NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL FILM PROFESSIONALS MAKE UP THE TWO JURIES THAT WILL CHOOSE THE BEST SHORT FILMS AT FICBUEU 2023

Two juries made up of well-known and recognized professionals from the world of national and international cinema will be in charge of choosing the short films that will enter the list of winners of FICBUEU 2023. The Festival, which reaches its sixteenth edition showing the new trends in cinematographic creation, will screen from September 8, at the Social Center of the Sea in the town of Bueu, Pontevedra (Spain), about 90 short-format films from around thirty countries on five continents.

This year’s official jury is made up of the film producer and distributor Silvia Lobo, from Elamedia Estudios – one of the main Spanish audiovisual services companies, who participated in films such as La vida era eso or Luna Roja, in the documentary Trinta lumes or in series like Antidisturbios or Patria–; also the executive producer Manuel Monzón, from AContracorriente Films, who worked on multi-award-winning films such as La Librería, by Isabel Coixet, or the argentinean film El ciudadano ilustre; and the romanian Mihai Chirilov, with an important career as artistic director of different festivals, film critic and member of the European Film Academy.

Lobo, Monzón and Chirilov will decide which short films will win the first and second prize at FICBUEU, as well as the awards for the best Galician (CREA Award) and Spanish short films. They will have to choose them among the 28 finalist works that will compete in the official section of the contest, characterized by its firm commitment to authorial cinema. The films come from 21 countries: from Mexico, Costa Rica, China, Australia or the United States to Spain -with seven shorts, of which four are Galician productions-, India, France, Somalia or Iceland. Among them we find works that have already won awards at major festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Venice or Toronto.

Audience Award and fight against menstrual poverty

The spectators of the FICBUEU will once again develop a key role. They will be able to see the short films in the competition in the official section, which will be screened in the Auditorium of the Social Center of the Sea of Bueu between Monday 11 and Saturday 16 September, and they will decide which of all of them has their vote, which will serve to grant the Audience Award.

This verdict is so important for the FICBUEU that he even promoted a new initiative within the food collection campaign that is carried out during the contest: this year donations of feminine intimate hygiene products will be encouraged in response to the prize that the audience granted in the last edition to the short Spotless (Vlekkeloos), as a contribution to the fight against menstrual poverty and the harsh conditions that many women face for the simple fact of stamping.

Beyond the official section

The Descubertas jury will assess three categories: «Discoveries», «International Schools» and «GZ_00». The first will bring together the most innovative and unique pieces of the FICBUEU programming. This year there are six short films in competition: three documentaries (the Dutch Buurman Abdi, the British and Norwegian co-production A history of the world according to Getty Images and the Iranian Majmouan) and three animated films (the Spanish Bloom, the Finnish The Transient and the Hungarian Resting Fog).

For its part, the “International Schools” section, which shows works by students produced by film schools from around the world, will feature four pieces from the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and Germany. In the “GZ_00” section, which brings together emerging Galician talent, six finalists were selected: Solo, sometimes. Solo, a veces. Frágil, siempre, de Nacho Ozores; O neno sardiña, de Lucía Estévez; 30’ 70 60’ 120, de Marta Valverde; Na pel da memoria, de Laura e Coral Piñeiro; Malgrat, de Santiago Teijelo; e O coidado, de Miguel Canalejo.

The Descubertas jury is also made up of three professionals from different fields of cinema. Two are women: the director from Vigo Ángeles Fazáns, author of shorts such as Nacer en septiembre or Área; and the professor, photographer and researcher Nieves Febrer. The co-founder of the audiovisual production company LaCasaDigital will also give a master class as part of the Festival’s “II Conference on Cinema”, which will take place on Saturday the 9th around the theme “Everyday life and aesthetics of sensitive cinema”. Fazáns and Febrer will be accompanied on this jury by producer and professor Suso López, winner of a Maestro Mateo award for best production direction for the film DHOGS.

Awards ceremony and projection of the list of winners

The names of the winners of the different FICBUEU categories will be announced at an event to be held on Saturday, September 16 at the Social Center of the Sea in Bueu, starting at 11:00 p.m., in which the The Cine Gallego Award will be presented, awarded in this edition to the actress Luisa Merelas. The list of winners of 2023 will be screened in