A total of 184 short films will compete to win one of the awards at the 49th edition of the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival, in which a total of 202 audiovisual creations of this type are scheduled to be screened, between October 20 and 28.
The festival has a total of 21 official competitive sessions spread across three official venues: the historic headquarters of the festival, the Zorrilla Theater in Badalona (18 sessions, including the Inaugural Session), the French Institute of Barcelona (two sessions) and the Can Castellet cinemas in Sant Boi de Llobregat (one session).
As reported by the Badalona city council this Tuesday in a statement, the motto of the 49th edition of the festival is "Every second counts", a phrase that when applied to short films takes on special emphasis, whether it connotes communicative urgency or whether it weights quality. substantial.
The 49th edition of FILMETS will open with an Inaugural Session on October 20 at 9:00 p.m., which will allow all the filmmakers who will come to present the films that will be screened during this first event of the festival to pass through the Zorrilla Theater in Badalona.
In the Inaugural Session, seven short films will be screened, and it will also be a tribute to the filmmaker Carla Simón, who will be awarded a Venus of Honor in recognition of her professional career.
Simón already won a Venus for Best Badalona Production in 2015 with the film 'The Little Things'; In 2019 he participated with the short film 'After too' and in 2020 with the film 'Correspondencia', both in the Official Section of the festival.
Filmmaker Lluís Miñarro will also receive a Venus of Honor from FILMETS for his professional career on Monday, October 23, at the Zorrilla Theater, at the beginning of the FILMETS Campus session, which serves to present the films made by students from the academies of cinema.
The three official competitive venues where the films competing for the award will be screened are the Zorrilla Theater in Badalona, the Institut Français in Barcelona and the Can Castellet cinemas in Sant Boi de Llobregat.
On the other hand, there will be three other non-competitive venues where short films will be screened without being eligible for an award, such as the Germans Trias Hospital in Badalona, the Badalona Municipal Hospital (dependent on Badalona Serveis Asistencials) and the IFP-Grupo Planeta headquarters. from Barcelona.
The film that will open the festival will be 'An Irish Goodbye', the short that won the Hollywood Oscar and the British BAFTA for best fiction in 2023.
In addition, the last competitive session of FILMETS, the Premières, will play a total of seven short films, including 'Las Nogas', which is already part of the 2024 Oscars short list and will be presented by its director, Catya Plate .
The short that will close the 49th edition of the festival will be 'Sacrilegio', a 16-minute Spanish fiction production, written and directed by Pedro Casablanc.
The festival also has OFF FILMETS, which brings together parallel events outside the competition, such as FILMETS Pro, followed by five in-person activities aimed at professionals and intended to promote the audiovisual industry and which will take place at the El Carme Cultural Center in Badalona.
