Starting in November, the filmmaker Carla Simón will direct the Residency for Screenwriters, a pioneer "incubator of talent" in Catalonia, which in its first edition has selected eight projects that will work on different versions of the script over the next nine months.
Simón, accompanied by the president of the Acadèmia del Cinema Català, Judith Colell, presented the project this Friday, which has the peculiarity that it involves production and distribution companies from the earliest stages of writing and that, thanks to the collaboration of Catalan Films, Creative Europe Desk MEDIA-Catalunya and the Institut Ramon Llull, has internationalization as one of its main objectives.
Judith Colell, before giving the floor to Simón, expressed her satisfaction at having been able to develop in just a few months "a unique project, a resounding commitment from the academy for creation, because it will allow the selected screenwriters to develop projects together, in addition to being able to cross over to the other side, that of production".
The proposal, he has not hidden, emerges from "an obvious deficiency, from the fact that the industry has lost muscle and that in just ten years we have gone from a production quota of 48% to another of 30% of state production."
In addition, he stressed that the residency will allow the creative process to be accelerated and "link authors with the industry, favoring the Catalan audiovisual fabric", without forgetting that "there will be direct aid for the writing of cinematographic fiction that did not exist until now".
"It is - he continued - a strategic and coherent bet and it is not in the short term but in the long term", thanking the "travel companions", from Scriptwriters Associats de Catalunya (GAC), to ESCAC, the Ramon Llull universities , Pompeu Fabra or the Ramon Llull Institute.
The residents, ten people from a total of eight projects, of the 366 received, according to Carla Simón, will have a comprehensive support program for nine months, with a monthly salary of 1,400 euros and a work space in the Espai Joan Brossa and the Research Center of the Picasso Museum, in addition to two retreats, at the beginning of the process and at the end, at Faberllull in Olot.
Simón, very happy and excited about the project, has said, convinced, that "everything will go very well" and that the accompaniment that will be given to those selected should lead in the near future "to making Catalan cinematography reach everywhere".
The director of Alcarràs, who has been a student in similar residences at an international level, has pointed out that she can therefore "understand what the participants need", in addition to "being very nice to accompany them in the process".
At the same time, he has indicated that thanks to his experience he has been able to "reflect on what works and what does not", emphasizing that there will be "a direct and constant dialogue with the eight selected projects".
The chosen ones have been "Saints", by Mikel Gurrea; "Vi la noche que nunca se enda", by Helena Santin; "Smurf ice cream blue", by Laia Soler; "Drink", by Adriana Fuertes and Arántzazu Ruiz; "Between the stone and the hammer", by Àlex Lora and Yousra Touri; "The men and the days", by Arnau Vilaró; "Dasha", by Nataliya Kolesova, and "Estrany riu", by Jaume Claret. Six of the selected projects are in Catalan and two are signed by young people under thirty.
As for the themes, there are projects that affect identity in cities like Igualada (Barcelona) and Ripoll (Girona), there are those that deal with old age, homosexuality or organized crime in a town like Lloret de Mar (Girona) .
Carla Simón will be supported by an Advisory Council, which will take the form of a tutoring and mentoring program, with master classes and workshops led by professionals such as Jonás Trueba, Valentina Viso, Neus Ballús, Clara Roquet, Celia Rico, Claudia Llosa, Carlos Marques -Marcet, Valérie Delpierre, Tono Folguera, Alberto Marini, Alfonso Amador, Natalia Cabral, Milagros Mumenthaler, Neus Rodríguez, Ana Sanz-Magallón and Almudena Monzú.
At the end of the program, the intention is to offer the participants all the tools so that they can sell in the different markets and make "a subsequent tour of other laboratories or festivals".
