12th Annual Cinespaña continues promoting and disseminating Spanish cinema in France. In collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes, the Filmoteca, the ESAV, and with support from the Toulouse cinema theatres (UGC, ABC, Utopia) and various other cinemas in the Midi-Pyrenees Region,
Cinespaña offers a wide-range of contemporary Spanish cinema and a fine retrospective, allowing one to go back to the past to the city of Toulouse and the Midi-Pyrenees Region. As last year, Jorge Semprun, a prestigious personality in the history of Spanish cinema, will be the patron of Cinespaña, honouring it with his presence, especially on 5th October 2007 at 18:00, when the writer and film scriptwriter will share his literary, music and cinematographic tastes with the public during the meeting at the Forum de FNAC Wilson (16 all F Roosevelt 31000 Toulouse). The opening ceremony will take place on 28th September at the Filmoteca de Toulouse and the closing gala will be on 6th October at the Auditorio de Saint-Pierre des Cuisines.
Short Films and Feature Films Participating in the Official Competition A selection of recent feature films, previously unreleased in France, will be competing for the Violette DOr Award for Best Film, with 7,500 prize money from the Toulouse City Hall for the director. The jury, presided over by the director Jean Becker, will be composed of five cinema professionals. A selection of short films will be competing for the Best Short Film Award with 6,000 in prize money from the Midi-Pyrenees Regional Government for the director. The jury will be composed of three professionals: Pierre Cadars, ex-Chairman of the Filmoteca de Toulouse, Serge Regourd, University professor, and Guy Chapouillie, director of the Ecole superieure daudio visuel de Toulouse (ESAV). The French TV broadcaster Cine Cinema will give a publics choice award with a promotional campaign valued at 30,000 following the French premiere of the chosen feature film. The student jury, selected by the CROUS, will give out the Revelation Award. Finally, the jury of Readers of the Depeche du Midi will choose their "Coup de Cur" ("Llove at first sight"). The chosen film will be awarded with a promotional campaign. For the first time, Cinespaña will dedicate a retrospective to an outstanding producer. One individual with a prestigious career, who has received numerous international awards,
Elias Querejeta, has produced a large number of the most important Spanish films from the 1970s to the present day. It will be the occasion to rerun the first films by Carlos Saura (
La Caza [The Hunt], 1966 ;
Cria cuervos [Raise Ravens], 1976 ;
Mama cumple 100 años [Mama Turns 100], 1979), as well as by Victor Erice (
L´Esprit de la ruche [The Spirit of the Beehive], 1973), Ricardo Franco (
Pascual Duarte, 1976), Montxo Armendariz (
Tasio, 1984), Fernando Leon de Aranoa (
Barrio, 1998) y de su hija, Gracia Querejeta (
El ultimo viaje de Robert Rylands [Robert Rylands Last Journey], 1996 ;
Cuando vuelvas a mi lado [By My Side Again], 1999). Elias Querejeta will be in Toulouse for a few days for this retrospective.
www.cinespagnol.com
