Alan Smithee's Scratch Book on Galician Cinema

Agua Fria de Mar awarded in Rotterdam

2010-02-08T11:30:00.002+01:00

Paz Fábrega's Agua Fria De Mar (Cold Water Of The Sea, Costa Rica, France, Spain/Galicia, Netherlands, Mexico, 2010) is among the winners of the Tiger Competition for first and second time feature directors at 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Winners were announced last Friday at the IFFR 2010 Awards Ceremony in Rotterdam’s Oude Luxor Theater. There were 15 films in all competing for Tiger awards. Each VPRO Tiger Award comes with a prize of €15,000.

The jury commended Agua fría de mar for "superb editing [that] builds organic flow of images while the strong directing creates an unnerving atmosphere and tension."

The other two Tiger victors are Jao Nok Krajok and Anocha Suwichakornpong's Mundane History, and Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio's A la mar (To The Sea).

Congratulations, Fernanda!

Galician director buried at Sundance

2010-01-31T17:04:00.003+01:00

Galician Director Rodrigo Cortes' Buried has shaken up the Sundance Film Festival 2010. Massive lines under the snow to get tickets that scalpers will resell for up to ten times their face value, acclamations after every show, and an unanimous applause from the critics, has turned Buried into the revelation of this year's Sundance edition.

The story of Buried, written by Chris Sparling and for many one of the best unproduced screenplays until picked up by Cortés, is very simple. Just one character (Ryan Reynolds as Paul Conroy) inside a buried box. Conroy is a contractor working as a truck driver in Iraq. When his convoy is attacked, he is captured and buried in a wooden box in the desert. He is terrified, and completely alone except for a cell phone, a lighter, and flask of booze.

Rodrigo Cortés has been included among the Variety's 10 directors to watch 2010 gallery, and Lionsgate is reported to have paid around $3.2 million for the North American distribution rights to Buried.

Congratulations, Rodrigo!

Agua Fria de Mar celebrates its world première in Rotterdam

2010-01-27T13:45:00.001+01:00

Paz Fabrega's Agua Fría de Mar, co-produced by Galician Tic-Tac Producciones, is to be premièred at Tiki’s, Hartmanstraat 16a, Rotterdam, next February, 1st. You may confirm your assistance to the première through a Facebook event.

Agua Fria de Mar opens with Mariana and Rodrigo driving to the Pacific coast on New Year's holidays. There, late at night and in the middle of nowhere, they find serven-year-old Karina, who ran away from home. The couple decides to stay the night and deal with the situation in the morning. But by dawn, the girl’s gone.

Agua Fría de Mar is produced by Le Films du Requin (France), Tic Tac Producciones (Galicia, Spain), Temporal Films (Costa Rica), Isabella Films (The Netherlands) and Pimienta Films (México).

Andres Pazos

2010-01-15T09:19:00.002+01:00

Galician actor Andres Pazos, remembered for the role of James in the award-winning Uruguayan film Whiskey, passed away yesterday in Santiago de Compostela. The artist was suffering from cancer.

Pazos was born in Santiago de Compostela on 16 July 1945, but developed his career in Uruguay. A regular cast member of El Galpón, a renowned theatrical institution in Uruguay, he also contributed to the founding of La Gaviota (Seagull), another renowned cultural undertaking where Pazos worked during the years of last Uruguaian dictatorship.

His breakthrough came in 2004 with the interpretation of James, the owner of a small hosiery factory, in Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll's Whisky.

Cell 211 collects 16 Goya nominations

2010-01-10T20:03:00.003+01:00

Daniel Monzon’s Celda 211 / Cell 211 has received 16 nominations for the 24th Goya awards, announced last Saturday. The successful prison drama co-produced by Galician Vaca Films leads the nomination pack with Alejandro Amenabar’s Ágora, which received 13 nominations.

Cell 211 contends for the top categories of best film and director against Amenabar’s Ágora, Alejandro Trueba’s The Dancer and the Thief, and Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in their Eyes. Galician performer Luis Tosar, who plays the leading part in Cell 211, will race against Antonio de la Torre for his part in Daniel Sánches Arevalo’s Gordos; Ricardo Darín for The Secret in their Eyes, and Jordi Mollá for El cónsul de Sodoma. In turn, Galician actress Marta Etura will compete with Pilar Castro and Verónica Sánchez for Gordos, and Vicky Peña for El cónsul de Sodoma in the category of best actress in a supporting role.

Other nominations include best novel actor, best supporting actor (two nominations), best adapted screenplay, best original score, best production supevision, best cinemaography, best editing, best art direction, best sound, best special effects, and best makeup and hairstyles, with Galician candidates Raquel Fidalgo and Inés Rodríguez.

The Spanish Film Academy's Goya Awards will be handed out in a gala ceremony to be held next February 14th in Madrid. The 28 categories include three for short films and an honorary Goya for director Antonio Mercero.

The Goya nominations were selected among 120 Spanish and Latin-American films released in Spain between December 1st, 2008, and December 31st, 2009, and stayed in theaters for at least one continuous week - a three-day run is allowed for documentaries –

Congratulations Emma!

Galician director and producer to shot in Bahamas

2009-12-24T19:08:00.001+01:00

Amancay García Montes’ short film The Invisible Man has been selected among the 14 finalists at the 14 Islands Film Challenge, a six-month competition to find aspiring and professional film-makers in the UK, the country where Galician Amancay presently lives, to be sent out to the Bahamas to shot a short film.

The first stage of the campaign, developed by agency Fox Kalomaski and Brik Digital, required applicants to submit a 500-word essay about an inspirational person in their local community. Judges selected 40 of the more than 150 pieces submitted to the challenge to be turned into short films in less than 15 days. The makers of the best 14 of these films, Amancay among them, will head off to the Bahamas to make their films about the islands.

Each of the 40 finalist films will be shown at an event at Bafta in London next March, where the 14 winners who will head to the Bahamas will be announced. Amancay Tapia Montes will be filming on Harbour Island with her island envoy Rosita Roberts

An overall prize of £14,000 will be awarded for the best films, with the possibility that the footage will be used to promote the Bahamas.

Cell 211 amongst Golden Globe finalists

2009-12-10T13:18:00.003+01:00

Daniel Monzon's Celda 211/Cell 211, co-produced by Galician Vaca Films, has been admitted amongst the 69 finalists as the best foreign language film for the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards, to be held next Sunday 17th January. Besides Cell 211, Spain is also represented with Pedro Almodóvar’s Los abrazos rotos and Fernando Trueba’s El baile de la Victoria.

Cell 211 collected 1.4 MEuro last weekend, and ranked 6th among the films shown at Spanish theaters. The film has collected 7 MEuro since his premiere five weeks ago. Cell 211 is having its New York premiere next Friday and will be shown in US cinemas next year.

The film tells the story of two men on different sides of a prison riot: Malamadre, the inmate leading the rebellion, played by Galician Luis Tosar, and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

Dead people hurry up in Braga, Portugal

2009-11-27T17:50:00.002+01:00

Last Monday 23rd November, during the closing ceremony of the 7th edition of the Braga International Independent Film Festival BRAGACINE, Galician director Ángel de la Cruz received the best director award for the comedy Los muertos van deprisa. Marta Villar, art director of the film, collected the award on behalf of the awardee, and thanked the jury and the public at the Portuguese Festival for the success and acceptance of all his films in the neighbour country. Marta dedicated the award to the audience on behalf of the director.

Congratulations, Ángel!

Stigmata at Lincoln Center

2009-11-04T13:04:00.002+01:00

Adán Aliaga’s Estigmas, produced by Galician IB Cinema, will be among the Spanish feature films to be screened at Spanish Cinema Now!, which is being held from December, 4^th to December 24^th at New York’s Lincoln Center.

Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish Film Institute (ICAA), and the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), Spanish Cinema Now! is one of the Walter Reade Theater’s longest-running series, first presented in October 1992.

Estigmas has just been awarded the Pilar Miró prize at the Valladolid's SEMINCI.

Galician HMMA Nomination

2009-11-04T12:32:00.001+01:00

Galician Zeltia Montes has been nominated to the Hollywood Music in Media Awards 2009 for the main theme of Ignacio Villar’s Pradolongo. Ms. Montes is included among the September 2009 nominees in the Best New Composer category.

One of the most anticipated music events of the year, HMMA will be presented November 19th, 2009 at The Highlands in the world famous Hollywood & Highlands / Kodak Theater complex in Hollywood, CA.

Congratulations Zeltia!

Galician Short Films travel to Romania

2009-11-04T12:30:00.002+01:00

Rubén Coca’s Mínimo Común Multiplo, Sam Orti’s The Werepig, Iván Seoane’s O Hospital, Alberto Rodríguez’s Darío e Verónica, and Fernando Cortizo’s Leo will be screened the 17th Edition of the Alter-native International Short Film Festival, to be held in Tîrgu Mureş, at the Romanian Transylvania, from November, 4th to November, 8th.

These films are included in an out-of-competition presentation devoted to Galician short films that will take place on November, 6^th at the U.D.T.M. – MADISZ Small Hall.

After the Czech Republic, France, The Netherlands, Croatia and Germany, Spain is this year’s Special Guest.

Martin Sheen & Emilio Estévez in their way after Galician extras

2009-11-02T13:41:00.001+01:00

Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estévez are visiting Santiago de Compostela next November, 4th for the filming on Galician locations of The Way (El Camino), a full feature film about the Saint James Way starring Galician-American Martin Sheen and directed by Emilio Estévez. Filming has been completed in other locations along the French Way like Roncesvalles, Pamplona, Burgos or Leon.

The same day, Sheen and Estévez will join the casting of extras organized by Galician local producer Castelao Produccións.

