FILMETS will screen the 237 competing shorts at the Zorrilla Theatre in Badalona, the Institut français in Barcelona and the Can Castellet cinemas in Sant Boi de Llobregat
The Oscar-nominated The Letter Room and Mi querido Juan Manuel, with Maria Molins and Miguel Ángel Jenner, will be the star screenings at the Opening Session, which will take place at 8 pm on Friday the 22nd at the Zorrilla Theatre
For the first time ever, the Germans Trias Hospital will be an official FILMETS venue, making the films available to all the hospitalised patients and healthcare staff
On Monday the 25th, Assumpta Serna will be awarded the festival’s Venus d’Honor in an event beginning at 4.30 pm at the Zorrilla Theatre
Josep Viñeta Balsells, CEO of Badalona Comunicació; Amanda Feria, Councillor for Culture, Education and Youth; and Agustí Argelich, Art Director of the festival
The 47th edition of the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival will be the first film festival to be held in Catalonia with 100% audience capacity after the Government lifted the restrictions introduced during the pandemic. The three FILMETS competition venues (the Zorrilla Theatre in Badalona, the Institut français in Barcelona, and the Can Castellet cinemas in Sant Boi de Llobregat) will now be able to make all their seats available to short film fans.
The 47th edition of FILMETS will take place from the 22nd to the 31st of October and show 237 competing shorts. Although the festival can now welcome packed audiences at the three competition venues, FILMETS will maintain its hybrid format, with all the competing films in the Official Section available for viewing via the festival’s website: www.festivalfilmets.cat. Both the live theatre sessions and those on the digital platform will be, as always, free of charge and open to all, but viewers will need to register in advance.
The 27 competition sessions will feature international, European and Catalan short film premières and two Oscar-nominated films, as well as short films awarded or selected at prestigious festivals such as Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand, Tribeca, Palm Springs and Sundance, among others.
An impressive Opening Session
The Opening Session of FILMETS will feature a short nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021: The Letter Room, starring Oscar Isaac. The North-American short film directed by Danish director Elvira Lind premièred at the HollyShorts film festival. It was also nominated for Best Short Film at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Palm Springs International ShortFest, a veritable cinematic jewel for the Opening Session of FILMETS.
The Opening Session will also feature an international première: Mi querido Juan Manuel, a short film starring Maria Molins, Miguel Ángel Jenner and Michelle Jenner, and directed by José Luis López Ortiz.
Both Maria Molins and Miguel Ángel Jenner have already confirmed their attendance at the Opening Session of FILMETS and will be available to the media.
The short film Survivers, directed by Carlos Gómez-Trigo, will also be screened at the Opening Session.
Carlos Gómez-Trigo himself will be present at the Zorrilla Theatre in Badalona and available to the media.
Another of the Opening Session shorts will be A Wish Upon a Satellite, directed by Leeni Linna, a young Estonian director the critics say we’ll be hearing a lot about in the next few years.
The Germans Trias Hospital will be an official festival venue for the first time
One of the most exciting developments for 2021 is the addition of the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital as an official festival venue. Unlike the other three FILMETS venues, however, the Germans Trias Hospital will not be a competitive venue.
Instead, all the children admitted to the paediatric ward will be able to watch children’s short films on the television in their rooms. And shorts from the Official Section will be screened in the other hospital rooms. There will be no charge to watch any of the films because the hospital will show them through its free corporate channel. Furthermore, the hospital’s staff and university students will be able to watch shorts screened in its auditorium.
Themed sessions
To make it easier for the viewer to choose which short films to watch, all the competition sessions will be themed. The public will be able to choose, for example, between watching the shorts in the Manifest Session or the Golfa Session -to name two well-known classic sessions-, or the films in the ‘Alta tensió’, Human Rights, Drama, Comedy, Horror or ‘Vides Creuades’ sessions, among others.
The Venus of Honour will be awarded to Assumpta Serna
Actress Assumpta Serna will be presented with the Venus of Honour award at the 47th edition of FILMETS. The award is given in recognition of her extensive film career and the support she has always given to cinema in short film format.
The ceremony to present the Venus of Honour to Assumpta Serna will be held at 4.30 pm, on Monday the 25th of October, at the Zorrilla Theatre in Badalona.
The FILMETS Official International Jury
The jury for this year’s edition of FILMETS comprises the following filmmakers: Katariina Lillqvist, Paco Poch, Margi Vila, Geneviève Kinet and Audrey Billard, all of whom are highly-regarded names in the world of cinema. Finnish filmmaker Katariina Lillqvist will be the president of the jury.
More FILMETS Pro sessions
This year, FILMETS Pro, the festival section for industry professionals, will offer double the number of sessions it offered last year. In total, there will be six sessions held at the El Carme Cultural Centre, all of which can be followed in full through the festival’s website: www.festivalfilmets.cat with prior registration.
The six sessions will be:
- ‘ACCIÓ>CINEMA. For a more just world’. Session co-organised with Catalunya Film Festivals
- ‘Inspira’t TV’. Session co-organised with the Audiovisual Cluster of Catalonia
- ‘Developing an international strategy for your short film’. Session co-organised with Catalan Films
- ‘Masterclass with Bárbara R. Gragirena’. Session co-organised with the Pau Gargallo College of Art and Design
- ‘ICAA’s new criteria to grant the aids for organisation and staging of film festivals’. Session co-organised with the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts
- ‘Pitch your short film’. Session co-organised by FILMETS
Group photo with the poster designer, Alexandra López
