Bueu, December 14th, 2023 – The General Directorate of Cultural Industries, Intellectual Property, and Cooperation, under the Ministry of Culture, has today published the final resolution of grants for cultural action and promotion for the year 2023.

These grants aim to modernize and professionalize the cultural and creative sector through specific activities and projects that contribute to achieving the following goals:

• Promote the use of new technologies in the creation and dissemination of cultural content, products, and services.
• Increase the professionalization of cultural and creative industries and their capacity to generate employment by enhancing training, as well as improving gender equality in Creative and Cultural Industries.
• Promote the internationalization of Spanish culture and its inclusion in European networks of cultural offerings, enhancing Spain as a cultural tourist destination.
• Stimulate private sector participation in funding cultural projects, promote cultural patronage, integration, structuring, sectorial associations, and networks within the cultural sector.
• Promote links, cooperation, and cultural communication among Autonomous Communities; or contribute to the territorial balance of cultural offerings in Spain, especially through projects in rural areas.
• Promote cultural diversity, as well as promote the social projection of culture and environmental sustainability, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Among the nearly ninety selected projects is the first edition of the FICBUEU Residence, a program that has been granted €15,000. This funding has not only contributed to developing all phases of the program’s production but also opens the door to a second edition and the consolidation of the project at the national level.

“Sismes” by Jordi Sanz Angrill is the winning script of this first edition of the program. 

Bueu, December 7, 2023 — The International Film Festival of Bueu continues to develop initiatives beyond the competition that not only promote the visibility and appreciation of the short film format but also encourage its creation and development.

Short Film Promotion 

With this goal in mind, in October 2023, the organization carried out a new project, the I FICBUEU Residency, which is already one of the main activities it undertakes. The program hosted four filmmakers on the Island of Ons for a week, whose short film projects were selected from over 100 proposals. Galicians Alicia Úbeda and Ángela Andrada, Canarian Pablo Vilas, and Catalan Jordi Sanz Angrill were the participants in this first edition aimed at improving their projects.

To support one of the short films throughout its creation process, the festival included in the guidelines of the I FICBUEU Residency a prize for the production of the participating scripts valued at €15,000. After their stay on the Bueu island, the residents had the opportunity to apply what they had learned in numerous tutorials and specific training sessions led by professionals, completing the rewriting of their projects. It was during the month of November when the organization analyzed each of the proposals and their evolution to make a final decision, in which Isabel Peña, scriptwriter, and tutor during the residency, also participated.

Sismes, the first winning project of the FICBUEU Residency 

The organization announced today the resolution of the prize for its first edition of the FICBUEU Residency, which was chosen from the four participating projects and was awarded to Sismes, by Jordi Sanz Angrill and co-written with David Junyent. Sismes is the story of Mila (35) who, months after the mysterious departure of her ex-husband, returns to the volcanic island where they honeymooned – which she recorded with a video camera – and becomes obsessed with recording herself to recreate the supposed counter-shots of the images from the trip, in which only her ex-husband appears. The protagonist seeks not only to relive her past but also to unite and manipulate these images from different times to create a new narrative, a new memory.

The project, which according to its creator represents “an exploration of the malleability and mechanisms of memories and memory,” will be produced by the Galician production company Nortecatro Cinema and the Catalan Shoji Films during the year 2024.

FICBUEU in 2024 

At this moment, the organization is already working on the 17th edition of the International Film Festival of Bueu and the next edition of the FICBUEU Residency, which will take place in September and October 2024, respectively. The call for participation in the short film competition will open next December and will extend until April, while registrations for the residency can be made in spring.

In addition to the competition and the training program, FICBUEU works throughout the year to bring short films to the general public, children, and groups at risk of exclusion both in its environment and through international collaborations.