Udine will enjoy its own Pradolongo

2009-10-27T12:56:00.001+01:00

After participating at American film events in Utah, Colorado and Napa Valley, CA, Ignacio Villar's Pradolongo has been selected for participation at the 1st edition of the European Film Festival in the Lesser Used Languages, to be held in Udine, Italy, from 25th to 28th November, 2009.

This festival is born to become an important biennial and international showcase for the cinema in the European lesser used languages, or more specifically in the non statalized European languages. This new festival takes on the legacy of the Mostre dal Cine Furlan, initiatied in 1988.

This first edition collects films coming from Galicia, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Occitany, Wales, Britanny and Friuli, the region where Udine is located and Furlan is spoken. The programme, highly diversified, will include recently produced feature films, documentaries, animation movies, experimental movies, both full-length films and short films.

Pradolongo's soundtrack has just received the Atlantis award at Moondance International Film Festival in Colorado, USA.

Congratulations to all who made Pradolongo a reality.

Silenced voices aired at Valladolid

2009-10-18T12:08:00.002+01:00

Patricia Ferreira’s Señora de is the first documentary film witten in Galician premiered at the Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid SEMINCI, to be held in Valladolid between October, 23^rd and October 31^st.

Señora de tells the story of several generations of women during the Spanish Franco dictatorship through the voices of thirteen women sharing with us their desires, their hopes… This film, produced by Galician O Raio Verde, has been included in the Time of History section of the festival.

Congratulations Patricia, María and Carmen!

Stories from Tokio

2009-10-18T11:42:00.002+01:00

Galician director Mario Iglesias’ Relatos / Stories participates at the official competition section of the Tokyo International Film Festival, which is being held in Tokio from October 17th to October 25th. The film is about Rosario, a writer with a completely conventional housewife's life that decides to visit a psychotherapist to find a solution for her nighttime panic attacks. Exploring the world around her, stories covering a plurality of human greatness and misery situations run parallel to Rosario's own story.

This year marks the 22nd edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), which aspires to play in the same league as Cannes, Venice and Berlin and be recognized as one of the four major film festivals in the World.

Congratulations, Mario!

New York wonders about tomatos' blame

2009-10-06T20:59:00.002+01:00

Collective documentary film ¿Qué culpa ten o tomate? / From the Land to Your Table produced by Galician Tic Tac Producciones and Argentinian Lagarto Cine, is celebrating its world première next November 5th at MoMA's Our Way(s) exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Ibermedia program.

Directed by Alejo Hoijman (Argentina), Marcos Loayza (Bolivia), Josué Méndez (Peru), Carolina Navas Gutiérrez (Columbia), Paola Vieira (Brazil), Alejandra Szeplaki (Venezuela), and Galician Jorge Coira, ¿Qué culpa ten o tomate? is an omnibus documentary that captures the conditions and cultural diversity of produce markets throughout Iberoamérica. Each of its seven segments retains its particular unique style and tone, leading the viewer through diverse economic systems and life stories.

This film is an original production from Tic Tac Producciones and Lagarto Cine, co-produced by Alma Filmes and Púcara Films (Bolivia), Tv Zero (Brazil), Pato Feo Films (Columbia), Chullachaki (Peru) and Estrella Films (Venezuela).

Congratulations again, Fernanda and Jorge!

Clustering in Cannes

2009-10-06T09:47:00.005+01:00

Under the brand Audiovisual Galicia, a delegation of 16 companies associated to the Galician Audio-Visual Cluster CLAG is visiting MIPCOM, which is being held in Cannes from October 5th to October 9th.

A stand of 39 sq. meters serves as the platform to provide visibility to the Galician audiovisual industry at one of the most renowned content markets in the world. Participating companies are Abano Producións, Continental, R, Adivina Producciones, Isabella Audiovisual, Interacción, Setemedia, Milou Films, Filmanova, Filmax, Enxebre Entertainment, Perro Verde Films, Voz Audiovisual, Xamalú Filmes, Ficción Producciones e Dygra Films.

The Galician delegation has already closed meetings with some half hundred of companies in France, United Kingdom, Finland, Australia, Brazil and Argentina. This agenda is expected to grow in the next days, as additional attendees discover what Galician industry has to offer.

It is the third time that CLAG is present in Cannes with a stand of its own, in an initiative that is definitely contributing to consolidate the image of Galicia abroad.

Be among the Masters in Ourense

2009-09-28T14:52:00.003+01:00

This year's edition of the Ourense International Film Festival OUFF will host three special Master classes with relevant international experts. As in previous years, this initiative is performed in partnership with the EU Media program training initiative EAVE.

This year's OUFF Master Classes include Jean de Forêts presentation on how to enter full feature film production from the short film world; Olimpia Pont Cháfer's discussion on co-producing in Europe; and Lise Lense-Møller's talk on documentary film production development.

You can learn more from this programs and the experts participating in this initiative here.

These 4-hour Master-level lectures will take place at the OUFF venue every morning from 12th to 14th October. Obviously, it is a most interesting opportunity for learning with the best. Enjoy it!

Waiting for Robert Capa the Galician Way

2009-09-19T09:17:00.004+01:00

Esperando por Robert Capa / Waiting for Robert Capa, the last novel of Galician writer Susana Fortes, will be adapted for film by American director, writer and producer Michael Mann. The novel is based on the love story and professional relationship between German and Hungarian photojournalists Gerda Taro and Robert Capa since they met in Paris in 1935 until she died in El Escorial in 1937 during the Spanish Civil war. Love, war and photojournalism marked the lives of Robert Capa and Gerda Taro. They were young, committed against fascism, and nonconformist. They put everything they had in life at risk, until the last consequences. Robert and Gerda created their own legend and remained faithful to it.

This is one of the rare occasions where a Spanish writer sells the rights of a novel to Hollywood. According to Fortes’ agent Anna Soler-Pont, this case is even more striking, as Esperando por Robert Capa has not been published in English yet.

American production company Forward Pass (Public Enemies, The Aviator, Hancock) will produce the film. Mann is considering directing the film himself, but this has not been confirmed yet.

Esperando por Robert Capa is available in Spanish from Planeta.

Agallas beats Hollywood Blockbusters in Galicia. That's guts!

2009-09-09T12:25:00.002+01:00

The theatrical release of Andrés Luque & Samuel Martín's Agallas / Guts last Friday positioned this film as the second most viewed movie in Galicia this weekend, only surpassed by Ken Kwapis' romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You.

The film, located in Galicia, starring Carmelo Gomez and Hugo Silva, and including an impressive representation of Galician actors and actresses among the cast, beat American blockbusters as Gamer, Funny people, Up, The Year One, The Hangover or the independent production Frozen River. The film is co-produced by Galician Continental Producciones.

This seems to indicate that Agallas might become one of the five most successful Spanish films this year, and one of the most successful Galician-coproduced films ever.

Congratulations, Pancho!

Tic, tac, tic, tac, .... Film in Progress...

2009-08-31T11:09:00.002+01:00

Paz Fabrega's Agua Fría de Mar, co-produced by Galician Tic-Tac Producciones, has been selected for presentation at the 16th edition of Films in Progress, at the upcoming San Sebastian Festival.

Agua Fria de Mar opens with Mariana and Rodrigo driving to the Pacific coast on New Year's holidays. There, late at night and in the middle of nowhere, they find serven-year-old Karina, who ran away from home. The couple decides to stay the night and deal with the situation in the morning. But by dawn, the girl’s gone.

Agua Fría de Mar is produced by Le Films du Requin (France), Tic Tac Producciones (Galicia, Spain), Temporal Films (Costa Rica), Isabella Films (The Netherlands) and Pimienta Films (México).

A total of 115 projects from 21 countries were submitted to Films in Progress for the 2009 edition, almost duplicating the films received last year. Only six movies, among them Agua Fría de Mar, were selected for presentation.

Selected films will compete for the Films in Progress Industry Award, which will cover the post-production costs of an English subtitled 35mm print; the Spanish public broadcaster's TVE Award, worth 60,000 euros in broadcasting rights; and the Casa de América Award, consisting on a 10,000 euro grant to cover post-production of a Latin American film. Besides, participating films will achieve international diffusion through the Instituto Cervantes world network.

Films in Progress is backed by the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrolo (AECID), Casa de América, Interreg III-A Francia-España, Kodak (professional cinema division), Mediapro, Molinare Madrid, No Problem Sonido, Programa Ibermedia, Technicolor Entertainment Services Spain, Titra Film and TVE, and the collaboration of the Centre National du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d’Art et Essai (CICAE), CROUS, ESAV, Europa Distribution, FNAC, Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma, Instituto Cervantes, La Cinéfondation, Mactari, Marché du Film and Signis.

Congratulations, Fernanda!

The Desert Line

2009-08-29T11:35:00.001+01:00

Some years ago, Vigo’s public transportation company Vitrasa initiated the donation of old buses to the refugee camps in Sahara. In some occasions populated with medicines and food, the buses that formerly covered routes in the Galician city of Vigo, now communicate schools or medical facilities in the refugee camps.

Former Vitrasa buses serve as the conducting line of Eduardo Rolland and Luis Montengro’s A Liña do Deserto / The Desert Line, a documentary film produced by Antón Reixa for Galician production company Filmanova. Around these green cars, stories of anonymous people illustrating the everyday life in the Sahrawi settlements are woven, like those of young Maimuna, a bus driver and a mother living there, a Sahrawi refugee living in Galicia, a volunteer in Tinduf, or several members of the Galician Association for the Solidarity with the Sahrawi People, among others.

I’m looking forward watching this piece of art at Galician TV!

