The Celler de Vila-seca will host the eleventh edition of the Vila-seca International Short Film Festival (FICVI) from 17 to 25 October. This year, the festival will pay tribute to actor Francesc Orella, who will receive the Honorary Award for his professional career.
The 11th edition of FICVI will feature eight official screenings. Over nine days, audiences will be able to enjoy animation, fiction and documentary short films, with proposals aimed at different audiences and age groups. Of the 1,130 short films submitted to the competition, the artistic direction and selection committee have chosen 47: 18 fiction films, 5 documentaries and 24 animated films.
The festival opening will be hosted by Tarragona-born journalist and presenter Danae Boronat. During the gala, which will take place on Saturday 17 October, Francesc Orella will receive the Honorary Award for his professional career, followed by a conversation with the actor after the screening of the short film No sé res de tu. The closing gala, on Saturday 24 October, will be hosted by journalist and presenter Espartac Peran and will feature the winners of the 11th edition.
During the press conference held this morning at Vila-seca Castle, Mayor Pere Segura highlighted that “FICVI is now a festival that attracts creators, professionals and audiences; that opens Vila-seca to perspectives from around the world; and that allows us to continue making culture a tool for visibility, cohesion and growth.”
With eleven editions, the Vila-seca International Short Film Festival has established itself as a leading short film event at national level, with a strong international presence. According to Lluïsa Clavé, President of the Vila-seca Tourism Board, “FICVI is an opportunity to highlight Vila-seca as a destination with a year-round leisure offer, through an event that has already become part of the city’s cultural calendar and, at the same time, has a clear reach beyond Vila-seca”.
This year, FICVI celebrates the Vila-seca Tourism Board joining the Catalunya Film Festival, an association that gives voice, support and visibility to film festivals and showcases across Catalonia. With 20 years of experience, joining the association will allow the festival to continue growing through opportunities for professional learning and collaboration, training, promotion and communication, advice, networking and cooperation within the sector.
The 11th edition of FICVI presents a particularly diverse selection with strong international reach, bringing to audiences in Vila-seca films featuring renowned performers such as Bérénice Bejo, Miriam Margolyes and Stephen Fry, as well as works that have been screened at or recognised by leading international festivals and awards, including Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand and the BAFTAs. According to Agustí Argelich, FICVI’s artistic director, “we wanted to maintain a perspective that is closely connected to the local area while giving space to new voices and creators who bring different perspectives to the short film format, such as L’Alliberament dels Dits, by Reus-born filmmaker Clàudia Vernis, which was shot in Vila-seca. I believe that this combination of established talent, international recognition, new perspectives and a strong local connection is precisely one of the great strengths of this edition,” he added.
This year’s programme also includes established parallel activities such as the Shorts&Wine workshop, which combines short films with DO Tarragona wines at the Celler de Vila-seca, and the In Situ workshop at the Castell de Vila-seca, led by Vila-seca-born filmmaker Arian Araujo, where participants will learn about the process of creating a short film.
As a new feature, this edition will also include a screenwriting masterclass, “Strategies of an Auteur Mercenary”, led by Francesc Xavier Manuel, a screenwriter specialising in animation, offering an opportunity to explore this area of audiovisual creation in greater depth.
FICVI is a partner festival in the preselection of short films for the Goya Awards. The winning films in the Best National Fiction Short Film and Best National Animated Short Film categories go directly into the preselection process for the awards of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain.