Fiction, documentary and animation, protagonists of ZINEBI in Bilbao

This edition of ZINEBI, which will be held in Bilbao from November 22 to 27, has received 3,196 films, of which 73 (17 Spanish productions and of them, 9 Basque) will take part in the Official Competition Section, opting for the Gold and Silver Mikeldis for the three genres in competition: fiction, documentary and animation. ZINEBI 52 will pay special attention to certain little-known aspects of British cinema, with a sample of recent film and video, which compiles some of the most groundbreaking audiovisual creations on the current scene. The unique experience of the Scottish Documentary Institute will also be presented.

The Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival, ZINEBI It will celebrate its 52nd edition between November 22 and 27. The competition will begin with a tribute to the Bilbao composer Luis De Pablo, who will receive one of the Mikeldis de Honor during the opening gala. The second Mikeldi of Honor, which will be awarded at the closing session, will go to the British director Nicolas Roeg, who has also had a brilliant career as a director of photography and has titles considered cult by international critics.

Once again, ZINEBI will offer the public the opportunity to see the best of world short film production, led by new filmmakers, filmmakers and artists who work with total freedom and without fear of experimentation, which gives their works a creative, innovative and in many cases anticipatory nature of the cinema to come.

Throughout the year, ZINEBI has received a total of 3,196 films, of which 73 will take part in the Official Competition Section, thus opting for the Gold and Silver Mikeldis for the three genres in competition: fiction, documentary and animation. Once again, ZINEBI breaks another record with these figures, since this year 231 more films have been received than in the last edition. Among the films selected for the competition, 17 Spanish productions stand out, and of them, nine by Basque directors.

On the other hand, it should be noted that ZINEBI is one of the few documentary and short film festivals in which the winners are preselected to compete at the Hollywood Academy Awards (Oscars) in the categories of short fiction, short animation and documentary.

ZINEBI's prize list is made up of the Bilbao Festival Grand Prix, the Basque Cinema Grand Prix, the Spanish Cinema Grand Prix, the Gold and Silver Mikeldi in the fiction, animation and documentary sections, the Silver Carabela for the best Latin American film and the Honorary Mikeldi, which on this occasion will be two. The festival also has three parallel awards: EiTB Audience Award, SGAE and Association of Basque Screenwriters Award for the best Basque script and the Cine Club FAS award.

The awards will be decided by an International Jury formed this year by the Russian filmmaker Irina V. Evteeva, the British director Emily Wardill, the Bilbao screenwriter and director Luis Marías, the young director Natalia Marín (from the Los Hijos collective), one of the main exponents of emerging auteur cinema, and the Argentine documentary filmmaker Ana Cacopardo.

As usual, the main venue of the Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival, ZINEBI, will once again be the Arriaga Theatre, where the opening and closing will take place, as well as the screenings of the Official Section. New this year, two new cultural spaces in Bilbao are added to the usual auditoriums of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Guggenheim Museum, such as the Cines Golem de la Alhóndiga and the Sala BBK-Gran Vía, with the aim of bringing the festival closer to a larger and more heterogeneous audience.

Mikeldi de Honor

The opening gala of ZINEBI 52 will pay tribute and present one of its Honorary Mikeldis to the Bilbao composer Luis de Pablo, author of the soundtracks of some of the most significant films of contemporary Spanish cinema and one of the representatives of the Spanish musical avant-garde. The second Mikeldi of Honor will be awarded at the closing session to British filmmaker Nicolas Roeg. Possessor of a long and brilliant career also as a director of photography, he has some films considered cult by international critics and festivals around the world. ZINEBI will present a retrospective, selected by himself, of some of his favorite films, including Walkabout (1971), The man who came from the stars (1976), starring David Bowie, and the most recent Puffball (2007).

And this year, ZINEBI's parallel sessions will pay special attention to certain aspects of British cinema little known to the public. In addition to the retrospective of the work of Nicolas Roeg, the festival has programmed, with the collaboration of film curator Ian White, a recent film and video exhibition, which compiles some of the most groundbreaking audiovisual creations on the current British scene, under the title Cold war for love. Recent UK film and video. Directors such as Emily Wardill, Redmond Entwistle and Ursula Meyer will present their work.

In addition, ZINEBI has scheduled a session in which the unique and successful experience of the Scottish Documentary Institute, which is simultaneously an audiovisual research center, training center and production company, will be presented. Its director Noe Mendell will hold a professional meeting on Thursday the 25th in the Auditorium of the Museum of Fine Arts with all sectors of the Basque audiovisual industry.

Other cycles

Beat Beatitude, The cinema of the beat generation. This cycle, of a markedly experimental nature from a formal point of view, includes testimonies by Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassidy and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Within the framework of this cycle, ZINEBI will offer on November 25, the concert of the musician, poet, cartoonist and experimental artist Laurie Anderson, who will present her latest album “Transitory Life” at the Sala BBK – Gran Vía.

In addition, the festival will offer a series titled "Spaniards in Paris. The Spanish exile filmed in France" (1945-1978), which will present some of the partly unpublished works of a group of Spanish filmmakers exiled in France after the civil war. This exhibition is made up of singular works by Joan Castanyer, Joaquín Lledó, Adolfo Arrieta, José Mª Berzosa and Fernando Arrabal, which will go to Bilbao for its presentation.

Another cycle will be "The Look of Michelangelo. Antonioni's short films and some documentary essays on his work" dedicated to the short films and documentary essays on the work of the Italian master Michelangelo Antonioni. The exhibition will offer one of the least known aspects of the Italian filmmaker's work, his production and making of short films between 1943 and 2004, and will be accompanied by several documentaries about his life and work made by several experts, including his widow Enrica Antonioni and Carlo di Carlo, who will be present in Bilbao.

In addition, ZINEBI, with the collaboration of other entities, will carry out the bilingual edition (Italian-Spanish) of the book Michelangelo Antonioni, documentary filmmaker, which will be presented during the festival and which he wants to rescue from oblivion and delve into the least known part of his extensive cinematographic work.

As in previous editions, ZINEBI will pay special attention to the most recently produced Basque documentaries. Bilbao director Javier Rebollo will present two of his latest works, both medium-length films: Architecture and revolution: Basque rationalism, y Bilbao in time. Pepe Azpiroz will offer That old moon of Bilbao, and Asier Abio and Jesús Mª Delgado will present Bilbao stories of firefighters. Finally, EITB will present the feature film Mugaritz, the unfinished kitchen, made by Gentzane Martínez de Osaba, Álex García de Vicuña and José Mª Argoitia. These sessions will take place at the Guggenheim Museum.