Cell 211 at Venice

2009-08-28T10:09:00.002+01:00

Daniel Monzón's Celda 211 has been selected for participation at the autonomous section Venice Days of the 66th edition of the Venice International Film Festival - Biennale di Venezia.

Starring Galician actors Luis Tosar (Casual Day, Miami Vice) and Marta Etura (Seven Minutes, South Desert) among others, Celda 211 tells the story of Xoán, a novice prison official that has the bad luck of starting a new job on the same day prisoners organize a mutiny.

Created in 2004 and promoted by the associations of Italian directors and authors, Venice Days – Giornate degli autore is an independent section within the Venice Film Festival focused on European and independent cinema. According to the section’s vice-president Sylvain Auzou, selected films represents “the future of European auteur cinema, with a directorial approach that doesn’t alienate mainstream audiences”.

Cell 211 is produced by Morena Films, Galician Vaca Films and Telecinco with the participation of French La Fabrique 2 and Galician public broadcaster TVG.

Cell 211 is to be unveiled on September, 4th at Sala Perla 2.

Congratulations Emma!

Galicia hits the Spanish Department of Culture’s money pot

2009-08-06T11:36:00.002+01:00

The first grants given by the new team at the Spanish Department of Culture have recognized the relevance of Galicia within the Spanish film panorama. Nine of the projects submitted by Galician producers and creators have received public aids to facilitate their development, which is the highest rate of subsided projects in the history of the Galician audiovisual.

2,611,912 € from a total budget of 15 Mo. € allocated by the Spanish department of Culture to the realization of new projects are expected to arrive in Galicia. Three feature films (Gustavo Balza’s Doentes; Breogán Riveiro’s O Síndrome do cacareo and Mario Iglesias’ Rosario); three animation feature films (Angel de la Cruz’s Arrugas, Fernando Cortizo’s O Apóstolo, and Alexandre Colls’ A Tropa de Trapo); two TV animation series pilots (Alberto Taraco’s Rascayú, and Max Fuentes’ Todo controlado); and Regina Alvarez’s documentary film Gitanos de Buenos Aires complete the list of aided Galician projects.

This represents an important achievement for Galician producers, and especially for Galician animation production companies. Four out of nine selected animation projects have been proposed by Galician companies.

Title Translations

2009-08-06T10:57:00.003+01:00

Today, Galician public broadcaster TVG airs Rob Reiner’s When Harry met Sally… (1989), in my opinion one of the funniest movies of all times. Incidentally, the Galician title of this film, Cando Harry atopou a Sally, after Spanish Cuando Harry encontró a Sally, reflects a funny situation that happens every now and then: a complete misunderstanding of the original meaning of a film’s title when producing the Spanish translation. As most of the time Galician titles of foreign films come from the Spanish translation instead of being translated directly from their original language (why?), we can enjoy this situation in both languages.

I am not talking about movie distribution companies’ decision of producing a completely different title for the Spanish version (e.g. Die Hard / La Jungla de Cristal or Miller’s Crossing / Muerte entre las Flores), which will require a post on its own, but about choosing a plainly wrong translation for a film title.

Translation of When Harry met Sally… is a good example. Meet means both to come together and to become acquainted with some other. The original title is perfect, ellipsis included, which reflects the idea when (or if) Harry meets Sally anything can happen. On the other side, the translated version means When Harry found Sally and all the magic is lost.

There are many other examples funnier than this. The one I like most is the translation of Stanley Kubrik’s Full Metal Jacket (1987) into A Chaqueta Metálica. Full metal jacket or FMJ refers to a bullet encased in a metal alloy shell. The Spanish (technical) term for this is camisa metálica, so the correct title should have been Camisa Metálica. A Chaqueta Metálica is just stupid. May be that is the reason why the film was also known in Spain as La Chupa de Chapa.

William Friedkin’s Rules of Engagement (2000) offers another example of lack of knowledge of the military jargon. It was translated into Regras de Compromiso. In military or police operations, the rules of engagement (ROE) determine when, where, and how force shall be used. Thus, it should have been translated into Normas de Combate or something like that. Regras de compromiso (rules of commitment) tells absolutely nothing about the film’s gist.

Let us change subject. Peter Bogdanovich’s What’s up Doc? (1972) was translated into ¿Qué me pasa Doutor? Obviously, the original title is after the famous Bugs Bunny’s tag, which was dubbed into Spanish as ¿Qué hay de nuevo, viejo? You can imagine that title ¿Que me pasa Doutor? tells absolutely nothing to a Spanish or Galician audience.

Religion and French is also the target of ignorant title translators. Jean-Luc Godard’s Je vous salue, Marie (1985) was translated into Yo te saludo, María. Simple and straightforward, huh? The original title corresponds to the French version of the first verse of the most famous prayer to the Virgin Mary, the English version being “Hail Mary, full of grace” and the Galician one “Deus che salve, Raíña e Nai”.

There are many other cases like the translations of Total recall, Torn curtain, Hidden agenda, Things you can tell just by looking at her... You can tell...

Galician professionals associations unite

2009-07-11T20:18:00.003+01:00

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

2009-07-11T19:25:00.002+01:00

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:

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

2009-06-08T08:37:00.003+01:00

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

2009-05-30T11:13:00.002+01:00

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!

2009-05-28T10:21:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-11T12:56:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-10T11:14:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-27T10:33:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-22T11:23:00.004+01:00

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

2009-04-22T11:21:00.000+01:00

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!

My Favorite Short Film List

2009-04-20T15:02:00.005+01:00

This is my top favorite Galician short film list. Probably film experts / critics will not agree with some of the entries in this proposal but, what the heck, it’s mi favorite list.

Btw, order is alphabetical.

Thanks to Curtas na Rede, Flocos.TV and Mundo Corto for providing the links to enjoy them.

Enjoy them!

Padre Casares to evangelize Monte-Carlo

2009-04-17T10:04:00.002+01:00

Voz Audiovisual TV series Padre Casares has been nominated in four categories at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival TVFest 09. Only two additional Spanish TV shows are among the nominees, Spanish public broadcaster TVE’s Cuéntame, and Antena 3’s El Internado. Only 51 TV productions from 22 different countries have reached the final phase of the 49th edition of this renowned festival, to be held in Monte-Carlo from 7th to 11th June, 2009.

Padre Casares will be competing for the Golden Nymph award in the categories:

Outstanding Actor (Drama), where the candidates are Pedro Alonso / father Horacio Casares and Antonio Durán “Morris” / mayor Edelminio Ferreira
Outstanding Actress (Drama), competing María Vázquez / Iria and Mercedes Castro / Dona Amelia
Outstanding International Producer (Drama), where the candidates are Padre Casares producers Carlos Carballo, Carlos Portela and Alfonso Blanco
Outstanding European Producer (Drama), again Carlos Carballo, Carlos Portela and Alfonso Blanco

Besides Spanish hits Cuéntame and El Internado, performers and producers in Padre Casares will compete with international TV series like ABC Studios' Lost, American Movie Classics' Mad Men or 20th Century Fox Television's Boston Legal.

Padre Casares is one of the most successful TV series aired by Galician public broadcaster TVG, with recurring prime-time share figures well over 25% in Galicia.

Congratulations to all who made it possible!

Eloy Lozano. The End.

2009-04-15T10:36:00.002+01:00

Galician cinematographer Eloy Lozano passed away yesterday. One of the most active fighters for an independent Galician cinema, Eloy Lozano was the first cinematographer in producing a feature film in Galician: Retorno a Tagen Ata (1974).

Eloy Lozano was a key figure in developing the idea of a self-conscious Galician cinema. Among others, he pioneered the Galician video-creation movement in the ’80 with works like Numeralia or Catro Escultores. He also restored the seminal film O Carro e o Home (1941), created the production company Off Filmes and promoted the Ourense International Film Festival.

Among his late works, he directed Bellas Durmientes (1999) after Yasunari Kawabata’s story, produced the TV show Idea e Territorio on contemporary architecture, and directed the documentary film Quen son? (2008) analyzing Galician identitary matters.

Farewell, Eloy!

Pradolongo bust share registers at TVG

2009-04-02T13:05:00.001+01:00

Ignacio Villar’s Pradolongo achieved an average prime-time audience share of 20% on its première at the Galician broadcaster TVG last Tuesday. During the time the film was on air, TVG became the preferred station among all stations received in Galician households.

The film, starring Galician actors and shot in Galician language at Galician locations, is confirmed as one of the most valued films by Galician audiences.

Congratulations, Ignacio, Tamara, Rubén, Roberto, and the rest of the cast!

Coser e Cantar at Gibara

2009-04-02T12:46:00.001+01:00

Having as one of his main objectives to introduce Galicia beyond Galician borders, Galician actor and cinematographer Rubén Rios is presenting his late work Coser y Cantar at the Festival Internacional de Cine Pobre de Gibara (Cuba).

Coser e Cantar is a story about personal endeavour in a totalitarian society where personal dreams strive to survive.

Congratulations Ruben!

The Galician Audiovisual Consortium travels to Brazil

2009-03-12T11:19:00.002+01:00

Consorcio Audiovisual de Galicia, in collaboration with the Agência Nacional do Cinema of Brazil (ANCINE) and the Cinema do Brasil Program, promotes the 3rd Audiovisual Meeting between Brazil and Galicia to be held in Salvador de Bahia from 12 to 15 March.

This action is intended to provide continuity and to strengthen the links established in the previous editions held in São Paulo (March 2007) and A Coruña (June 2008), which had the participation of some thirty producers, as well as representatives of both territories.

On this occasion, a delegation of 15 representatives of the Galician audiovisual sector scrolls to Brazil to establish new contacts that may foster bilateral co-productions and contribute to the international dissemination of the Galician audiovisual production.

