The organization of the Cartagena Film Festival presents the next edition at the Palacio de Longoria in Madrid, headquarters of the SGAE
The Cartagena International Film Festival (FICC) will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary from November 21 to 27, as announced this Wednesday by the mayor of Cartagena, Noelia Arroyo; the president of the FICC, Nacho Ros, and the president of the New Filmmakers Platform, Sonia Bautista, at the Palacio de Longoria, headquarters of the SGAE (Madrid). To commemorate the half century of the contest, the organization has chosen a unique photo for the poster of this edition. It is an image –taken in 1974 during the III Naval Film Week, the original nomenclature of the festival– in which Juan José Muñoz, director of the contest, appears; the renowned director Luis García Berlanga (‘The national shotgun’), who was president of the jury in that edition, and the distinguished poet from Cartagena José María Álvarez.
The themes on which the contest will deal this year are the social, political and cultural changes that have taken place in Spain in the last half century, and how cinema has been a faithful reflection of them. For this, the FICC has organized meetings, talks, workshops, retrospectives and an exhibition that will collect the history of the festival. However, the organization has not yet released the programming. As confirmed by the Consistory, it will be revealed in early November.
Open convocatory
The contest is – in the words of the mayor – a cultural activity that involves the entire city, as it reaches schools, institutes, universities and the public of any age. “The city’s moviegoers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the festival, which this year will celebrate its fiftieth edition,” said the first mayor. On the other hand, it should be noted that the inscriptions for the Official Section of Short Films and Murcine are already closed, although not those of the Young Amateur Short Film contest, the requirements of which can be consulted on the official website of the ficc.es event.
After the presentation of the festival – where he took the opportunity to talk about its origins – a short film made by the FICC team that traces the history of the festival was screened, as well as three short films awarded in the last two editions and presented by their respective directors. : ‘Polvotrón 500’, by Silvia Conesa, first Murcine prize in 2019; ‘La Guacha’, by David Cervera and Pepe Puertas, second Murcine award in 2020, and ‘Pentimento’, by José Manuel Carrasco, which won the ex aequo Award for Best Interpretation for Ana Rayo and Marina Salas in 2020, the organization recalled .
A veteran
The Cartagena Film Festival –which is one of the oldest in the whole country– has just received one of the ‘Best’ awards given by LA VERDAD de Murcia. Born in 1972 under the name of the First International Naval Film Week, its intention was “to activate the city culturally during the summer and pay tribute, through cinema, to the men and women of the sea,” Arroyo explained. However, in 2005, the contest decided to abandon the marine theme and rename itself the Cartagena International Film Festival (FICC). Finally and over the years, the thematic festival has been diversifying to what it is today. A framework in which more than a thousand films have been screened from countries such as Spain, France, Great Britain, the United States, Egypt, Germany, China, Japan, etc.
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