ALCINE38 is just around the corner. Deadlines are shortening. The organizers heads are a hive of ideas, and plans are being set. This year’s
Alcalá de Henares / Comunidad de Madrid Film Festival will follow the lead of last year’s. The
internationalization process will take on more of the limelight. Almost all the sections already established in the program will be repeated. Their contents will however be different. Leading the pack will be the cornerstone of the project, the
National Short Film Competition, and for the third time this year the
European Short Film Competition.
The organization is hard at work on the preproduction of
ALCINE38; a young and international team responsible for setting up an event that has become indelibly etched into the cinematographic calendar. Novelties will be revealed as the screening dates come closer.
ALCINE38 is to set in motion a series of initiatives, such as a celebration of the work of Spanish actors.
‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ section including a publication, a season of films and a photography exhibition will serve as a springboard for the project.
Brazil is to take over from Ireland on the list of countries whose cinema has been afforded special attention by the festival.
‘48 Hours Brazil’ will screen its best short films and an outstanding debut feature film. The music section of ALCINE will become known as
Almusic for the first time this year; Irish folk music will be replaced by Brazilian rhythms.
‘In the Beginning they were Short’ will screen an international selection of short films that turned into feature films or television series at a later date.
‘Language in Short Film’ will make the case for the pedagogical values of short films by making use of the films to learn languages: French, English, German and Spanish.
In the program the new sections will sit alongside those we are more familiar with. In the thirty eighth festival
‘Cutting Close to the Bone’ for instance will set its sights on international conflicts all too often on the news agenda: Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. One of the most anticipated sections,
Open Screen for New Directors, will repeat this year. It will once again screen a carefully selected group of the best Spanish debut works. Other sections to be kept on with new contents in ALCINE’s program are
‘Commercials’, ‘Movies 4 Teens’, ‘Free for Adults’, ‘The Night is Short’, ‘Film Jockey’, ‘Short Films a la Carte’ and the
‘No Budget Films’ workshops on low cost filmmaking.
Lastly the organization plans to screen the award-winning short films from fourteen European festivals in the
Prix UIP European Film Academy Short Film Award. ALCINE38 is coming into view over the horizon. It’s time for hard work and planning, the results of which will be on show in November.
