combines titles directed by longtime directors with others made by new and emerging talents.
Among the first is David Pérez Sañudo, whose film Ane has recently been awarded three Goya Awards, which presents Watts, a film in Spanish and Basque that addresses the drama of a Basque cyclist who combines doping with confinement in 2020. Brandán Cerviño, is another young filmmaker who competes with A comuñón da miña prima Andrea (Best Short Film in Visions du Réel). He introduces humour in a documentary film where the point of view of a girl is shown, from the video edition, of the religious moment that she is living.
Guillermo Benet, who has just released his first feature film, Los inocentes, returns to Aguilar FF with It is amanejando, who like Sañudo also competes for the Castilla y León award. The Canary Víctor Moreno, with a long filmography of award-winning long documentaries and short, he jumps into fiction in Lovebirds, where the loneliness of a man in a hotel during the pandemic takes on surreal overtones.
Among the premieres in Spain of the 33rd edition of the Aguilar Film Festival we find Memory, a short documentary by Nerea Barros, winner of a Goya for Best New Actress for La isla mínima in 2014. It tells the living conditions of a family that lives in a region, where decades ago there was a sea that has now disappeared. The festival also hosts the world premiere of 25, a different and original documentary that combines a short film with a kind of videoblogging, all as part of a musical project by the singer Roberta Nikita.
In this selection, you will also be able to enjoy shorts made in film schools such as La fiesta del fin del mundo. This proposal was framed during the confinement, by the Madrid Community Film and Audiovisual School (ECAM) and recently awarded in Alcine. This work, directed by Gloria Gutiérrez, Paula González and Andrés Santacruz, is a journey through space and time of two people who, despite being confined, use technology to imagine themselves in other places together.
Other interesting bets are the Andalusian fiction short Calor infinito, by Joaquín León; and El Amor amenazado, by Héctor Herce, two rabidly youthful works, one of the dominant themes in this new edition of Aguilar Film Fes
Animation and documentary
The international competition offers outstanding documentaries, such as Imperdonable, by Marlén Viñayo from Leon, that short film deals with homosexuality inside a prison in El Salvador. This short film was awarded the prize for best short film at the prestigious IDFA and also awarded in Alcine. Descartes, directed by Alejandro Alvarado and Concha Barquero, is a short film that uses images of the first documentary judicially kidnapped in Spain. It combines historical investigation and formal exploration, in addition to the aforementioned Memory, Ecoutez-Moi and 25.
Four of the twelve documentaries of the Official Seccion uses animation, such as Las heridas de mi casa, a delicious miniature by Claudia Estrada. And Ecoutez-Moi, Paula Armijo‘s debut, and another example of the commitment to emerging filmmakers. This mix of genres also includes the American Forever, by Mitch McGlocklin. This story based on real events won Best Animation in Raindance after going through Sundance, Animafest, AFI Fest or Annecy. And the French VO, by Nicolás Gouralult, which also approaches the challenges of technology from the point of view of autonomous car workers and, even with an enviable festival career (Annecy, Hot Docs, Vila do Conde, Guanajuato …), premieres in Spain at Aguilar Film Festival.
The Spanish animations included in this competition are The last matador, a Hispanic-Finnish co-production directed by Katariina Lillqvist, a veteran of European animation, which proposes a satirical story and theatrical aesthetics. It mixes bullfighting with Vladimir Putin. And with a very different visual approach, the Spanish Ur azpian lore, by Aitor Oñederra, one of the great talents of Spanish animation; and Muerte Murciélago, by Carlos Sáiz, who after his celebrated La hoguera, leaps animation stand out. Finally, we highlight the presence of the French production Swallow the Universe, by the prestigious Spanish animator Nieto.
International short films
Along with the national works, the Aguilar Film Festival has programmed in its Official Section 18 short films from Finland, Mexico, Belgium, the Netherlands, USA, Argentina, France, Turkey, Romania, El Salvador, South Korea, Germany , Portugal, France, Iran, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Among the animations we find the German film Der Schornsteinsegler in which Frédéric Schuld is part of the documentary genre. This short has gone through such relevant festivals as Hot Docs, POFF / Talin Black Nights, DokLeipzig, Interfilm o Chicago and awarded at Regent Short Film Week, and Aesthetica Short Film Festival. Also, the short KKum (Kim Kang-min. South Korea), Audience Award and Best Independent Short Award at Otawa Animation Film Festival; Jeijay (Petra Stipetic, Maren Wiese. Germany), awarded by the Young Jury in Dresden and Easter Eggs, by the Belgian Nicolas Keppens, one of the most successful animations of the season, with more than ten awards to his credit at festivals such as Annecy, Berlinale, Brussels or Dresden.
