The Badajoz Iberian Film Festival hosts the I Iberian Audiovisual Coproduction Forum in its 23rd edition

Production companies, investors, professionals and representatives of the Administrations of both countries will participate in this professional meeting of the audiovisual sector of Portugal and Spain.

The Iberian Film Festival (FIC) begins its twenty-third edition with numerous activities that begin today and that are added to the official short film competition of Spain and Portugal, scheduled for July 19 to 23 in Badajoz, at the López de Ayala Theater in Badajoz.

In addition to its main activity, the screening of short films and the promotion of filmmakers from Spain and Portugal, the FIC covers new and different activities year after year aimed at film buffs, bibliophiles and music lovers. In this edition, it focuses on audiovisual producers and professionals, the group of women and, as always, university students and young people.

Its activities include the 1st Iberian Coproduction Forum, a professional meeting of the audiovisual sector of Portugal and Spain in which production companies, investors, professionals and representatives of the Administrations of both countries will participate.

This forum, which will be held on Friday, July 21 at the López de Ayala Theater from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., will bring together in Badajoz specialists from various areas of Spain and Portugal who will analyze through presentations the different ways of financing audiovisual and theatrical production, as well as the lines established by European funds within the Creative Europe program, such as Eurimages and Media.

The forum will inform about the Spanish-Portuguese co-production protocol in force and will address, among other topics, tax incentives for investment in audiovisual and theatrical production through the Economic Interest Groups (AIE).

Participarán en el I Foro de Coproducción Manuel Claro, coordinador ejecutivo del Centro de Información Europa Creativa de Portugal; Mabel Klimt, abogada y socia del Área de Cultural Deporte y Entretenimiento de Andersen Tax&Legal y Secretaria General de la Federación de Asociaciones de Productores Audiovisuales Españoles; Pablo Pérez de Lema, jefe de Servicio en la Subdirección General de Promoción y Relaciones Internacionales del ICAA (Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales) y Representante de España en el Fondo Eurimages; Nuno Fonseca, representante del ICA (Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual) de Portugal; y los productores en Potenza Producciones (España) Carlo D’Ursi y en Zul Filmes (Portugal) Fernando Centeio.

Within the forum and within the framework of the Iberian Film Festival, the film 'Hielo (Gelo)' (2016) will be screened in its original version, a Spanish-Portuguese co-production that has benefited from the opportunity of this protocol and will be presented as a success story by its producers, Fado Filmes and Potenza Producciones. The film is shot in Portuguese and Spanish and has been subsidized by the ICA (Portugal), ICAA (Spain), Eurimages, Media, and Ibermedia and the participation of the Portuguese public television RTP. The film will be screened on July 21 at 8:00 p.m. in the main hall of the López de Ayala Theater in its original version with subtitles. Admission is free until capacity is reached.

The Forum has the support of the Cabinet of Cross-Border Initiatives (GIT) and the collaboration of Foods of Extremadura (registrations, here).

An expanding festival

The FIC has evolved and expanded, reaching new audiences and new spaces. Last year the shorts left their natural habitat, the López de Ayala theater, for the first time in 22 years, and were also screened in other locations in the province close to Portugal, such as Olivenza, Villanueva del Fresno and this year San Vicente de Alcántara.

In addition to its main activity, the screening of short films and the promotion of filmmakers from Spain and Portugal, the Festival has included new and different activities year after year aimed at film buffs, bibliophiles and music lovers. In this edition the FIC hosts the I Iberian Coproduction Forum and also the Workshop RE-focusing aimed at women, taught by Extremaduran filmmaker Irene Cardona.

Within the framework of the Festival, the film program will be recorded in an event open to the public. The Seventh Vice of Radio 3, directed by Javier Tolentino, one of the most recognized film critics in Spain. A new book about the actor Juan Luis Galiardo will also be presented, titled Juan Luis Galiardo. Exuberant voracity, written by the historian and filmmaker Jesús García de Dueñas, who worked with the actor at the Official School of Cinematography in Madrid in the 1960s. Director José Luis García Sánchez, a friend of both, collaborates on the book. This activity will be complemented with the screening of the documentary Galliardo, directed by Agustín Pisonero and coordinated by José Luís García Sánchez and Pedro Costa, screenwriter, director and producer who died last year.

Another of the activities offered in its program by the 23rd Iberian Film Festival is an extraordinary concert by the Extremadura Orchestra, conducted by Fernando Velázquez, winner of the Goya Award for Best Original Music 2017 for his work in A monster comes to see me. It will be a concert of soundtracks by Fernando Veláquez with a 61-voice choir on Saturday, July 22 at the Badajoz Congress Palace at 9:00 p.m.

Another novelty will be the national premiere on July 23 of the Extremaduran documentary 5105. Story of a Mauthausen escape, directed by Diego González. This documentary tells the story of an escape, that of Agustín Santos, a young man from Extremadura who was in the Mauthausen concentration camp and managed to escape. Until that moment no one had managed to escape alive from that German extermination camp.
The well-known comedian Goyo Jiménez will be the master of ceremony for the closing of the 23rd Iberian Film Festival to be held on July 23 starting at 10:30 p.m. on the terrace of the López de Ayala Theater, where the awards will be presented to the winning short films of this edition.

Shorts in competition at the 23rd FIC

A total of 19 short films by Spanish and Portuguese filmmakers will compete at the 23rd Badajoz Iberian Film Festival, a benchmark for cinema in the Iberian Peninsula, which will be screened at the López de Ayala theater from July 19 to 23. These works have been selected among the 429 that have been submitted to the competition, of which 25 have been Portuguese and 10 from Extremadura.

Los cortos que podrá ver el público en la vigésimo tercera edición del FIC tratan una gran variedad de temas, en su gran mayoría ligados a la realidad más actual. Temas como el islamismo, la ecología, los trabajadores inmigrantes, la tercera edad o la violencia de género son abordados desde muy distintos puntos de vista, desde el intimismo a la comedia. Hay historias de amor poco convencionales y puntos de vista muy originales acerca de las relaciones entre personas y las creadas por las nuevas tecnologías.
También hay producciones de animación realizadas con diversas técnicas procedentes de Portugal. En los trabajos presentados predomina el nivel de factura técnica y narrativa.

Cinco profesionales vinculados al mundo del cine con una interesante trayectoria integran el Jurado Oficial del 23º Festival Ibérico de Cine. Daniela Fejerman, guionista de películas como I know who you are, de Patricia Ferreira, y directora de My mother likes women (2002); Semen, una historia de amor (2005); 7 minutos (2009) y La adopción (2015), forma parte del jurado junto a la periodista y guionista de cine documental Georgina Cisquella, que cuenta con una larga trayectoria en TVE, donde ha sido presentadora de programas informativos como Weekly Report.

También integran el jurado Juanma Postigo, director de fotografía y operador de cámara; la actriz Ruth Gabriel, conocida por sus papeles en su infancia en programas de televisión como La Cometa Blanca y Sesame Street y luego por películas como Días contados, con la que ganó el Goya a la Mejor Actriz Revelación (1995), entre otros importantes premios; y Alfonso Nieto, supervisor de Posproducción y Efectos Digitales.