THE FILM INDUSTRY LANDS IN GIJÓN

Gijón will host the FICXPro industry conference and the SEMILLERU Campus and SEMILLERU Lab film project training and nutrition laboratories from 28 October to 23 November.

FICXPro, the conference aimed at film sector professionals

For the eighth consecutive year, the Gijón/Xixón International Film Festival (FICX), in co-production with the Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission, is organising the FICXPro conference for film industry professionals, which will take place from November 18 to 22 at the Centro de Cultura Antiguo Instituto (CCAI) and LABoral Ciudad de la Cultura.

In its eighth edition, FICXPro’s content programme will focus on archive management, co-production between territories in the north of the peninsula, and the dissemination of short films. Professionals wishing to attend the FICXPro industry conferences can apply for accreditation from 21 October to 10 November using the form available on the website www.ficx.tv/pro/.

SEMILLERU, three years supporting emerging filmmakers

SEMILLERU, the space for the nurturing and care of film projects and their creators and film professionals, organised by Divertia Gijón S.A., is celebrating its third edition. The project, whose main objective is to promote a diverse environment that respects the time of creation, offers two programmes, SEMILLERU Film Campus (SCampus) and SEMILLERU Lab (SLab).

SEMILLERU is supported by the Government of the Principality of Asturias through the Regional Ministry of Culture, Language Policy and Sport under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan financed by the European Next Generation EU Fund. It is also supported by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through its PICE Visitors programme. In addition, within the SEMILLERU Lab programme, we are strengthening our collaboration with the Escuela de Cinematografía y del Audiovisual de la Comunidad de Madrid (ECAM), the Mercado del Cine Casi Hecho del Festival Internacional de Cine de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (MECAS) and Subtitula’m, and we are adding new names to our collaborators MUBOX Studio, Music Library & SFX and INCOPRODUCTION.

SEMILLERU Film Campus

The third edition of the intensive film training programme for emerging filmmakers SEMILLERU Campus will take place from 28 October to 23 November. In its third year, SCampus will bring together eleven participants, four of whom are from Asturias and two of whom are students at CIFP Cislan, the Integrated Centre for Professional Training in Communication, Image and Sound in Langreo, with which SEMILLERU collaborates closely.

SCampus participants present a diversity of profiles with experience in different roles in the processes of film and audiovisual creation and production, enabling cohesion and generating a learning community, one of the main objectives of SCampus.

The SCampus programme combines theoretical training with the development of audiovisual projects and creative workshops. Some of the professionals from the sector who will share their experiences with SCampus participants are: Beli Martínez, Carla Subirana, Ion de Sosa, María Royo and Virginia G. del Pino, among others.

SEMILLERU Lab

The SEMILLERU programme focuses on projects with a strong auteur character in line with the FICX programme, which is committed to new perspectives and ways of making films. This year, SLab presents a total of 10 projects in development and (post)production, which will be presented during the FICXPro industry conference.

SLab Modalidad | Development brings together five projects (two feature films and three short films) that bring together different cinematographic languages and filmmakers from different places (Asturias, Cantabria and Catalonia). The projects revolve around historical stories that draw on magical costumbrismo, self-referential documentary essays that make use of new software and other resources such as AI, short fiction films with LGTBIQ+ themes and non-fiction proposals that bring us closer to the world of music.

A las dos serán las tres (o la imposibilidad de hacer un documental sobre Doctor Explosion) | Direction: Manuel Romo | Producción: David Huergo (Welding Support) | Largometraje documental

El desencanto | Direction: Marta Martín | Production: Carlos J. Mata (ESCAC Films, Persi Motion Pictures) | Cortometraje ficción

I’m in love with my Testo | Direction: Juno Álvarez | Production: Nell Córdova (Cacao Cinema) | Cortometraje de ensayo documental

La Isla | Direction: Ismael Sordo | Production: por determinar | Cortometraje ficción

Lídia de Cadaqués | Direction:  Nur Casadevall | Production: Marta Cruañas y Xavi Vara (CANADA)| Largometraje ficción

For its part, SLab Modalidad | (Post)production brings together five feature films by filmmakers from Catalonia, Andalusia, Navarre and Madrid. The themes combine fiction and non-fiction with different proposals ranging from dramedy and the use of black humour to documentary projects that explore family memory, as well as more daring and experimental projects in 16mm and a combination of formats.

Woman Bites Dog | Direction: Armand Rovira | Production: Jorge Vidal (From Outer Space) | Largometraje ficción

Como Manolete en la víspera de su muerte | Direction:  Álvaro Gómez | Production: por determinar | Largometraje no ficción

Luna En Escorpio | Direction: Aizpea de Atxa y Maria Corriàs | Production:  Aizpea de Atxa y Maria Corriàs | Largometraje experimental

No Ghost Inside | Direction: Antonio Morales | Production:  Jon Arróspide y Leonardo Morales Sosa (NADADORA FILMS) | Largometraje ficción

ZORAvsKONG | Direction: Paola Álvarez & Manuel Escorihuela | Production: Paola Álvarez (Filmproduktion) | Largometraje ficción

SLab mentors include Paula Astorga, artistic director of the DocsLisboa International Documentary Film Festival; Weronika Czołnowska, producer and industry coordinator at New Horizons IFF; Marcello Paolillo, producer and coordinator of StepIn and U30 Project at Locarno Film Festival; Laure Bonville, programmer at BFI London Film Festival; and Abraham González, director of programming at FIC Monterrey, among others.