The 2nd Galician-Brazilian co-production fund will bi launched during this event. Besides, this meeting will also host the 2nd Galician Film Festival and a meeting between Galician an Brazilian producers.

Galicia will be represented by some 13 production companies, Galician Actors & Actresses Association representative Vicente de Souza, and the Managing Director of the Consorcio Audiovisual de Galicia Nacho Varela.

Blind Sunflowers conquer Cartagena

2009-03-09T18:44:00.003+01:00

Director José Luis Cuerda has been recognized with the Best Director award at the Festival de Cine de Cartagena de Indias for his film Los Girasoles Ciegos. Young actor Roger Príncep received the Best Actor in a Supporting Role award for this film too.

Los Girasoles Ciegos / Blind Sunflowers was partially located in the Ourense province, and was partially funded by the Galician public-private venture Sempre Cinema Produccións.

Congratulations, José Luis!

(Btw: Note the similarity between India Catalina and Oscar :-)

Galician Popcorn Online

2009-03-09T18:43:00.000+01:00

Flocos.tv, an online streaming service collecting the most relevant short films produced in Galicia so far, has reached the 200 movie mark. Besides, flocos.tv has more than 1,500 daily visits and more than 1,100 registered users.

If you want to have an idea about what the Galician audiovisual creativity is capable of, sure flocos.tv is a no-brainer option. In flocos.tv you can enjoy the most relevant of the Galician short film production, including historical pieces difficult to find elsewhere, award-winning productions, or the most bizarre outcomes of our filmmakers.

Enjoy!

Galician Mutants to conquer the Net

2009-03-05T19:48:00.001+01:00

Francisco Calvelo Moreira’s short film No me mires así, Mutante / Don’t look at me that way, Mutant has been selected among the Finalists of the 7th edition of Jameson Notodofilmfest. Finalists have a chance to win one of the succulent prizes in money granted by the Jury and the Audience.

Congratulations, Francisco!

Rainy day, now in Cambridge

2009-03-05T19:46:00.002+01:00

Andrés Victorero’s experimental short film Rainy Day has been selected for competition at the Cambridge Super 8 film Festival, to be held in Cambridge, England from 29th April to 2nd May.

Rainy Day is a good example of the creative renaissance that the super 8 format has undergone in the last years due to the digital revolution.

Congratulations again, Andrés!

Visual Sound, May Be

2009-02-13T11:21:00.003+01:00

Carlos Seijo's Pode Ser (May Be) is the only galician production selected for participation at the 6th Barcelona Visual Sound, to be held in Barcelona from February, 17th to February 27th.

Starring Camila Bossa and Toñito de Poi, Pode Ser is about fisherman Carlos and his wife Manuela and their time together one hour before the next departure of Carlos. One hour, everything is possible.

Barcelona Visual Sound proposes a jam-packed week for audiovisual aficionados that includes workshops, round tables and selected, carefully chosen, screenings. This event contributes to support the originality, creativity and ingenuity of audiovisual artists, accepting all kinds of audiovisual formats, including documentaries, short films, animation, web design, micromovies, ...

Congratulations, Carlos!

Martin Sheen to shot in Galicia

2009-02-06T13:20:00.000+01:00

Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez are pre-producing a project about the Way of St. James, with locations in Santiago de Compostela and the Galician coast. The project has been presented to the Galician public-private venture Sempre Cinema Producións, which is studying the project.

This way, Galician-American Martin Seen will have the chance of revisiting his origins and relating two fundamental axes of his life, his homeland and cinema.

Fantasporto speaks Galician

2009-02-06T13:14:00.002+01:00

Galician Films will have a relevant presence at Fantasporto 2009. After the awards received in previous editions by Ángel de la Cruz’s El Bosque Animado and Un Franco, Catorce Pesetas, films produced in Galicia will have a space of their own in this year’s edition of Fantasporto with a selection of productions from the last two years including the full feature films O Espíritu do Bosque from David Rubin, Felipe Vega’s O Eloxio da Distancia, Alfonso Zarauza’s A Noite que Deixou de Chover, Pablo Iglesias’ Pedro e o Capitán, Xabier Bermúdez’s Rafael, Ignacio Villar’s Pradolongo, and 10 additional short films.

Fantasporto 2009’ Galician Program is being held at the Porto’s Rivoli Teathe from February 21st to February 26th.

You can access the complete program here. Enjoy!

Goodbye Edrada, Hello San Diego

2009-02-06T13:12:00.000+01:00

Ruben Rios’ awarded short film Adeus Edrada has been selected for participation at the 16th San Diego Latino Film Festival, to be held in San Diego from March, 12th to March 22nd.

Congratulations, Rubén!

Martin Sheen and Emilio Estévez with Galician performers

2009-02-04T18:19:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was presented in Madrid the online catalogue of the Galician Actors and Actresses Association. This public presentation, which took place at the Aisge Foundation headquarters, was targeted to production companies and casting directors to offer them a simple way to select, contact and arrange appointments with Galician performers.

Among the participants in this event, were the President of the Galician Actors and Actresses Association Vicente Montoto, the President of the Aisge Foundation Pilar Bardem, the President of the Government of Galicia Emilio Pérez Touriño … and Galician-american actor Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estévez, son and grandson of a Gallego from Salceda de Caselas.

Both, through their roots, but also for their generous gesture yesterday, share with us Gallegos the heart of the Galleguidad that spans the five continents.

Thank you very much, Martin and Emilio!

Missing Lynx; Goya Found

2009-02-02T16:20:00.002+01:00

Galician co-produced animation feature film El lince perdido / The missing lynx has just received the best animation feature film award at the 23^rd edition of the Spanish Academy Awards.

This is the sixth year in a row Galician animation hits the pot at the Spanish Academy Awards, this time with an andalusian-galician co-production. Besides, Galician production company Perro Verde Films enters the hall of fame of Galician animation together with Bren Entertainment and Dygra Films.

Raul García and Manuel Sicilia’s El lince perdido is about a group of animals trying to find a way off of an eccentric billionaire's own personal Noah's Ark.

Congratulations Manuel!

Galician documentary short films in Genève

2009-01-25T14:14:00.001+01:00

A Nosa Galicia’s Sala Ourense will host from January 30th to February 1st a selection of Galician documentary short films produced between 2006 and 2008. The program includes Xurxo González’s Señores do Vento, Susana Rei’s Cousas de Kulechov, Oliver Laxe’s Paris #1, Pablo Millán’s Longo sendeiro de pedra, Oscar Galansky’s A guerra dos avós, Lara Bacelo’s John Ballan, detrás da porta, Marcos Nine’s JEDN, Isabel Martínez’s A república dos soños, Daniel López’s Naufraxio, Sabela Pernas’ Mundo bazar, and Jorge Saavedra’s Ferro ardendo.

A Nosa Galicia is a Galician cultural center established in 1967 mostly by second-generation Galicians living in Genève. Its activities include the promotion of Galician traditional music, with active groups of pandereteiras, and dance and bagpipe ensembles, theater, the promotion of cinema, and the organization of courses and other social activities.

G2 on air soon

2009-01-25T14:12:00.001+01:00

Galician public broadcaster Manager Director Suso Iglesias announced yesterday that G2, the second program of TVG, is scheduled to be on air next February, 2nd.

G2 is mainly directed to youth audiences, and its grid will combine in-house production and international shows. The week-end will also be devoted to sports, with a clear focus on alternative and local sports.

G2 will be available through the broadcaster’s DVB-T network.

Touriño.tv: IDNA enters personal television

2009-01-25T14:08:00.002+01:00

President of the Government of Galicia and candidate to the reelection Emilio Perez Touriño’s Internet television was presented this week in Santiago de Compostela.

Touriño.tv is the first Internet television whose hosting domain includes the character “ñ”, a distinctive sign of Spanish and Galician. Standard for domain names requires a subset of the ASCII code, and consequently does not allow such characters.

Much work has gone into finding a way to internationalize domain names trying to preserve the stability of the domain name system at the same time. Rather than redesigning the existing DNS infrastructure, it was decided that non-ASCII domain names should be converted to a suitable ASCII-based form by web browsers, mail clients and other user applications, and the Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications initiative (IDNA) specifies how this conversion is to be done. For instance, IDNA-compliant browsers and mail clients will convert touriño into xn--tourio-0wa and vice versa, x--tourio-0wa being used internally by internet protocols and the Domain Name Service.

You can enjoy President Touriño’s TV at domains touriño.tv and tourino.tv in case you have not updated your browser yet.

Cinema & The Way of Saint James

2009-01-09T16:30:00.002+01:00

Planning a pilgrimage to Santiago? If you are a film freak, and provided you are reading my blog about Galician cinema in English probably this is the case, why not to revise some of the many movies about or related to the Way of Saint James to inspire you?

Here are some of them:

Cotolay. José Antonio Nieves Conde
El Bordon y la Estrella. León Klimovsky
El Pórtico de la Gloria. Rafael J. Salvia
La Voie Lactée. Luis Buñuel
Flor de Santidad. Adolfo Marsillach.
La Rosa de Piedra. Manuel Palacios
Camino de Santiago. Robert Young
Tres en el Camino. Laurence Boulting
Camino de Santiago. El Origen. Jorge Algora
One day in Europe. Antón Reixa
Saint-Jacques... La Mecque. Coline Serreau.
Gisaku. Baltasar Pedrosa

Besides, last work of critic Ramón Herrera Cine jacobeo. El Camino de Santiago en la pantalla collects some of these and other films related in some way to the itineraries to Compostela, so you have some reading to complement your movie experience too :-)

TVG 2008: Best ratings ever!

