Committed to developing a critical, nonconformist, restless and open look in new generations of spectators, the Seville Festival is continuing with the work that sets it apart in the world of festivals devoted to European and world cinema. Two sections, Filmlovers of the Future and Europa Junior, made up of some twenty films, aimed at primary and secondary school children, will be accompanied by all kinds of activities that cut through the day to day of the festival: workshops, talks, sessions open to family audiences, short films designed for babies and a European programme that turns a group of adolescents into festival programmers.
Moving Cinema
Among the novelties of note in this 15th edition is the Seville Festival’s collaboration with ECAM (Escuela de Cine de Madrid), in developing a workshop of audiovisual narrative editing designed by the filmmaker Fernando Franco (Goya for 'La herida') and given by Amanda Rodríeguez and Pablo Barce.
This year, the festival also incorporates weekend screenings open to the public and intended to be seen in family, among them, and that is another great novelty in this edition, a programme of short films for babies under 3 years. The session begins with animated pieces in which, working from musical, rhythmic patterns, plot-based ideas begin to emerge until a story is formed. The programme is made up by 'Vaselka', 'Piccolo concerto', 'The Last Leaf', 'La bataille de San Romano', 'Třešnový strom', 'Der kleine Vogel und die Raupe' and 'Cloud and the Whale'.
A pioneer in Spain in promoting the European programme Moving Cinema, the Seville Festival will reinforce it, continuing with the creation of a group of Young Programmers: a dozen boys and girls aged between 15 and 18 will be given the responsibility of deciding on one of the titles included in the Festival programme. Then they will promote the screening, present it and moderate a debate with the film’s director. In this way, they become familiar with European auteurist cinema, and are given tools to help them become independent spectators with criteria.
A very complete programme
The redefinition made by the Festival last year, separating the Europa Junior Section into Filmlovers of the Future (for an audience aged from 12 to 19) and Europa Junior (for spectators from 3 to 12), was a success, with an important participation by schools in the programme and with over 26,000 young people participating, 7% more than in 2016 and triple the number in 2012.
Both sections make up a festival in themselves, given the number and quality of the titles. More than 20 feature films and a session of short films will be part of the programme which the Seville Festival aims at Andalusian children and adolescents, who will decide with their votes the awards for Europa Junior and Filmlovers of the Future. Two sections which, in addition, create a place for debate, formation and co-existence, with educational tools put at the disposal of teachers and pupils.
Europa Junior will show five animated films: 'The Incredible story of the Giant Pear', by Amalie Næsby Fick, Jørgen Lerdam and Philip Einstein Lipski, which will arrive with a Robert Award (from the Danish Academy) in its pocket; 'Next Door Spy', by Karla Bengtson; 'Marnie's World', by the brothers Christophe and Wolfgang Lauenstein (winners of an Oscar for the short film 'Balance'); 'Strike', by Trevor Hardy, and 'Ernest and Célestine in winter', by Jean-Christophe Roger and Julien Chheng (who bring back the characters from 'Ernest & Célestine', an award winner in Cannes, nominated for the Oscar and winner of the César for Best Animated Film). There will also be a screening of 'Gastón', by Pierre François Martin-Laval, based on the comic by André Franquin. And the section is completed by an eclectic session of animated shorts, very diverse as regards technique and contents, made up of 'Le petit bonhomme de poche', 'Mr. Night Has a Day Off', 'Awaker', 'Au revoir Balthazar', 'Goats' and 'Ethnophobia'.
The future belongs to the adolescents
Intended for young people from 12 to 19, the sections Filmlovers of the Future includes 17 feature films, some of which are also participating in other competitive sections of the #15FestivalSevilla. They are just the opposite to the more conventional idea of films for adolescents which are not designed for them. These are far removed from any paternalism, and will help them develop an adult look.
With various premieres in the programme, adolescents will be able to feel more or less reflected or represented in the main characters in 'Old Boys', by Toby MacDonald (which reinterprets 'Cyrano de Bergerac' as an adolescent love story); 'Two for Joy', by Tom Beard (with Samantha Morton as a depressive mother traveling with her two children); 'Michael Inside', by Frank Berry (about a boy, son of a prisoner, who could follow in his footsteps); 'Jellyfish', by James Gardner (or how the stage and monologues can be the best therapy against a tumultuous family life); 'Obey', by Jamie Jones (or the romance between a boy who has just got out of a reformatory and a squatter); 'La fête est finie', by Marie Garel-Weiss (which tells of the beautiful friendship between two addicts in a rehabilitation centre), or 'Fauves', by Robin Erard (or the adventures of a rebellious adolescent who wants to escape from the yoke of his legal guardians in a film with echoes of the Italian giallo). We also have two prize winning films: 'Wallay', by Berni Goldblat, won the EFA Young Audience Award. And 'Float Like a Butterfly', by Carmel Winters, which won the FIPRESCI award in Toronto.
Filmlovers of the Future will screen three Spanish films: the drama 'Jaulas', the first feature film by the Seville director Nicolás Pacheco, with Estefanía de los Santos, Belén Ponce de León and Antonio Dechent in the leading roles. Also, 'El silencio de otros', by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, Audience Award at the Berlin Festival, and 'Morir para contar', by Hernán Zin, which use the documentary form to talk, respectively of historical memory and wartime journalism. And the programme will be completed with five ways of tackling animation: 'The Tower', by Mats Grorud, and 'Samouni Road', by Stefano Savona, deal with the Palestinian conflict. 'Chris the Swiss', by Anja Kofmel, talks about the war in the Balkans. 'Funan', by Denis Do, explores the consequences of the Cambodian genocide. And the more playful 'Ruben Brandt, Collector', by Milorad Krstic, mixes action and joking allusions to the world of art in a story about picture thieves.