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The body in charge of selecting the best works to be screened during the festival and which will be eligible for competition is made up of professionals from different branches of the film industry
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Calzada de Calatrava, 9 February 2024. The organisation of the XI Calzada de Calatrava International Film Festival, which will be held from 8 to 17 August, has put together a jury of international calibre to choose the best feature films and short films to be screened in the Calatrava town and which, therefore, will compete for the different awards in each of the existing categories, after an exhaustive and meticulous work. This body is made up of directors, actresses, actors, producers, directors, directors, music professors, soundtrack creators and experts in the seventh art. In short, the festival will have an enviable cast for the difficult task of selecting the best films to compete in this eleventh edition.
The organisers will not announce the names of each of the 27 members until the first fortnight of June so as not to reveal which personalities have the power to choose the feature films and short films, preserving their free critical capacity at all times.
The jury is already viewing works that have already been submitted and will continue to do so during these months, specifically until 15 May, which is the date set to close the submission period. Both feature films and short films, always complying with the established rules, are being submitted on the Festhome and Movibeta platforms. The viewing of the short and feature films in the first phase will be done by streaming, analysing every detail, scene, music, performers, quality, image or script, among many other aspects to be taken into account in film production. After this first phase, with the selection of the best qualified works, the jury will hold different virtual meetings to decide the awards for each category of short films. On the other hand, this same jury will meet during the first fortnight of June to watch the feature films ‘in situ’ and together in Calzada de Calatrava.
The decisions taken will be announced from 15th June, which is the date chosen to start the communication procedures of the works that will finally go to the final phase and that, therefore, will be screened during the celebration of the festival. These works will compete for the statuette in each of the categories and for the different prizes that exist. The audience’s votes will also be of vital importance in this eleventh edition, as has been the case year after year, and different awards will be presented based on their criteria.
The winners in each of the categories will be announced on 17 August during the closing ceremony. To date, more than 150 productions have been submitted, despite the fact that there are still almost four months to go before the end of the submission period. The organisers of the 11th Calzada de Calatrava International Film Festival hope to surpass the record participation figures in this new edition of the festival.
The Mayor of Calzada de Calatrava, Gema García, expressed her satisfaction because “it is very important to have such a large jury to assess both feature films and short films” and stressed that “each of the 27 members has a recognised film career, so we are very happy and grateful to be able to count on all of them”. The mayoress wished each of them luck because “they are going to have a complicated exercise when it comes to selecting the best cinematographic works, bearing in mind the high level that is always present”. Furthermore, Gema Garcíashe acknowledged that she feels “totally at ease with the decisions that are made because I have no doubt that they are going to do very well, despite the fact that there are many works to assess, which is something we are also very happy about, as it then translates into some fantastic screening sessions”.
directorof the XI Calzada de Calatrava International Film Festival and Councillor for Culture of the Calzada de Calatrava Town Council, José Antonio Valencia Camacho, has detailed that “it is an honour for all the people who make up the organisation of the festival to be able to count on international personalities from the film industry, who have such an important prestige as is this case”. José Antonio Valencia did not want to reveal any names yet, but said that “we are very proud because they are professionals and experts of the seventh art with enviable careers and a long list of film productions, with sufficient criteria according to their careers in cinema”.
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José Antonio Valencia he assured that “we have a lot of hard work ahead of us in these months leading up to the festival because I am sure that the level and quality of the works presented will once again be extraordinary”. Proof of this is that this has been the case in recent years”. This means that the international jury “also has an enormous responsibility and will, I am sure, do an incredible exercise to be above all fair to all the participants”.
The festival director himself Valencia Camacho has taken the opportunity to invite and encourage “producers, producers, directors and directors from around the world to send us their work because, it is thanks to the magnificent works that are presented, whether feature films or short films, that we then have the pleasure of screening in our town,
short filmswill be divided in this eleventh edition intofour categoriesdifferent; ‘Documentary’, ‘Humorous Fiction’, ‘Hipparchy’ and ‘Made in Castilla-La Mancha’. The themesare maintained as before, with ‘Hiparquia’, a section that is related to gender violence, feminism and equality, as well as the achievements of women in the fight for their rights. The Festival is also once again committed to productions made in the territory of Castilla-La Mancha, where the filmmakers must be natural or residentin the region or have used locations in our autonomous community. As for Documentary and Fiction the same guidelines are maintained, where in the latter the short films have to be presented in a humorous tone corresponding their form of expression with the characteristics of comic and/or comedy cinema.
length films, with a minimum duration of 60 minutes, the festival opens its doors to young filmmakers from all over the world up to 35 years of age and with no limit to the number of works they can make. Filmmakers from all over the world, aged 36 and over, can also participate with no age limit, but with a maximum of three feature films in their film career.
It should be noted that the Festival will award different prizes in the feature film category, where jury and audience, independently, will award the best film, best director, best actor, best actress, best screenplay, best soundtrack and the audience award for best film. And in this festival, the spectator always has a lot to say.