2009-01-03T13:11:00.013+01:00

Galician public broadcaster TVG acheived in 2008 the best share figures ever with an average 15.5%. TVG ranked the second regional broadcaster in Spain after Andalusian Canal Sur with a 16.8% share, and got better figures in Galicia than well-established national broadcasters as La Sexta or Cuatro. During 2008 TVG succeeded in consolidating its audience and drastically reducing the gap with other major national stations as TVE, Tele 5 or Antena 3.

Indeed, TVG rules the prime time with shows like Luar (22.6% avg. share), Padre Casares (22.5%) or Libro de Familia (21.9%), all of them Galician productions.

If not living in Galicia, you may follow TVG through the International TVG program, which is available through the following satellite and cable networks:

Galicia TV Europa: Free on Hispasat 1C and Astra; TV Cabo Portugal, Cabovisão and Bragatel in Portugal; Genius Network in Romania; Telegeneva-Digitable and Cablecom in Switzerland.
Galicicia TV America: Free on Hispasat; Multicanal and other additional local cable networks in Argentina; Supercanal in Bolivia; Video Cable Continental in Chile; Sky and Cablevision in Mexico; Riselco, Montecable, TCC and Canal 49 in Uruguay; Cabletel-Veninfotel and other local cable networks in Venezuela.... and cable networks in Republica Dominicana, Paraguay, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador...

You may access the comple list here.

Congratulations to Benigno, Suso, Pastor, Canal, Roberto, Dudi and the rest of the TVG team!

Goya paints blind sunflowers

2008-12-26T19:01:00.002+01:00

José Luis Cuerda’s Los girasoles ciegos (The Blind Sunflowers) received the most nominations for the Spanish Academy’s 2009 Goya Awards. Los girasoles received a total of 15 nominations includen best director, best film, best actor (Raúl Arévalo), best actress (Maribel Verdú), and best adapted screenplay (José Luis Cuerda and Rafael Azcona).

Los girasoles ciegos is the first production co-produced by the Galician public-private company SempreCinema, and was partially shot in several locations in Ourense province. This film has also been selected as the Spain’s entry for the 2009 best foreign language film Academy Award.

To dub or not to dub

2008-12-21T18:21:00.002+01:00

There is a debate in Galicia about the need of a new public service for dubbing and subtitling into Galician. Almost everybody here has an opinion about this matter. Here comes mine.

To start with, in a market like the Spanish film market, conditioned since 1941 for an abnormal situation such as the generalization of dubbing, the debate over the language of projection could prove controversial. The situation in Galicia and Spain in general has no equivalent elsewhere in the world, except for countries like Italy, France or Germany. Furthermore, Spain is behaving like a single market for the acquisition of rights, distribution and exhibition, whose common bond is the Spanish language.

From an artistic point of view, dubbing represents an aberrant alteration of the creative process, an assault on the original creative work. As a consequence, dubbing can only be justified in the context of a process of linguistic normalization. In this case, strategies must be those that maximize the impact (in terms of number of new speakers or speakers preserved for a given language, Galician in our case) compared to the budget available.

In this context, and with few exceptions, available data show that international or Spanish film releases in Galician language are not the ones preferred by the Galician public. Only great success cases of Spanish cinema identified by the public as Galician (for their Galician production or their Galician locations), obtained comparable results in both versions, Galician and Spanish. When the two versions are premiered together in Galicia, Spanish versions get a better response from the public than Galician ones.

At what extent do make sense policies directed to the massive support to the dubbing of American productions, policies that will involve public coin to finance copies and dubbing? On the other side, these policies will ultimately represent a rendition to an industrial and cultural colonization that imposes severe limitations to the restoration of a distinctive Galician film culture.

But nothing prevents the Galician language being as cinematic as any other language. Mel Gibson shot in Aramaic and Mayan, Clint Eastwood opted for the Japanese. Subtitles in English, Spanish or Galician made these films perfectly understandable outside their respective language areas, which incidentally is a proof that a language can be disseminated internationally through movies. On the other side, dubbing will distort or prevent such dissemination. Examples such as The Sea Inside, which was released in the US in its original Spanish and Galician mix of languages, show us that any policy of dissemination of the Galician language using movies as a vehicle should start addressing the production sector.

Complementarily, you can develop targeted actions to release Galician-dubbed versions to theatres in cases where the expected impact will justify the effort, as indeed does the Galician General Secretariat of Linguistic Policy with some productions aimed at children.

And hence our first conclusion: public audiovisual policies in Galicia should be directed, on the one hand, to the support of audiovisual productions in original Galician language, and to support productions with a relevant participation of the Galician audiovisual sector or of Galicia itself through the many Galician locations. In any case, supported productions should show a clear international vocation, regardless of the language of shooting.

However, this is not the case of television, where the Galician public operator is committed to an integral Galician programming grid, either dubbed of produced in Galician. In addition, there are programs, obviously in Galician, which get share and rating figures exceeding those of major TV stations in Spanish, and even dominate the prime time slot in many cases. Having the same potential viewers than theatres, the audience of TVG is dramatically higher than attendance to Galician cinemas… in any language.

Consequently, any effort towards the normalization of the Galician language that takes TV as the preferred audiovisual medium is going to have a far more positive impact than a similar effort led to the movies and cinemas.

And here the second conclusion: if you have to put public money into Galician productions, and promoting the use of Galician is an objective, opt for audiovisual and cinematographic works in Galician suitable for broadcasting on TVG.

Moreover, and as a final conclusion, the existence of a linguistic normalization service in TVG, created in September 2007, would meet the requirements with respect to a public organization devoted to dubbing and subtitling of audiovisual works.

Agua at Rio Gallegos

2008-12-15T20:18:00.001+01:00

Ozo Perozo Porteiro’s short film Auga (Water), has been awarded the Jury’s Special Mention / Plot Category at the 5th AlExtremo Short Film Festival, which took place in Argentinean Rio Gallegos from 5th to 7th December. Jury members pointed out “the extreme originality of its plot, its narrative synthesis, its technical excellence and its resource economy”.

This is the first prize received by Auga outside Spain, a short film that has already participated in around 50 festivals and events like the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market, Court-Metrange Rennes, San Francisco’s Dead Channels Festival or Festival de Cine & Video Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires.

Congratulations again, Ozo!

25 years of Mamasunción

2008-12-14T20:09:00.002+01:00

From celebration to celebration, let us celebrate now the 25th anniversary of the seminal work of Chano Piñeiro (1954 – 1995) Mamasuncion (1984, 35mm, 20 min.).

This film was the first pro work of Chano, after his 8mm productions Os paxaros morren no aire (1977) and Eu, o tolo (1978-1982). Based on a real story, Mamasunción is about Aunt Sunción, and old woman that for 40 years has been waiting for a letter from her son, an emigrant in America. Every day she visited the Post Office in her little village waiting for a letter that will never come. But one day that letter arrives announcing the death of the beloved son, together with her unexpected wealth, as her son legated his many possessions to her.

Mamasunción received many awards in Spanish and international festivals (Don Quixote Award at 1985 Cracow Film Festival, Oberhausen, Tetuán, Figueira da Foz...) In my opinion, is one of the best short films ever shot in Galicia. Indeed, if shot today, I presume it would have the same impact it had when was originally premiered.

To celebrate this event, the Galician government has just published a nice large-format book collecting some interesting texts about Mamasunción, both from Chano and other friends and experts, the original annotated script, and the original annotated production budget.

The Scaffold revisited

2008-12-14T20:05:00.003+01:00

Rogelio Amigo's El Andamio (The Scaffold, 1958) celebrates its 50th anniversary. The film will be presented next Tuesday at the Galician Center of Image Arts CGAI after the restoration of the original negative, together with the documentary film 50 años en el andamio (50 years on a scaffold), which describes the restoration process performed by CGAI and producer Lili Films, and the keys and alternate interpretations of the film.

This film is one of the most relevant milestones of Galician cinema. Its context (the Spanish Civil War), its unusual format and duration (16mm, 35 min.), the presence of elements from some of the most relevant tendencies of that time, and the characteristics of the production process, convert El Andamio into a work of creation worth of being preserved for future generations. The film is a showcase of film theory and the use of filming resources, and takes the most of its locations in A Coruña.

El Andamio is about Juan, a construction worker that dies after falling from a scaffold. Apparently an accident, a long flash-back to the first days of the Spanish Civil War when Juan receives a pack of valuable objects from some men.

No-Do content to enrich CGAI archive

2008-12-08T12:20:00.005+01:00

The Galician Centre of Image Arts CGAI will host a copy of the content related to Galicia from the Noticiero Documental (No-Do) audiovisual archives. This is the consequence of an agreement signed today between the Spanish Ministry of Culture' Spanish Film Archive and the Galician Government.

No-Do (Noticiero Documental / Documentary Newsreel) was created in 1942 by dictator Francisco Franco’s regime as a diffusion service of news and reportages, filmed in Spain and abroad “to maintain, with its own drive and under convenient directives, the national cinematographic information”. No-Do was granted exclusive rights to newsreel production, and exhibition in all cinemas of Spain and its colonies was compulsory. No-Do accompanied all theatrical programs along thirty two years from 4th, January 1943 to 1975, when its compulsory exhibition was abolished.

No-Do programs usually opened with the tune “His Excellency the Chief of State, Generalísimo Franco…” The peculiar narrator’s voice and the repeated images of General Franco visiting factories and construction works is engraved in the memory of several Spanish generations.

Albeit its easily recognizable propagandistic bias, an attentive viewer will have the chance of reading between lines and discover the actual reality of that period through what they tried to hide: the insistence of promoting an homogeneous way of thinking, the abusive presence of the Catholic Church and the military in the Spanish society, the evolution of the economic strategies of the regime through the years, the interaction with other countries, democratic or not...

