Seminci – International Film Festival
Seminci is an International Film Festival held in the Spanish city of Valladolid. It was its 52nd edition this year, and once again I tried to watch as many films as possible.
There is so much going on during these ten days, that it is impossible to attend everything, even though there are several screenings for the films. The fact that the six cinemas showing the films are quite close to each other helps a lot. The main cinema hall is a theatre (Teatro Calderon) and that is where the opening and closing ceremonies take place, as well as some press conferences. However, I find it quite uncomfortable and it is more expensive, so I prefer the newer and more comfortable Cine Roxy. These two main cinemas are where most of the competition films are shown. The rest of the halls are for the screening of none competition sections mainly.
Along with the Official section there are others like Meeting Point, Time of History, Spanish Cinema and several cycles. This year’s cycles were Alberto Grimaldi, Spanish Costume Designers (which also included an exhibition with costumes and drawings), Cinema on Trial, Special Effects and Schools of Cinema (this year with the representation of ESAC – The Catalonian College of Cinema and Audiovisual Studies-).
In the Official section there are screenings of both feature lengths and shorts. Some are in and some are out of competition (never understood which the criterion is!) and there are awards both for the feature lengths and the shorts.
Jury awards for the feature lengths are Golden Spike, Silver Spike, Best New Director (Pilar Miró Prize), Best Actor, Best Actress, Best New Director of Cinematography, Best Original Music and Best Script.
Jury awards for the shorts are Golden Spike and Silver Spike and the Prix UIP Valladolid for the best European short.
Other prizes are awarded in parallel with the International Jury Awards, such as the Audience Prize, the Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI) and the Youth Prize.
The Audience Prize is quite a good idea, as people get involved quite a lot. There are glass cases at the entrance of the halls and you are given a voting paper with the title of the film screening at that moment. Each corner of the sheet has got a number from 1 to 4 and you have to tear the corner with the number of points you would like to give that film / short.
I usually agree with the Audience Awards and I guess that is what makes the festival more interactive and less frustrating when your favourite films / shorts are not awarded anything by the Jury.
Meeting Point section includes films and shorts that are worth consideration because of their subject matter or style, but also films from the past. This section also has an Audience Award for the Best Feature and one for the Best Foreign Short. It also includes the subsection The Night of Spanish Shorts, awarded by the audience.
Time of History section includes documentary films which compete for a First Prize and two Second Prizes.
Spanish Cinema section is for the most remarkable films made in Spain during the last year. It’s good for catching up with films you missed during the year, and since they are subtitled in English, it gives the opportunity to watch Spanish cinema for foreigners who don’t speak Spanish.
The winner of this year’s edition was, for the first time, a Spanish film: 14 Kilómetros, by Gerardo Olivares. It is a halfway house between fiction and a documentary. The title alludes to the distance between Africa and Europe and the film is about the journey of three African immigrants on their way to Europe. According to Olivares, we are only shown the end of the journey in the news, but this journey starts thousands of kilometres away from our seashores and it can take even years. The film is the result of a journey Olivares took in 2003 to Niger, where he was shooting a documentary on the convoys that cross the Tenere Desert carrying salt. There, he experienced the reality of those who struggle to leave their country in order to have a better life.
Unfortunately, I missed the film, so I will have to wait for its release at the cinemas now.
The list of awards can be found here.
I will try to write about my experience during this year’s edition on future posts, but meanwhile, I will post some pictures I took during these days.
I could not take any pictures of the Costume Designers’ Exhibition because only the press was allowed to, so if you are interested in having a look at what was showing in there, here is a link.
See if you recognize any costumes. There were designs from films such as Pan’s Labyrinth, Juana La Loca, Los Santos Inocentes, etc.
To conclude, just a thought (and I think there was a post on this matter some months ago, in which the author asked something on the lines of “what is a good film?”). Well, even though I tend to think it is very subjective and try to say “I liked / I didn’t like this film” rather than “it is a good / bad film”, after attending several film festivals over the years, I have come to the conclusion that a “good movie” could be the one in which you become engrossed even if you saw two or three films before. OR… that one that doesn’t put you to sleep at nine in the morning. But as I said, it is quite subjective, because someone could tell me that is not a “good film”, but an interesting plot (and that, according to me!). And the opposite would not be a “bad film” but a boring one (or one that doesn’t say anything to me!). In any case, I saw some films that bored me to death… I guess one must struggle through certain films in order to appreciate others!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Monica,
Thank’s for this!!! Have been seeing as many films as possible at the AFI Film Fest here in California, there is something so exciting about a festival – including that feeling that cinema is always fresh and that there is always something new to see! Can’t wait to read more of your reviews, especially since there are very few Spanish films making there way to the states this year…
Love the pictures, welcome back!!!
Oh yeah, I forgot.
The film that won awards for Best New Director and Best Screenplay, “The Band’s Visit”, I saw this last weekend. It is an Israeli film, and one of the best, sweetest, funniest most wonderful films I have seen all year. I highly recommend this to anyone who gets the chance to see it….
Thanks, t! I will try to write about a few Spanish films (or films in Spanish language, anyway).
Regarding “The Band’s Visit”… well, well, well, you guessed which film I gave my 4 points to! ;) It was my favourite film along with “Esemble, c’est tout”.
Totally loved it. I was planning to write about it tomorrow. :d
Damn Monica, even we gave 4 to Band’s Visit here at AFI!
Monica…
I just met a Spanish GOD tonight.
His Highness Javier Bardem!
He was waiting outside the restroom & so was I. Congratulated him on the excellent performance in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN & everything else.
Josh Grolin & him were hilarious in the QnA.
Spoke to Grolin outside as he didnt have a lighter. Saw him in 2 big movies in 2 days.
*************
Last Film – No Country for Old Men (7.5/10)
Oz,
I am glad the film is doing so well in festivals across the World. Hopefully this will help get a release at cinemas and on DVD here, because I hate it when I don