In Flow of Words (Bots Eliane Esther. Netherlands) is an emotional work that gives a voice to the translators of the trials for crimes against humanity after the Balkan War. This short won the Best Director Award pardi di Domani in Locarno and the Best Documentary Award at the Hamptons festival. It completes the selection of international non-fiction works alongside VO and Forever.
The group of works of fiction in this competition includes seven impressive works. The American Fun sized trouble is a brave and provocative short film, which premieres in Spain at the Aguilar Film festival, where the director, Qiyu Zhou, is being labelled as one of the most promising and outstanding filmmakers of her generation. Creature from Argentina’s María Silvia Esteve is also a surprising new talent, after winning the Golden Leopard at Locarno. The co-production between France, Turkey and Romania Les Criminels (Karaaslan Serhat) is a powerful drama about a young couple looking for a hotel room, arriving at the festival after a brilliant journey, including awards in Sundance, Istanbul, Guanajuato, Lille or the Seminci.The competition is completed by the emotional humanist drama Luz de Presença (Diogo Costa Amarante. Portugal) Best International Short Film at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal; Be hichkas nagoo (Sahar Sotoodeh. Iran), Best International Short Film at Interfilm Berlin; the tragicomedy Coiffeur (Simon Zhou. New Zealand), Best Actress in Alfama Cinema; and the shocking L’effort commercial (Sarah Arnold. France), selected in Alcine, Rhode Island, Clermont-Ferrand and nominated for the Cesar Awards of the French Academy.
OFFICIAL SECTION
25, de Roberta Nikita y Laura Put (Spain)
(A)Normal, de Miguel Parra (Spain)
A comuñón da miña prima Andrea, de Brandán Cerviño (Spain)
Be hichkas nagoo, de Sahar Sotoodeh (Iran)
Calor infinito, de Joaquín León (Spain)
Coiffeur, de Simon Zhou (New Zealand)
Creature, de María Silvia Esteve (Argentina)
Der Schornsteinsegler, de Frédéric Schuld (Germany)
Descartes, de Alejandro Alvarado y Concha Barquero (Spain)
Easter Eggs, de Nicolas Keppens (Belgium)
Ecoutez-Moi, de Paula Armijo (Spain)
El amor amenazado, de Héctor Herce (Spain)
El último torero, de Katariina Lillqvist (Spain, Finland, Czech Rep. and Sweden)
Está amaneciendo, de (Spain)
Ficciones, de Teo Planell, Alejandra Kikidis (Spain)
Forever, de Mitch McGlocklin (USA)
Fun sized trouble, Qiyu Zhou (USA)
Imperdonable, de Marlén Viñayo (El Salvador and Spain)
In Flow of Words, de Bots Eliane Esther (Netherlands)
Jeijay, Petra Stipetic, Maren Wiese (Germany)
KKUM, de Kim Kang-min (South Korea)
La fiesta del fin del mundo, de Paula González García, Gloria Gutiérrez Álvarez, Andrés Santacruz (Spain)
Las heridas de mi casa, de Claudia Estrada (Spain)
L’effort commercial, de Sarah Arnold (France and Switzerland)
Les Criminels, de Karaaslan Serhat (France, Turkey and Romania)
Los veo, de José Daniel Granados Carranza (Belgium y Mexico)
Lovebirds, de Víctor Moreno (Spain)
Luz de presença, de Diogo Costa Amarante (Portugal)
Muerte murciélago, de Carlos Sáiz (Spain)
Memory, de Nerea Barros (Spain)
Swallow the Universe, de Luis Nieto (France)
Towards morning I climb down and wander back into the house, de Carlos Balbuena (Spain)
Ur azpian lore, de Aitor Oñederra (Spain)
Vatios, de David Pérez Sañudo (Spain)
VO, de Nicolás Gourault (France)
Fuera de concurso:
Patología mamaria, de Teresa Marcos (Spain)