All in all, I think this is good news for Galicia, Galician researchers and the general public, as we will have first-hand access to a most relevant part of our audiovisual historical memory.

I presume that Galician-centered exhibition programs based on this material are to come in the near future. Keep in tune…

Galician cinema travels to Madrid

2008-12-06T10:41:00.002+01:00

Starting 9th, December, Filmoteca Española’s Cine Doré will host a showcase of Galician cinema that reflects some of the most relevant milestones of our audiovisual history.

The showcase is initiated with two examples of the collaboration between Filmoteca Española and the Galician Centre for Image Arts CGAI for the recovering and conservation of the historical audiovisual patrimony related to Galicia: La Casa de la Troya (Alejandro Pérez Lugin & Manuel Noriega, 1924) and La Bandera Negra (Amando de Ossorio, 1956)

Other titles in the program are:

Galicia (Carlos Velo, 1936)
Arde Amor (Raul Veiga, 1999)
Rafael (Javier Bermúdez, 2008)
Liste, pronunciado Lister (Margarita Ledo, 2007)

Get the Cine Doré’s December 2008 complete program here.

A blue ray casts new light onto Pradolongo

2008-12-06T10:05:00.002+01:00

Ignacio Villar’s Pradolongo will be the first full feature production shot in Galician to be published in the high definition BluRay format.

The film from producer Vía Láctea, which will also appear in DVD, will be available at Galician stores from 9th December, and from January 2009 elsewhere.

The disk includes Spanish, Euskera, Catalán, French, English and Portuguese subtitles, a videoclip with the film’s main theme Quen Poidera Namorala performed by Luis Emilio Batallán, the TV spot, the theatrical trailer, and a photo gallery.

Rainy Day at Salford

2008-11-29T11:00:00.002+01:00

Andrés Victorero’s experimental short film Rainy Day scored as the second most voted movie at the Super8 Workshop and Screening, which was part of this year's Salford Film Festival.

The audience voted for their favourites from the Salford batch, a packed programme of over 30 Super 8mm films with the best of those submitted to Salford, the Best of Cambridge 2008 and the Cannes Bakers' dozen from straight 8.

The Audience Favourite was John Aldridge’s Dead Joe.

Congratulations Andrés!

Alfonso Zarauza scores at Viña del Mar

2008-11-26T13:32:00.001+01:00

Galician director Alfonso Zarauza received the Paoa award to the best director at Chilean Viña del Mar International Film Festival for his opera prima A Noite que deixou de chover, which also participated at the international feature films official section.

A Noite que deixou de Chover, kind of Galician interpretation of Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Traslation, is a love story that portraits a poetic and bohemian Santiago de Compostela.

Congratulations Alfonso!

Galician Actors and Actresses Online Catalogue

2008-11-26T13:31:00.001+01:00

AAAG, the Galician Association of Galician Actors and Actresses, has just presented its online catalogue. The catalogue, available here, collects contact information, curricula, pictures and video takes of more than 200 active Galician actors and actresses.

The dilemma of dividing the digital dividend

2008-10-26T18:26:00.003+01:00

The UHF band, the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that hosts TV stations, is prime spectrum, as it offers an invaluable combination of capacity and range. After the analogue switch-off, scheduled for 2010 in Galicia and the rest of Spain, a relevant part of this band presently crowded with analog TV emissions will be liberated because digital TV is far more eficient than analog TV insofar the use of the spectrum is concerned. This liberated band has been named the digital dividend.

As a consequence, stakeholders (TV broadcasters, broadband operators, mobile operators, ...) will rush for their share of a resource – the UHF band – that generates around €800bn in net present value for the European economy.

On the other side, spectrum is a national resource that should be carefully planned and optimally allocated to both commercial and public services.

Everyone will get its share?

Audiovisual in Galicia in a nutshell

2008-10-17T12:46:00.004+01:00

The Galician Audiovisual Observatory publishes a series of reports about specific subjects of this rich sector. Each of these one-page reports, intended to appear every month, will reflect in a snapshot the basic parameters and their evolution for aspects like TV and movie production, publicity, employment, finance, … These reports are published once the relevant data is available in a stable form, typically from public and/or independent organization registries.

The ones already available are:

Galician multimedia 2007
Television in Galicia 2007
Financial data 2006
Movie production 1986-2008 (to be updated soon)
Exhibition in Galicia 2007

Reports are in Galician, but in this case data is what matters.

There are more to come at the Galician Audiovisual Observatory portal. Enjoy them!

Cans moves to Brussels

2008-10-16T11:04:00.005+01:00

Brussels Cinéma Vendôme hosts today 16th October a two-hour programme with a selection of the best short films presented at the Cans Short Film Festival. Talking about Cans is talking about the most innovative in comedy, drama, animation, fantasy… a once-in-a-year opportunity to enjoy something that the alternate Cannes festival cannot offer: fresh, honest proposals, free from market pressures.

Just look at the selection presented in Brussels:

- Agroglamour, a documentary about the Cans festival, its origins, its activities, ...
- Javier Veiga’ Sálvame. Public’s and fiction 2008 award.
- Peque Varela’s 1977. 2008 Animation Award.
- David Gen’s A revolta dos mouses. Animation Public’s award.
- Videoclips: The Homens' Calamar and Elodio y los seres queridos’ España a las ocho
- Luis Otero’s animated photomontage Máis Cans que nunca, movie machine.

This is an initiative of the Galician association in Brussels Couto Mixto Bruselas ASBL and Cans' organizers Asociación Arela.

John Adams and the Pinball Effect

2008-10-12T16:46:00.001+01:00

HBO's miniseries about the life of the second U.S. President John Adams was one of the big winners at this year’s Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, collecting prizes for best miniseries, best actor for Paul Giamatti, best actress for Laura Linney and other 10 statuettes, a record for a miniseries.

But most people are not aware of the links John Adams had with Galicia. When John Adams was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to France to secure French financial and military support for North America’s Revolutionary War effort (part 3 of the miniseries) and departed to France by sea, the party had to change their initial voyage plans due to a leak in their frigate. Instead of sailing directly to France, they were forced to arrive in Galicia and continue their trip by land.

In December 8th, 1779 John Adams (44) and his sons John Quincy (12) and Charles arrived in Ferrol. From there, they crossed Galicia visiting different places, until they reached Villafranca del Bierzo in the Galician border with Castilla on 1st January, 1780 to continue their way to France.

Until that time, most existing descriptions of Galicia and the Galician people were negative and prejudiced. In turn, John Adams’ unbiased and objective account of his experiences among us told a totally different story that you can enjoy by yourself here.

By the way, this could be a nice argument for a Galician miniseries, couldn’t it?

Stardust: from Porriño to Montpellier

2008-10-12T12:22:00.002+01:00

Galician prolific filmmaker Alberte Pagan’s last short film Pó de Estrelas / Stardust (dvd, 24´, 2007) has been selected for participation at the 30th Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival CINEMED, which will be held in Montpellier from October, 2th to November, 2nd.

According to the festival organizers, Stardust is both a history of the universe, a critique of the society of the spectacle, and a comedy of errors. In any case, it is a great opportunity for those of you seeking radical film experiences.

Frankfurt: Meeting point of Galician youth and cinema

2008-10-06T15:54:00.002+01:00

I had the chance of participating in the 1st meeting of young Galicians abroad; wich took place in Frankfurt from October, 3rd to October, 5th. It was an experience to remember for many reasons, but if I had to point out something it would be the time devoted to talk about cinema and movie making.

Among the participants in this meeting were Galician director Ignacio Villar and Galician actors Tamara Canosa, Ruben Riós and Roberto Porto. We had the chance of watching Pradolongo and Ruben Riós' short film Adeus Edrada?, which received the 2007 Best Galician Short Film award - an astonishing opera prima, by the way - Besides, we talked a lot about Galician cinema, Raul shared with us his experiences on producing a short film, the cast and director of Pradolongo talked about their film, and all of us discussed about strategies for movie production in Galicia and abroad, about cinema made in Galicia, about Galician locations...

Believe me, it was a great experience to be in Frankfurt with Galician young people coming there from the homeland and the four corners of Europe, and talk - in Galician as a common language, by the way - about cinema. Almost none of the participants was directly involved in movie making, but they show a sincere interest on what was going on insofar Galician cinema is concerned.

I ask myself why we had to gather in Frankfurt for such an event, but I do have the hope that young people living in Galicia will share this interest about our audio-visual sector too.

And my conclusions in a nutshell:

- Galician cinema do has a future
- Galician hip-hop will rule the hip-hop world this side of the Atlantic ocean
- Ialma are really something

Book adaptations…

2008-10-06T15:41:00.002+01:00

The other day a close friend of mine told me a joke that can be converted into a witty argument when discussing with other people a bad cinematic adaptation of a literary work:

I have just seen two goats. One of them was munching a DVD of XXXXX (replace with the title of the movie you were talking about). The other goat asked:

- Does it taste good?

The munching goat responded:

- Well, I prefer the book…

Funny, huh? Even a nice argument for a micromovie...

Galician Werepig

2008-10-06T15:39:00.001+01:00

Sam Orti Martí’s stop-motiong animation film The Werepig, received the best Spanish short film award at Animadrid, the International Festival of the Animated Image of Pozuelo de Alarcón-Community of Madrid, which was held in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) from September, 26th to October, 3rd.

This production from Galician IB Cinema received the award ex-aequo with Pablo Lloréns’ Chockopulpitos. The Werepig is about two American teenagers very disrespectful with traditions. Their attitude will guide them to a small sausage factory owned by two elders, where they will end up taking part in those traditions they laugh at.

Congratulations Xosé!

