More than 220 short films will be screened at the International Official Section of Filmets, which will be held October 18-28.
‘The Silent Child’
The film that will launch the FILMETS Badalona Film Festival in October 19th will be ‘The Silent Child’, winner of the 2018 Oscar to the best short film. The film is starred by Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton. The film crew of this British film will be represented by Ali Farahani, Director of Photography,
‘The Silent Child’ tells the story of a deaf four year-old girl that lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker teaches her how to use sign language to communicate.
The 44th edition of FILMETS Badalona Film Festival, that will be held from 20-29 October, will be showing more than 220 films from all over the world.
An exceptional short film to close the Festival
The film that will close the festival on Friday 26th will be ‘Lunch Ladies’, from USA. The film’s producer and scriptwriter, Clarissa Jacobson, together with other crew members, will be at the Zorrilla Theatre of Badalona presenting the film.
‘Lunch Ladies’ tells the story of two burnt-out high school lunch ladies who will do whatever it takes on their quest to become Johnny Depp’s personal chefs.
La Nit de les Venus
The highest moment of FILMETS will be the Nit de les Venus ceremony, that will take place Saturday 27th at 8 pm at the Zorrilla Theatre. Throughout this gala, broadcasted by the Xarxa de Televisions Locals de Catalunya, the winners of the 2018 edition will be disclosed and awarded with the traditional Venus de Badalona, followed by a screening of the best short film.
One more year, the Zorrilla theatre will host the international short film festival, although there will also be screenings at the Teatre Principal, Teatre Blas Infante and the Institut Français of Barcelona. The Centre Cultural El Carme will host two sessions of Filmets PRO. All the sessions of FILMETS Badalona Film Festival will have a free entrance.
The official section of FILMETS Badalona Film Festival will consist of 24 sessions. Every film in competition will be presented there, and the awarded ones will be disclosed on the Nit de les Venus.
International Official Jury
The international official jury of the 44th edition of FILMETS Badalona Film Festival will be formed by Camille Hebert-Benazet, Jacopo Chessa, Javier Muñiz, Sílvia Quer and Sophie Leclercq.
All the members of the jury perform different tasks in the world of cinema.
Camille Hébert-Bénazet is a member of Cannes’ Short Film Selection Committee and organises film festivals such as the Deauville American Film Festival; Jacopo Chessa is a film historian and since 2016 he has directed the Torino Short Film Festival; Javier Muñiz directs the Soria International Short Film Festival and is a member of the board of directors of the Coordinadora del Cortometraje; Sílvia Quer combines the direction of films and spots and has directed TV movies such as 23-F: el día más difícil del Rey or La Llum d’Elna; Sophie Leclercq has produced and directed several short and feature films in France.
Italy, guest country
In this year’s edition, Italy will be the guest country of the festival and the protagonist in the FOCUS FILMETS session, which will take place on Sunday October 21st. In this session several Italian short films will be screened, many of them accompanied by their directors at the Zorrilla Theatre.
Short films starred by renowned actors and actresses
The screen at the Zorrilla Theatre will show films starred by actors and actresses such as Belén Rueda, Marcel Borràs, Macarena Gómez, Cristina Brondo, Bruna Cusí, Catherine Deneuve, Nausica Bonín, Assumpta Serna, Javier Gurruchaga and Maria Grazia Cucinotta, among many others.
Short films awarded in other European festivals
The 44th edition of FILMETS will present films of the highest quality that have been selected in festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Berlinale, Clermont-Ferrand, Annecy, Venice, Brussels, Regard and Quebec, as well as films that have been awarded with Bafta, César, Goya, Gaudí or Oscar prizes.
OFF FILMETS, non-competitive activities
Within FILMETS Badalona Film Festival, the OFF FILMETS gathers all the activities that are off competition. Film workshops for children, screenings for students of Primary and Secondary schools, sessions at Badalona’s libraries as well as activities aimed at professionals of the media are all assembled here.
One of this edition’s new projects is a play centre where several workshops aimed at children will take place that will be connected with films. The title of these workshops is ‘Cinema comes also through the ear. Discover how they create and use sound in the movies’ and will take place in three of the town’s libraries. They will be focused on 2 age groups: children between 5 and 7 and children between 7 and 10, with content that will be specifically designed for every age.
The screenings for school students will take place in the Teatre Blas Infante, with six sessions of FILMETS Primary School, aimed at children of 3rd course of Primary school and six sessions of FILMETS Secondary School, aimed at children in the 4th course of Secondary school. These screenings gather about 6,000 students.
Also the libraries of Badalona will held film sessions, where several animated short films will be presented, with the objective of bringing the world of short films closer to children all over the city.
El Centre Cultural El Carme will be the meeting point for the short film professionals. The working session will take place Friday 26, 4:30 p.m. under the name ‘Promote your short film’, where members of the International Jury among other participants will give tips as to how filmmakers can get their short films into the film market.
