The Vila-seca International Short Film Festival breaks registration record with nearly 1,500 entries

The ninth edition of the Vila-seca International Short Film Festival (FICVI), which will take place from 8 to 17 November, has closed the Festhome call for entries with the highest number of entries in its history, representing an increase of 30% over 2023 and more than double that of two years ago.

A total of 1,479 short films have been submitted to the festival’s official competitive section, which includes films under 30 minutes in length in the fiction, documentary and animation genres, produced as of 1 January 2023 and which have not been commercially released.

The short films entered come from 56 countries from all five continents. Spain is the leading country with 957 entries, followed by France (109), Brazil (51), Taiwan (51), Argentina (50), Mexico (29), Chile (26), Colombia (24), USA (16), Peru (13), Canada (12), Germany (11), Belgium (10), China (9), Italy (9), Iran (8), Portugal (8), Cuba (7), Poland (7), United Kingdom (6), Venezuela (5). There are also short films from Indonesia, Denmark, Netherlands, India, Croatia, South Korea, Turkey, Switzerland, Greece, Norway, Andorra, Lithuania, Serbia, Israel, Austria, Uruguay, Russia, Honduras, Armenia, Romania, Vietnam, Nigeria, Slovakia, Finland, Ecuador, Pakistan, Japan, Uzbekistan, Reunion, Czech Republic, Lebanon, Costa Rica, Philippines, Tunisia and New Zealand.

It should be noted that FICVI collaborates with the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a Collaborating Competition in the Pre-selection of Short Films in the Fiction and Animation categories for the Goya Awards. In addition, the films presented in competition will also compete for the Best Fiction Short Film, Best Animation Short Film and Best Documentary Short Film awards, as well as the Young Jury Award for Best Short Film, the Young Audience Award for Best Short Film and the Audience Award for Best Short Film. In addition, during the gala, the Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented.

The prizes will be awarded by a jury appointed by the organisers and made up of representatives from the fields of culture and audiovisual media. The Audience Award will be decided by the people attending the festival and the Youth Jury Award will be awarded to students in their final year of audiovisual studies, new filmmakers and/or acting students.

On the other hand, on 15 September, the IN SITU training workshop will be open for the development of short films of less than 3 minutes created by inhabitants of this town and of the Camp de Tarragona on a theme determined by the festival organisers, located in Vila-seca. The pieces produced as part of this workshop, which will turn the town into a large film set, will compete for the first and second prizes in this particular section.

FICVI is a festival organised by the Vila-seca Municipal Tourist Board with the collaboration of the Tarragona Provincial Council and the production company Parallel 40. It is an event specialising in the short film format that aims to celebrate and bring the best international and national cinema to the town of Vila-seca, with a commitment to emerging, daring and diverse cinema. The aim is to disseminate and promote filmmaking, supporting directors of short films and creating a space of reference where they can make their work known.