Galician Day at SEMINCI

2008-09-24T20:38:00.002+01:00

Javier Angulo, director of the Valladolid International Film Festival has just confirmed together with the Galician Secretary General for Communication that SEMINCI will host a special day devoted to our cinema. This is the first time this prestigious festival hosts such an initiative – a day devoted to a Spanish autonomous community.

The selected date for your records: Saturday, 18^th October.

Four films co-produced by Galician companies have been included in the Meeting Point section: Ángel de la Cruz’s Os Mortos van ás Presas, argentinian Paula de Luque’s El vestido, Alfonso Zarauza’s A Noite que Deixou de Chover, and Raul García and Manuel Sicilia’s 3D animation film El Lince Perdido.

Galicia deserves an special day, doesn’t it?

A New Issue of AG

2008-09-24T20:25:00.000+01:00

A new issue of the Galician Audiovisual Magazine has just been published. You can access it online at the Galician Audiovisual Forum, where a PDF version is also ready for download.

Enjoy it!

CGAI participates in Terence Davies retrospective at San Sebastian

2008-09-21T12:12:00.001+01:00

The Centro Galego de Artes da Imaxe (CGAI, Galician Center for Image Arts) publishes in cooperation with the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Basque and Valencian film institutes a complete study of the work of Terence Davies. This study is coordinated by Quim Casas and includes the participation of various experts in Davies’ work.

According to Casas, Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992) and The House of Mirth (2000) is among the most exceptional and innovating moviemakers of today’s European cinema, author of a highly personal and evocative work, pioneer in the search for new languages between fiction, autobiography and the documentary, placing particular emphasis on music.

Following a cinematographic silence of almost eight years, Terence Davies presented his new film Of Time and the City in the Special Screenings section of the Official Selection at the Cannes Festival.

The San Sebastian Film festival dedicates a retrospective to the British director.

Pradolongo scores at San Sebastian!

2008-09-17T11:50:00.002+01:00

Ignacio Villar's Pradolongo has been awarded de Ciudad de San Sebastian Film Comission award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. This award was created to recognise the work of the Film Commissions and highlight the importance of film in the promotion of cities as a scenic space at the service of the audiovisual industry.

This award is intended to go to the feature film best reflecting the urban, landscape, cultural and social values of Spanish cities and regions. Definitely Pradolongo fulfils all these requirements.

Pradolongo was shot entirely in Galician and at Galician locations, namely at the Ourensan Valdeorras district.

My most sincere congratulations, Ignacio.

Galicia enters the Academy Awards competition

2008-09-17T11:47:00.001+01:00

Two out of three films initially selected to represent Spain at the Academy Awards have Galician locations. This initial selection includes José Luis Garci’s Sangre de mayo, Gracia Querejeta’s 7 mesas (de billar francés) and José Luis Cuerda’s Los girasoles ciegos. Among these three films is the one to be submitted to the Academy to represent Spain.

The latter two films where partially shot in Galicia: 7 mesas was partially shot in Vigo (Pontevedra) and was produced with the participation of the Galician broadcaster TVG, and Los girasoles ciegos was shot almost completely in Ourense and San Clodio locations. This film is co-produced by public-private venture Sempre Cinema PC.

Director José Luis Cuerda use to say talking about Galicia that no matter where you aim your camera, an impressive shot is always guaranteed.

Dead people hurry up to Valladolid

2008-09-08T08:57:00.003+01:00

The for a long time expected project of Angel de la Cruz Os mortos van as presas (Dead people hurry up) has been selected for participation at Valladolid's SEMINCI, which will take place at this beautiful Castilian town from October, 24th to November, 1st.

Shot at Rinlo, a picturesque small village near Ribadeo, Lugo, Os Mortos tells the story of Irene, worker of a delivery company that gets stuck with her truck in the path of a burial entourage.

Os mortos is another example of what may be named the new Galician cinema, represented by a bunch of productions shot in Galician language that bring fresh air to a scenery dominated in the past by financial co-productions, where Galician participants had almost nothing to say about the creative aspects of the project, their participation focused on providing financial support through Galician public aids, justified by a minoritary presence among the artistic or technical cast.

A few examples of this new approach to making movies in Galicia are Pradolongo, O Espiritu do Bosque, Pedro e o Capitan, ¡Maldito Bastardo! or, of course, Os Mortos van as Presas. Note that the list is not exhaustive. Keep in tune to learn more about these films!

Probably these projects will never become blockbusters but, what the hell, how many Galician productions have reached this status in the past?

Angel, you are the man! Congratulations to you and the rest of the cast.

Chicago & the spirit of the forest

2008-08-28T12:04:00.002+01:00

David Rubin & Juan Carlos Pena’s The Spirit of the Forest has been selected for participation at the 35th anniversary edition of the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF), to be held in Chicago from October, 23rd to November, 2nd.

This is the third 3D animation feature film of Galician production company Dygra. The English version submitted to CICFF includes among the cast the voices of Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, Sean Astin or Giovanni Ribisi among others.

The Chicago International Children's Film Festival is the largest festival of films for children in North America, featuring over 200 films from 40 countries. Besides, CICFF is commited to cultural diversity, non-violence and value affirming new cinema for children, and is the only children's film festival to be an Academy Award Qualifying Festival.

Dygra’s first 3D animation film The Living Forest received the Children's Jury Award for the best animated feature film at the CICFF’s 2002 edition.

Pradolongo travels to San Sebastian

2008-08-23T18:36:00.000+01:00

Ignacio Villar’s Pradolongo has been selected for participation at the Made in Spain section of the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Made in Spain offers an overview of the most interesting productions released in Spain in 2008. Pradolongo will be in theaters all around Spain next October, and San Sebastian offers an excellent international launching pad for the film.

Ignacio: First was Galicia, next Spain, and then the world!

A bloody bastard’s world tour

2008-08-23T18:17:00.002+01:00

Javi Camino’s ¡Maldito Bastardo! (Bloody Bastard!) continues its tour around the world. This time, the film has been the only Spanish film selected for the official section of BUTFF, the B-movie, Underground and Trash Film Festival to be held in Breda, Holland from September, 18th and September 21st.

This festival collects for the Dutch audience the most rare and bizarre production this side of the Milky Way. No doubt that ¡Maldito Bastardo! deserves a place among them.

Congratulations again, Javi!

Ourense hosts Blind Sunflowers’ world première

2008-08-23T17:57:00.003+01:00

José Luis Cuerda’s Los Girasoles Ciegos (The Blind Sunflowers) was presented yesterday at Ourense’s City Auditorium. More than 1,000 people attended this event, including the cast of the movie, Maribel Verdú, Javier Cámara, Raúl Arévalo and Roger Princip among them. After all, it is not usual for Galicia to host world premières of major films like this.

Los Girasoles Ciegos, an adaptation of the eponymous novel from Alberto Méndez, tells the story of a family that tries to keep a dangerous secret as the world turns upside down around them. The film offers a master’s re-creation of the Spanish atmosphere just after the Spanish civil war from the point of view of the Republican survivors.

The film was shot in several locations in the Galician province of Ourense, Segovia and Madrid. Los Girasoles Ciegos is also one of the first productions supported by Sempre Cinema Producións SL, a partnership between the Galician government and the private financial institution CaixaGalicia that contributes to the consolidation of projects participated by other Galician producers.

The film have been selected for participation at the TIFF'08 Toronto International Film Festival's Contemporary World Cinema section. Spanish sales company Sogepaq will handle international rights outside Spain to Los Girasoles Ciegos.

Mucha suerte, José Luis. La película lo merece.

The House of Light on Location

2008-08-13T11:02:00.002+01:00

Carlos Amil’s A Casa da Luz (The House of Light) is being shot in several locations in Galicia, Betanzos and Ferrol among them. This film is based on the novel of the same title written by the 1995 national literary prize Xabier Docampo, and tells the story of Alicia and her friends Álvaro, Amadeo, Anxo, Alba and Lucrecia in and unknown and mysterious world.

A Casa da Luz is the first real-image feature film for kids shot entirely in Galician.

On location: Agallas

2008-08-13T10:08:00.003+01:00

Andrés Luque & Samuel Martín Mateos’ black comedy Agallas (Guts) is being shot at the El Bosque complex, near the Cecebre dam in Cambre, A Coruña. Agallas is the story of a young man who, after being released from prison, tries by all means to be at the top of the drug business.

The Agallas cast includes renowned Galician actors Mabel Rivera, Celso Bugallo, Isabel Blanco or musician Tonhito de Poi, and Spanish actors Carmelo Gómez and Hugo Silva.

Tagline: When you think that you are at the top, there is always somebody quicker, meaner, and crueler.

Fancy being a financial producer?

2008-08-12T09:25:00.003+01:00

Artefacto Producciones, producer of Fernando Cortizo’s animation film O Apóstolo (The Apostle), has just presented an alternate and innovative Web-based form of seeking funding to produce this project. Artefacto offers shares of the film through its web portal. Anybody can be a financial producer for just 30 euro!

O Apostolo is a plasticine® animation film set at the Way of St. James, a mystery and horror story with the voices of renowned Galician and Spanish actors Carlos Blanco, Xosé Manuel Pico Olveira, Luís Tosar, Celso Bugallo, Héctor Alterio and Gabino Diego. O Apóstolo is the first stop-motion full feature film produced in Spain.

If you are interested in co-producing this film, please click here. For less than two shots of whisky you can become a financial producer!

Galician Bloody Bastard goes to Bloomington, IN

2008-08-12T09:21:00.002+01:00

Javi Camino’s ¡Maldito Bastardo! (Bloody Bastard!) has just been selected for participation at the official section of the Dark Carnival Film Fest, perhaps one of the most renowned independent horror cinema festivals in the US. The Dark Carnival Film Fest will take place from September 16th to September 21st in Bloomington, Indiana. This is the first time a Spanish film is included in this festival’s program.

