45th edition: from 18th to 27th october 2019
The 45th edition of the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival would like to be a dreamlike edition. Under the slogan Dreaming is Possible, FILMETS will be presenting 251 short films from countries around the world in its 26 Official Competitive International Sessions. Of those 251 shorts, there are 122 works of fiction, 115 animations and 14 documentaries. In total, there will be 41 hours of cinema.
This year’s edition will take place from 18 to 27 October. Admission will be free for all sessions.
And for the first time in the history of FILMETS, the festival is expanding to include a third city. In addition to its official venues in Badalona (Zorrilla Theatre, Principal Theatre and Blas Infante Theatre) and Barcelona (Institut Français), FILMETS will also have an official venue in Sant Boi, namely the Can Castellet cinema. Admission will be free for all sessions.
The aim of this expansion is for FILMETS to attract new audiences beyond the viewers that will be attending the screenings in Badalona and Barcelona. The Can Castellet cinema, in turn, is looking to increase its cultural offering and encourage Sant Boi to become a cultural centre in the Baix Llobregat area.
The United Kingdom, guest country of this edition
The United Kingdom will be the guest country of this year’s edition of FILMETS. At a politically delicate time for the United Kingdom, the country’s high-quality cinema will be arriving in Badalona in its short film speciality.
On Sunday, 20 October at 5 pm at the Zorrilla Theatre, a great evening of British cinema will begin at FILMETS. And it will do so with the ‘UK Geniuses’ out-of-competition session, followed by the International Session featuring the screening of films that competed for this year’s prestigious BAFTA Awards. During the session, the two short film winners and all of the nominees of the latest edition will be shown.
‘UK Geniuses’ with Alfred Hitchcock, Ridley Scott and Sally Potter
Under the name ‘UK Geniuses’, the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival has prepared a special gala session for this year’s edition. During the event, which has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of the British Council with FILMETS, the audience will be able to see works by Alfred Hitchcock, Ridley Scott and Sally Potter that are scarcely known for being examples of their forays into the short film genre. The screenings will take place on Sunday, 20 October at 5 pm at the Zorrilla Theatre.
During the ‘UK Geniuses’ session, the following short films will be screened:
- Aventure Malgache by Alfred Hitchcock
- Boy and Bicycle by Ridley Scott
- The London Story by Sally Potter
The BAFTAs in Badalona
The joining of forces of the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival and the British Council brings to Badalona the two short film winners of the 2019 BAFTAs, the prestigious awards of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which were announced on 10 February at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and the other six nominees.
These short films will be screened as part of an official competitive session which will take place on Sunday, 20 October at 7 pm at the Zorrilla Theatre.
The event will conclude with an audience Q&A session with some of the directors of the shorts, such as Paul Taylor and Angela Clarke, the producer Abigail Addison, and Greg McLeod.
The two winners of the 2019 BAFTA awards in short film categories which can be seen on screen at the Zorrilla Theatre are:
- 73 cows
- Roughhouse
The six shorts also nominated for the 2019 BAFTAs which can be seen on screen at the Zorrilla Theatre are:
- Bachelor, 38
- The Blue Door
- The Field
- Wale
- I’m OK
- Marfa
‘Flare Films,’ a session dedicated to LGBTI-themed films
The British accent that this year’s edition of the festival will have will be reinforced by the screening of an out-of-competition monographic session dedicated to LGBTI-themed films.
The session is called ‘Flare Films’ and includes nine British shorts that were screened at BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival. The short films show a variety of LGBTI experiences, but essentially seek to discover and highlight the value of love and people, regardless of their sexual orientation.
These films can be seen in a non-competitive session that will take place on Saturday, 19 October at 9 pm.
Five of the short films to be screened are also part of the British Council’s FiveFilms4Freedom programme, the LGBTI-themed online short film festival that has the greatest worldwide reach.
The British Film Institute’s BFI Flare festival was created in 1986 as a London festival for lesbian and gay-themed films and is one of the longest-running and most prestigious of LGBTI festivals.
Megan, a science fiction short, will open the festival…
FILMETS will open on Friday 18 at 10 pm with the short film Megan (2018), which is, in addition to the title of the short, the name of the protagonist, a young scientist involved in a military mission to deliver the antidote that can save mankind from a terminal threat, who is forced to fight for her own individual survival.
Megan is an informal sketch from the Cloverfield universe, the science fiction saga produced by J.J. Abrams. The film works as a small appendix to the trilogy of preceding feature films.
The work of the director, Greg Strasz, has gained the admiration of critics and audiences thanks to the spectacular visual effects crammed into the short film’s eight-minute runtime. Megan has won multiple nominations and numerous awards at festivals.
…and Detainment, a heartrending drama, will close it
The last film in competition that will be seen at FILMETS is Detainment, a heartrending drama and controversial story directed by Vincent Lambe. A gruelling chronicle based on transcripts of interviews and records from the James Bulger case, which shocked the world in 1993, involving as it did the murder of a two-year-old boy by two other children on Merseyside.
In January 2019, Detainment was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live Action Short Film category. Denise Fergus, James Bulger’s mother, expressed her disgust with the film and its nomination, condemning the filmmakers for not contacting her or getting permission before making the film.
The 30-minute short film is particularly notable for the impressive performances of the two child actors, Ely Solan (Jon) and Leon Hughes (Robert).
Tribute to François Truffaut
François Truffaut will be presented at the 45th edition of the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival in a special session entitled ‘Vivement Truffaut’ which will take place on Tuesday, 22 October at 7 pm at the Zorrilla Theatre in Badalona.
To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the landmark film Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959), FILMETS will be paying tribute to the French director. Clips from the work, one of the defining films in the history of cinema, will be shown during the session.
After the tribute to Les Quatre Cents Coups, two short films directed by François Truffaut will be screened:
- Les Mistons
- Antoine et Colette
A FILMETS with many shorts that are sure to make an impact
FILMETS will not disappoint anyone this year thanks to the very high quality and diversity of the short films that will be shown. The following four short films in different formats are a small sample of what the festival will be offering.
- Stronger Together, a short film featuring Ricky Rubio and a sick boy
FILMETS will be hosting the world premiere of the short film Stronger Together, the story of a poignant relationship between the basketball player Ricky Rubio and Luca, a boy suffering from cancer. The film will be shown on Saturday 19 at 12:30 pm. The documentary chronicles the boy’s struggle to fight the disease and how, once cured, he goes to an NBA match to see Ricky Rubio play.
- President Kennedy, protagonist of a short film
Kennedy is the protagonist of a short film at FILMETS. JFK vs THE AIR FORCE features the real voice of the president of the United States John F. Kennedy. This film will be screened at the Zorrilla Theatre in Badalona during the opening session of the festival on Friday 18 at 10 pm.
JFK vs THE AIR FORCE is an animated short that uses authentic declassified recordings featuring the voice of President Kennedy. A curious exercise in reverse dubbing, in which the images were synched to the dialogue.
- Le Mans 1955, the story of a tragedy
Directed by Quentin Baillieux in 2018, the animated short Le Mans 1955 is a dramatisation of Pierre Levegh’s accident during the race, still the deadliest in motor racing history, told with great rigour, spirit and efficiency, and visually striking. The accident involved a multiple collision from which the legendary Argentine champion Juan Luis Fangio emerged unscathed.
- Grenouille de cristal with Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Depardieu will be at the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival. At least on the screen of the Zorrilla Theatre in Badalona. The festival audience will be able to see his impressive performance in the short film Grenouille de Cristal during a session to be held on Friday, 25 October at 9 pm.
Gérard Depardieu will fill the screen with the role he plays in this short film shot this year which was written and directed by Slony Sow and also stars the actress Eriko Takeda.
Benjamin, played by Depardieu, visits Miko, played by Takeda, in Tokyo seven years after she saved his life in France. An impeccable mise-en-scene and magnificent soundtrack will delight the audience.
The Night of the Venuses, the climax of FILMETS
On Saturday, 26 October at 10 pm, the climax of FILMETS will take place with the festival’s Night of the Venuses, the awards ceremony in which the traditional Badalona Venus statuettes will be awarded to the winning short films. During the event, which will be broadcast by Televisió de Badalona and Xarxa de Televisions Locals de Catalunya, the short film winner will also be screened.
Maria Molins, president of the Official International Jury
The Catalan actress Maria Molins will be the president of the Official International Jury of the 45th edition of the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival. Accompanying Maria Molins on the jury will be Ruth Cantarero, Pascal Faure, Thea Marti and Motokazu Kawamura, all of whom have recognised prestige in the world of film and audiovisual culture.
All of the members of the jury are directly related to the film world. Maria Molins is a well-known Catalan film, theatre and television actress. In 2013, she won the Best Leading Actress Gaudí Award for her role in the film El bosc. Motokazu Kawamura, born in Japan in 1950, has participated in several films and television series, and has filmed in Catalonia with Eduard Fernández and Irene Montalà, among others; Pascale Faure is an undisputed short film specialist in France and, since 2001, has headed up Canal+’s Short Film and Creations Unit; Thea Marti has more than 30 independent projects behind her including short films, documentaries, video art and music videos; lastly, Ruth Cantarero is a journalist specialising in culture and art who is currently the short film programmer for TVE’s culture programme Metrópolis.
FILMETS OFF, other festival events
FILMETS OFF is a part of the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival that includes events and activities that are not competitive. It is in this section of the festival that screenings of short films will take place for third-year primary school and fourth-year secondary school pupils. This year, the films will be shown in Badalona and Sant Boi de Llobregat.
There will also be screenings for younger children in Badalona’s libraries. Several animated shorts will be shown with the aim of familiarising children from all of Badalona’s neighbourhoods with the world of short film.
Finally, the El Carme Cultural Centre will be a meeting place for professionals from the world of short film. On Tuesday 22 at 10 am, the Catalonian Audiovisual Cluster will be holding an event entitled ‘The Catalonian Audiovisual Animation Industry’. On Friday at 4:30 pm, an event called ‘Short Film in Europe: Distribution and promotion tools at festivals’ will be held.
Lesbos refugee drama
Finally, FILMETS will be hosting a preview of the documentary Lesbos, una illa que espera, a production by Badalona Comunicació with the support of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and Barcelona Provincial Council. It is a project that seeks to understand what is happening on the Greek island of Lesbos and in the Moria refugee camp, where thousands of people are living in very poor conditions. It can be seen on Friday, 18 October at 7 pm at the Zorrilla Theatre in Badalona.
