The United States of America is the guest country of the festival’s current edition, which will take place from October 17th to 26th.
FILMETS Badalona Film Festival will celebrate its 40th edition this year with 255 films from 46 countries participating in the official selection. The festival is a world class contest of reference for the short films industry and it will take place from October 17th to 26th in its official venues: Zorrilla Theatre, Principal Theatre, Joan Maragall High School’s assembly room, Can Canyadó Traditional Culture Centre and the city’s libraries.
The deputy major and Government councilor of Badalona, Maritxu Hervás; the CEO of Badalona Comunicació, Albert Fernández Saltiveri; and the festival director, Agustí Argelich, have revealed today in a press conference the novelties of the festival’s present edition.
The United States of America is the guest country of this year’s edition. On Sunday October 19th, at 7 pm, at the Zorrilla Theatre, there will be a screening of US short films, this country being the one that has won the biggest number of Venus awards to the best film in the festival’s history.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of FILMETS Badalona Film Festival, the Expo Vintage will be displayed at Zorrilla Theatre, an exhibition of private collections of cameras, projectors and cinematographic material used in the shooting of films that have participated in the festival throughout its four decades of life.
This year’s official international president is Joan Vidal, born in Badalona and cofounder of the festival in the year 1971. The rest of members of the jury are Alex Suffit, director of music videos and spots (England); Luca dal Molin, director of the Unlimited cinema festival (Italy); Esther Casas, Claymaniak’s animation director (USA), and Miguel Ángel Buttini, cinema director and producer.
The festival will have different sections: Family Filmets; Cinema, Music and Gastronomy with the United States of America; Manifest; Young Filmets; Afterhours show; The sea of Filmets; Mediterranean Cinema; Human Rights; Historical Cinema; Badalona in short; Filmets for everybody; Little Filmets: Filmets at the libraries; Fit Filmets and Filmets Connect’Art.
Deputy major and Government councilor of Badalona Maritxu Hervás stated that “Filmets is a festival for everybody, for people of any age, from the little children to the elderly”. She wanted also to transmit the Town Council’s acknowledgement to all the people that have made possible each edition of the festival throughout these 40 years.
Badalona Comunicació’s CEO Albert Fernández Saltiveri, said that “to leave Badalona makes you aware of the acknowledgement and importance that the festival has achieved everywhere, and then you can confirm that Filmets is a brand from Badalona”.
In his turn, festival’s director Agustí Argelich stated that “20 films made in Badalona will compete in this year’s official selection, and this fact confirms that the city has a real pool of short film authors that meet each other in the festival”.
The festival’s budget is 138,000 euros, subsidized by public institutions and financed by private sponsors. The tickets prices are 2 euros per day for the shows after 7 pm. The guest country (USA) screening will cost 3 euros. The rest of shows open to the public are sponsored and free.
Badalona, October 13th 2014
More images of the press conference: here