By the way, ¡Maldito Bastardo! received the best film award at the Italian Fearmament festival.

Congratulations, Javi!

Commission rules for film and TV production and the Cultural Test

2008-08-08T11:35:00.003+01:00

A debate is open in Galicia on which kind of audiovisual projects are eligible for public support. On one side, some argue that the focus should be put in independent projects with a clear cultural bias. On the other side, some point out that public funding should be used to promote initiatives with a clear industrial vocation in order to maximize the commercial success of the supported projects.

All in all, this is again the old and only debate: culture versus industry; the “parallel world” versus “commercial coproduction first”; art versus entertainment.

Indeed, the debate is so old that almost everybody has forgotten the starting point. Arguments have become so entangled that basic principles are not taken into account anymore. These basic principles have been established by the European Commission insofar public aids are concerned (please note the “musts”):

State aid is permitted only if it does not affect trade and competition in the Single Market.
Public aids must benefit a cultural product. Each Member State must ensure that the content of the aided production is cultural according to verifiable national criteria.
The producer must be free to spend at least 20% of the production budget in other Member States without suffering any reduction in the aid provided for under the scheme (so-called ‘territorialisation clauses’).
The aid intensity in principle must be limited to 50% of the production budget (except for difficult and low budget films).
Aid supplements for specific film-making activities are not allowed (e.g. distribution)

These rules establish the “Legality Test” for public aids all around the European Union. On the other side, the Commission has approved the UK film tax incentive scheme a.k.a. the “Cultural Test”. The UK scheme establishes a de-facto protocol to assess the eligibility of audiovisual projects for funding compatible with EU regulations. The Cultural Test can be seen as a set of rules of thumb, as the basis of comparison, to select projects for funding according to the following items:

Cultural content ( film set in the UK, lead characters British citizens or residents, film based on British subject matter or underlying material, original dialogue recorded mainly in English language).
Cultural contribution (Film represents/reflects a diverse British culture, British heritage or British creativity).
Cultural hubs (studio and/or location shooting/ Visual Effects/ Special Effects, Music Recording/Audio Post Production/Picture Post Production).
Cultural practitioners (director, scriptwriter, producer, composer, lead actors, lead cinematographer, lead production designer, lead costume designer, lead editor, lead sound designer, lead visual effects supervisor, lead hair and makeup supervisor, majority of cast, majority of crew).

Replace above British/UK with Galician/Galicia and you have a Galician Cultural Test compatible with EU rules and regulations.

DTV Potential

2008-08-08T10:06:00.003+01:00

Galicia, as most countries in Europe, is experiencing the conversion of analog terrestrial television to digital television – DTV, DVB-T, or TDT as it is known in Spanish and Galician.

The most important improvement is in the number of programs freely available. Broadcasters will not use the former entire bandwidth for an analog channel to broadcast just one program. Instead the broadcast channel has been subdivided in Spain across four video subchannels of a quality similar to the former single analog channel, including a non-video datacasting service that allows one-way high-bandwidth streaming of data. As a consequence, the existing six nationwide and one Galician free-to-air TV programs are replaced by 24 nationwide and 4 Galician digital programs.

Each former broadcaster, public or private, has now to fill in four programming grids instead of one – exceptions apply, but I will not bother you with them. Thus, the big question is how to fill the new programming grids and keep costs compatible with the former income model, as funding sources do not seem to increase at the same rate!

One of the strategies seems to be to reschedule old TV shows and movies, which in turn allow us to revisit them without buying a cable subscription or a direct TV satellite dish. This obviously improves the zapping experience, as now you can unexpectedly encounter gems like The Magnificent Seven – yesterday in Antena Nova – or an almost forgotten documentary about the freakiest freak of Galician filmmakers Amando de Ossorio – the day before yesterday in Galicia TV.

Current DTV population coverage in Galicia is over 93%. Analog switch off is scheduled for April, 2010 in most parts of Galicia, although the areas of Santiago de Compostela and Ourense Este will complete the transition to DTV in June, 2009. The completion of the transition process has to guarantee coverage figures similar to the former analog situation, that is, over 98% of the Galician population.

Welcome DTV!

Water runs free

2008-07-24T15:58:00.002+01:00

After its participation at Canary Island’s Festivalito, Ozo’s short film Auga (Water) will be participating at Rennes’ Court Métrange Film Festival and Tarragona’s La Selva del Camp.

Watch it at YouTube.

Congratulations again, Ozo!

Meeting point at the night when it stopped raining

2008-07-24T15:56:00.001+01:00

Alfonso Zarauza’s opera prima A noite que deixou de chover has been selected for participation at Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid’s Punto de Encuentro, which will be held from October, 24th to November, 1st.

SEMINCI’s Punto de Encuentro (Meeting Point) competitive section collects feature films worthy of special consideration, either for their subject matter or style.

Congratulations, Alfonso!

Galician contribution to Ibermedia

2008-07-24T12:53:00.003+01:00

Three productions with Galician flavour have been selected for participation at this year’s edition of the Ibermedia Latin-American Co-production Fund. This fund, promoted by the Spanish government and the Latin-American General Secretariat, has been created in 1997 to promote the co-production of Latin-American films and TV products.

The Galician films selected are:

Sandra Sanchez’s Tra-las luces (Behind the Lights), a documentary film about today’s last nomads: traders attending fairs all around the world. This film is produced by Galician Tic-Tac Produccións and is supported by the government of Galicia through its Department of Culture.

Xavier Villaverde’s O Sexo dos Anxos (The Gender of Angels), a full feature film about a young couple's relationship that becomes rocked when they meet a guy who shows them all about "free love". Produced by Continental Producións, this film is supported by the government of Galicia through its Department of Culture, and the Consorcio Audiovisual de Galicia Galician-Brazilian co-production Fund.

Argentinean directors Pablo D'alo Abba and Cristian Harbaruk’s documentary film Veñen polo ouro, veñen por todo (They come for the money, they come for everything), which narrates the confrontation among the people of a small village triggered by a mining project. This project is produced by Argentineans Mal Cine and Lagarto Cine, Chilean Errante Producciones, and Galician Tic Tac Producciones, and is supported by INCAA and the Jan Frijman Foundation.

Pradolongo Score Scores!

2008-07-12T11:12:00.002+01:00

Zeltia Montes has just won the best film score and best novel composer awards for Ignacio Villar's Pradolongo at the 3rd edition of the Jerry Goldsmith Awards to young new composers, one of the key events of the 4th International Film Music Conference 'Ciudad de Úbeda', being held from 10th to 13th July.

The Jerry Goldsmith Awards to amateur composers were created to acknowledge and promte the work of novel film score composers. Jerrald King "Jerry" Goldsmith (1929 – 2004) was an American film score composer who was nominated for 18 Academy Awards, winning one for The Omen. He also won 4 Emmy Awards. Jerry Goldsmith created the score for a wide variety of genres, both for movies and TV, but is most prominently associated with action, suspense, horror and science fiction films.

Congratulations Zeltia!

The Sound of the Spirit of the Forest

2008-07-08T16:48:00.004+01:00

Dub of the Spirit of the Forest, the third 3D animation feature film produced by Galician Dygra Films, ended last week with the participation of actors Luis Merlo, María Adánez, Juan Ibañez and Damian Molla. The film will be released in cinemas on September 5th. David Rubin and Juan Carlos Peña directed this adventure that promotes the defense of nature. Furi and his friends must fight Mrs. D'Abondo, committed to terminate the forest of Cecebre.

Peter and the Captain on location

2008-07-07T20:33:00.001+01:00

Pablo Iglesias’ Pedro e o capitán started filming today. Various locations in Galician Compostela and Muros areas will be featured.

This film, shoot entirely in Galician, is about the dialectical confrontation between the Captain, a torturing soldier, and Pedro, a tortured inmate. Both will discover what actually their personalities hide. Galician actors Diego Anido and Miguel de Lira are among the cast.

A brand new last-generation sound lab for Galicia

2008-07-03T18:08:00.001+01:00

Dolores Ben’s Cinemar Films has just opened its new facilities at Santiago de Compostela’s Novo Milladoiro Industrial Park.

Equipped with cutting-edge technology and over-the-years renowned professional prestige, Cinemar Films offers Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround, Dolby EX and DTS mix equipment, among other services. Cinemar Films is the first and only Galician study that owns, among others, a mix room with a Dolby Digital 35mm film projector of a size exceeding 100 square metres. In addition, Cinemar Films hosts a pre-mix room, recording effects (foley) and dialogues room, as well as several additional sound editing rooms.

Congratulations Dolores!

A Galician Bloody Bastard goes to Italy

2008-07-02T16:40:00.001+01:00

Javi Camino’s first comedy ¡Maldito Bastardo! (Bloody Bastard!) has been selected for participation at the official section of the Fearmament European Horror Festival, which os being held at Torino (Italy) until July, 3rd.

This new European horror festival hosts both full feature films and short films, and a lot of side activities, including music, videogames, or exhibitions. Fearmament will be set in a 1,000 year old Cistercian monastery and its park, where a 700 seats' open-air cinema has been set for the occasion.

Congratulations, Javi!

Award for the biggest flower in the world

2008-06-23T19:55:00.000+01:00

Juan Pablo Etcheverri’s animation short film A flor mais grande do mundo received the 2007 best screenplay award at the Chicago Short Film Festival.

Presently, the film is being screened at the A Consistência dos Sonhos (The consistency of dreams) exhibition devoted to José Saramago. This exhibition can be visited at Lisbon’s Palacio da Ajuda until July, 27th.
Congratulations, Juan Pablo!