Casares is consolidated as the capital of Andalusian cinema with the eighth edition of the New Andalusian Cinema Festival which was presented this morning by the mayor of Casares, Pepe Carrasco, accompanied by the director of the event, Javier Martos, the Councilor for Culture, Roción Ruiz, and the head of programming, José Antonio Valencia, presented this morning at a conference press the eighth edition.
The mayor, Pepe Carrasco has reaffirmed the City Council’s commitment to Culture and the continuity of this event that offers the opportunity to enjoy cinema on the big screen and attracting Andalusian directors, actors and other filmmakers to the town They maintain a direct relationship with the public, both in the streets of Casares and in the interesting colloquia that take place after each of the screenings.
For her part, the Councilor for Culture, Rocío Ruiz, has referred to the strength achieved by the festival over the years, which has not even succumbed to the pandemic, adapting last year to a digital format and organizing this Edition taking into account possible limitations that may be dictated by the health authorities, although the outlook for now is optimistic regarding the allowed capacity.
The director of the festival, Javier Martos, especially thanked the Casares City Council for its support, which year after year remains the main sponsor in a firm commitment to culture. He also thanked Finca Cortesín, which, in addition to the sponsorship of other years, awards in this edition two economic prizes for the best fiction feature film and the best documentary. Martos also noted the effort that the entire organization team has made to recover a program as complete as possible, but that continues to comply with sanitary regulations.
José Antonio Valencia, as head of programming, pointed out that even though the entire cultural sector had gone through a difficult year 2020, Andalusian film production has managed to overcome this difficult scenario, given that they have received 60 feature films in fiction and documentary to participate in the official sections. As in past editions, 5 fiction feature films and 4 documentaries will be screened, all of them shot or released in 2020 or 2021, one of them being a preview.
Programming
The documentaries that will be screened are ‘Antonio Machado. Los Días Azules ‘, by Laura Hojman (Monday, October 4),’ Cachita. La Esclavitud Borrada ‘, by Álvaro Begines (Wednesday, October 6),’ Callejeras’, by Silvia Moreno (Thursday, October 7) and ‘An Island in the Desert’, by Rafael Robles Rafatal (Friday, October 8).
Among the selected feature films are ‘Juana La Lorca’, by Valeriano López Domínguez (Monday, October 4), ‘Las Nightadillas de Alberto Soto’, by Miguel A. Almanza (Tuesday, October 5), “El Inconveniente”, by Bernabé Rico (Wednesday, October 6), ‘La Mancha Negra’, by Enrique García (Thursday, October 7) and ‘La Vida era eso’, by David Martín de los Santos (Friday, October 8).
This year the award-winning short films will be enjoyed on the big screen at the Andalusian Short Film Competition the 2020 edition of the festival, which was held online. And as every year one of the most popular sessions is the one on Tuesday afternoon, when the creations of the Short Express Contest are screened, which have been filming in Casares in 48 hours since mid-September, and can still be performed until September 30th.
Training
The Festival continues dedicating new spaces to training. Throughout its 8 editions, the New Andalusian Cinema Festival has brought to Casares great professionals such as Mariano Barroso, Rafael Cobos, Benito Zambrano, Chus Gutiérrez and Alberto Rodríguez to offer high-level training. In this edition, it will have the director and screenwriter Jorge Laplace, known for award-winning titles such as ’30 years of darkness ‘, ’21 shots’ or the Amazon Prime series ‘Carolina Marín’, to teach a course at the Blas Infante Cultural Center on documentaries for platforms for three days, from October 5 to 7.
And he also dedicates a section to introduce the youngest to the audiovisual world with the talk ‘Animatronics, creating creatures for the cinema’, which he teaches in institutes in the region (Manilva, Estepona, San Pedro de Alcántara and Marbella) Javier Coronilla, Animatronics designer who has well-known titles in his filmography such as’ Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens’ (2015), ‘Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi’ (2017), ‘Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker ‘(2019),’ Rogue One ‘(2016),’ A Monster comes to see me ‘(2016),’ The return of Mary Poppins’ (2018) or ‘The Dark Crystal: the era of resistance’ (2019).
Camera Obscura 2021
In addition, the New Andalusian Cinema Festival brings to Casares a retrospective exhibition of the 2016-2020 photography contest that can be seen every afternoon at its headquarters in the Cultural Center.
And as every year the New Andalusian Cinema Festival will award the 2021 Dark Camera award which this year goes to Juan Sebastian Bollain, self-taught filmmaker who has created his own language away from the commercial rules of the industry.