The Festival de Cine de Alcala de Henares / Comunidad de Madrid [Alcala de Henares / Region of Madrid Film Festival] is holding its 37th edition in 2007. This makes it one of the longest-running cinema festivals in the Madrid area and one of the most important cultural events in the city of Alcala de Henares. On this occasion, the planned events for this year’s festival are from 9th to 17th November, nine days organised with a whole series of activities involving cinema. ALCINE 37 has just publicised the official selection of works competing in its three competitive sections, the Certamen Nacional de Cortometrajes [National Short Film Contest], el Certamen Europeo de Cortometrajes [European Short Film Contest] and the Pantalla Abierta [Open Screen] section. For the short film contests, 37 shorts were selected from a total of 295 entries, and in the European Contest, another 37 works were chosen from 152 works entered. The new group, which was included last year, but exempt from the contest, has participants from the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. With this addition, ALCNIE 37 intends to become a reference point for the European cinema panorama, giving special attention to the work done by new filmmakers. The European Contest joins the Spanish National Contest: both have broadened the formats accepted, breaking down strictly cinematographic barriers. Productions in 16 and 35 mm are accepted alongside others presented in Betacam SP. In addition, the Open Screen section has selected a total of six feature films among the various first works recently made in Spain, to which two more are added that are outside of the contest.

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