Achievement, identity, freedom: stories for a young audience

The festival will screen almost 20 premiere titles and two short film programs, in a scheme that is a referential event in Europe

After the success of several of the films included in this year programme at festivals such as Sundance, Berlin and Locarno, Cinephiles of the Future reveals itself as a section that welcomes the most eager and approaching cinema to new audiences

Nearly 20 premieres, short film programmes, cinema for babies, workshops and meetings with directors make up the sections aimed at young audiences at the 16th Seville Festival. An offer that is a benchmark in Europe and which has been released this Wednesday. This year's edition, will be held from the 8th to the 16th of November, with films that sweep away prefabricated cinema for children and teenagers. It does so, however, by focusing directly on the concerns and interests of young people.

The San Isidoro high school hosted the presentation of the Junior Europe and Cinephiles of thr Future sections, for educational centres, and the Family Cinema cycle, for all audiences, including babies and toddlers. A line-up of films in which viewers will relate to issues such as parental conflicts, the search for identity or freedom and the transition to maturity. The idea is to bring cinema closer to young people through stories that connect with their problems, doubts and desires. María Luisa Gómez Castaño, Education delegate of the Seville City Council; Javier Rivera, coordinator of the Andalusian Agency for Cultural Institutions; Manuel Martín González, head of the Educational Plans and Programmes Service of the Department of Education and Sport; José Luis Cienfuegos, Festival director; and Javier H. Estrada, head of Programming, participated in the launching.

Attendance record

For the local government, explained María Luisa Gómez Castaño, it is a challenge to attract new audiences to film culture. A goal that the Festival has assumed for years with a great outcome. "During the last edition, more than 28,000 students participated in these sections, figures that makes us leaders in film projections aimed at young people. In addition, the delegate said, the number of centres involved has tripled from 2012 to 2018: "We can brag about having one of the only festivals that dedicate the greatest efforts to young audiences. Cinema is a fundamental tool when it comes to education, as shown by the selection of the 16th edition, in which young people are both spectators and protagonists".

For the past two editions, there have been two educational sections, taking into account the need to offer an appropriate and interesting programme for each age group: Junior Europe, aimed at children from 4 to 11 years old, and Cinephiles of the Future, for those over 12. Several of the films selected will compete for the two prizes, one for each section, which will be decided by young viewers through their votes. Most of the passes will include encounters with the film directors. In the section, Cinephiles of the Future, almost all of the filmmakers will be present to introduce their films. Which will be accompanied by a didactic guide published by the Seville City Council.

For the younger ones, the weekends of the Festival will focus on Family Cinema sessions, with a program of enjoyable short films for all ages - including babies and young children - seeking to offer the youngsters their first cinematic experience.

Spanish premieres that have been crowned with success at Sundance, Berlin and Locarno

According to José Luis Cienfuegos, the Festival team has managed to be at the forefront of this type of programming. "It's not just about programming films, but also to know how to implement them, so we can offer younger audiences, who today are less innocent, films that expose them to new ways of dealing with reality. Cienfuegos has thanked the involvement of the education sector and collaborating institutions, which include Fundación Banco Sabadell as well as the East Zone Cinemas. Many of the films, the director has expanded, come from being awarded at major festivals such as Sundance, Berlin or Locarno.

Among the premieres included in the festival stand out cases such as 'The famous bear invasion in Sicily'. A film that José Luis Cienfuegos said "is the second time that a film from the Official Section also competes in the educational sections of the Festival. Like 'Ruben Brandt, collector', it shows the respect and care with which the programme for young people has been designed". This title marks the debut of the master illustrator and comic Lorenzo Mattotti as a filmmaker, and is based on a story by the novelist Dino Buzzati.

You can also see the phenomenon 'School Life', which has remained for two consecutive weeks as the most watched film in France. Based on the experiences of its directors Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade, it reflects in a humorous and non-judgemental way the relationship between teachers and students in a school in the suburbs of a big city.

Other outstanding titles for young audiences are 'Days of the Bagnold Summer', an adaptation of Joff Winterhart's comic with an original soundtrack by the group Belle & Sebastian; 'Gender Derby', a surprising and truthful portrait of a transgender teenager; 'Louis & Luca- Mission to the Moon', with which Norwegian Rasmus A. Sivertsen returns to the Festival after the acclaimed ‘In the Forest of Huckybucky'; or 'Jacob, Mimmi & the Talking Dogs', another prime example of the great moment in European animation.

In a special out-of-competition session, 'Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles' will be screened, a Spanish animated film that won the Jury Prize at the Annecy Film Festival and features José Luis Ágreda and José Manuel Piñero from Seville; and 'La inocencia', by Lucía Alemany, whose youth memories have conquered the San Sebastián Film Festival for its vibrancy. Thus, up to 20 feature films can now be consulted on the SEFF website.

The most prestigious Film Schools, the ECAM and the ESCAC at the Seville European Film Festival

As in previous editions, the City Council organises a programme of around 200 workshops in educational centres, with the aim of making cinema a useful and versatile formative tool.

The Andalusian Regional Government is expanding its collaboration in this edition by increasing its educational offer which will include 15 audiovisual narrative workshops for middle and high school students offered by the Cinema Classroom programme, which is also the framework for a training workshop given by the ESCAC (Catalan School of Cinema and Audiovisuals) for teachers interested in applying audiovisual narrative to their classes. In addition, the Andalusian Agency of Cultural Institutions will offer a workshop aimed at teenagers and given by the filmmaker Paco Baños, which will tell the process of creating a picture.

According to Javier Rivera, coordinator of the Agency, "with the Cinema Classroom programme, the Regional Government of Andalusia addresses the importance and need to create new audiences from the educational platform of schools, giving students the chance to know and love cinema". Rivera stressed the willingness of this program to "break traditional unidirectional forms with students. In general, students who make films will see more cinema and treat it with greater respect and sensitivity".

For primary education cycles, the Festival will organise a workshop given by teachers from the ECAM (Madrid Film and Audiovisual School) that will help the students attending to become familiar with the cinema language, giving them the opportunity to get to know the pioneering devices of the moving pictures, to take a tour around the crafts of cinema and to discover films that have marked their history.

Finally, within the framework of these educational activities, the film 'How to Fake a War', another of those that make up the Cinephiles of the Future section, will be the focus of a special session on the power of image and fake news. An event in which the Audiovisual Council of Andalusia collaborates and which will be attended by the film director, Rudolph Herzog.

The presentation of the educational sections of the Festival was also attended by Jesús Rull, coordinator of the Cinema Classroom programme of the Regional Government of Andalusia; and José Antonio Rayo, manager of the East Zone Cinemas.