Galician professionals associations unite

The Galician Actors & Actresses Association (AAAG), a The Galician Association of Film Writers (AGAG), The Galician Association of Audiovisual Technical Staff (ATEGA) and the Galician Association of Directors (CREA) have united to claim for their rights to the Galician administration.

Their first press communiqué collects the following claims:

• A continuous dialogue between the Galician administration and the professional associations. This dialogue should be institutionally acknowledged with the integration of the professional associations in the body that eventually will assume the responsibilities of Galician audiovisual promotion.


• The immediate resumption by the Department of Culture of the open calls for funding.


• The presence of specialists in the commissions evaluating the proposals submitted to funding calls.


• Coordination between the Galician public broadcaster TVG and the Department of Culture to guarantee the feasibility of the projects funded by the Department of Culture.


• The resumption of the Audiovisual Support Plan that was outlined in the previous period of office.


• Credible assurance of compliance by the RTVG with the law which requires it to invest 5% of their income on film production.

More information in a nutshell

As discussed in a previous post, the Galician Audiovisual Observatory publishes a series of reports about specific aspects of the media sector.

New reports available since that post are:

• Galician animation production
• Galician animation industry
• TV broadcast in Galicia
• Cinema & video distribution
• Galician local TV broadcasters
• Production support services in Galicia
• Publicity in Galicia 2007
• Exhibition 2008
• Audiences of Galician cinema
• Galician multimedia 2008
• Cinema production 2
• Galician movie theatres
• Publicity in Galicia 2008
• Television in Galicia 2008

Again, reports are in Galician, but most of the relevant information corresponds to figures and charts. The rest: a wonderful opportunity to improve your Galician!

Enjoy them!

Galician presence at the Spanish Film Screenings

The 4th edition of Madrid de Cine - Spanish Film Screenings, which is being held on 7th, 8th and 9th June in Madrid, will host the presentation of the latest film of Artemática, Angel de la Cruz's Los muertos van deprisa. Besides, the Galician production company Dygra Films, is presenting a preview of what will be the first Spanish 3D animated movie as part of this event, the feature film Noche ¿de paz?.

Madrid de Cine is organized by the federation of Spanish producers FAPAE, and is designed as an international platform for promoting Spanish cinema. The aim is to encourage international sales, and to generate awareness among the specialized international press about Spanish films to be released in the near future.

Padre Casares best TV fiction, Spanish Academy awards

Voz Audiovisual's TV show Padre Casares has been recognized as the best regional fiction show in 2008 by the Spanish TV Arts and Sciences Academy.

The Academy Council, whose present members belong to the Spanish public broadcaster Televisión Española, private broadcasters Antena 3 TV, Cuatro and laSexta, the federation of regional public television FORTA, the satellite platform Digital +, and cable operator ONO, selected Padre Casares among 70 candidate shows, beating close competitors like Llàgrima de sang , from Televisió de les Illes Balears or La alquería blanca from Canal Nou.

Padre Casares will receive the award next June 29th at the 9th annual television academy awards event, which will be broadcasted live by Televisión Española's La2 from the Aranjuez Casino.

Congratulations to all the members of the cast & crew of Padre Casares!

Wii, Carballeira!

Nintendo, one of the world's leading video game companies, has just certified Continental Producciones as its first Galician content developer.

After a two-year investment of some 600 Keuro, Continental is ready to open its new line of video game creation for the popular Nintendo game platforms. If everything goes as planned, this same year the first Wii game Made in Galicia, a simulator that converts a TV set into a remotely-controlled fireplace, could be found at stores.

At the same time, Continental is developing in Vigo with the support of engineers from the Universities of Vigo and Santiago de Compostela, two additional video games to be distributed at the Nintendo webstore. The first one will be named Emotional training, and is intended to test and improve emotional skills. The second one is a truth machine that will measure pulse, sweating intensity and blood tension with the aid of a device placed on the player's finger.

Galician death people hurry up to Napoli

Ángel de la Cruz's Os Mortos van á présa has been selected for competition at the Napoli Film Festival, to be held from June, 10^th to June 15^th at Castel Sant'Elmo, one of the most beautiful landmarks in Napoli. The film, shot entirely in Galicia with a mostly Galician cast & crew, will participate at the Europa, Mediterraneo official section.

The Europa, Mediterraneo section is targeted to feature films produced by production companies established in countries from the Mediterranean basin participating in the European MEDIA programme. All selected films presented have been completed after January 1, 2007.

The selected films will run for the Vesuvio Award.

Congratulations and good luck, Ángel!

Let's talk at UNESCO

IBISAtv’s production Linatakalam (arab for Let’s talk) has just been invited to join the UNESCO audiovisual e-platform.

This online audiovisual platform aims at promoting the international distribution of television content from around the world. It offers recent public service-oriented high quality fiction, documentaries and TV magazines from independent filmmakers and producers. The impressive collection hosted by this platform is a genuine expression of the different cultures in the world.

Valentín Carrera’s Linatakalam was produced in 2006 by IBISAtv with the participation of the Galician public broadcaster TVG, the Spanish broadcaster TVE, and production companies from Morocco and Italy. The production, endorsed by the Alliance of Civilizations initiative, was shot in Egypt, Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Italy. The show is composed of six chapters devoted to the encounter of civilizations, the silent revolution of women, water as the gold of the future, the globalization of immigration, religions living together, and the intercultural education of new generations as the only guarantee of a common future in peace.

Madrid is not so far away

Felipe Vega, Julio Llamazares and Ángel Fernández Zoido's O Pequeno Eloxio da Distancia / The Little Eulogy of Distance (DVD, 15', 2008) has been selected for participation at Documenta Madrid's short film national competition, to be held in Madrid from May, 1st to May 10th.

This documentary short film reflects one year in the authors' life looking for a secret hidden deep in the forest, beneath the rain, in the mist of A Fonsagrada, a mysterious land to the east of the Galician province of Lugo.

Congratulations Felipe, Julio and Ángel!

Relevant Galician presence at Marché du Film

A delegation of ten Galician companies from the Galician Audiovisual Cluster will participate at this year’s edition of Marché du Film, to be held in Cannes from May, 13th to May, 23rd.

With this initiative, Adivina Producciones, Cinemar Films, Continental Producciones, Dygra Films, Filmanova, Ficción Producciones, Formato Producciones, Milou Films, Voz Audiovisual and Xamalú Filmes will try to foster their relations with the key stakeholders of this sector at an international level.

Good luck!

Ángel de la Cruz awarded at Porto

Galician director Ángel de la Cruz (Los muertos van deprisa, El Bosque Animado) has received the Manuel de Oliveira special award at the 1st edition of PortoCine, an independent film festival held in Porto from April 17th to April 20th.

Ángel de la Cruz’s Los muertos van deprisa was the film selected for the official opening of the festival at Porto’s Cinema Batalha.

Congratulations, Ángel!