Zinebi 2023 – Zinebi Networking
Country Focus: Spain
Zinebi Networking: Dokumentalen Sorgunea prepares to kick off its pitching sessions
by Matthew Boas
- A total of 12 feature-length documentary projects will be vying for two major prizes, each worth €10,000, at the Basque event
The Bilbao-based documentary and short-film festival Zinebi has unveiled the 12 projects set to take part in its industry strand, Zinebi Networking 2023: Dokumentalen Sorgunea. The sixth edition of the Bilbao Professional Documentary Film Forum will unspool from 14-17 November.
As was the case last year, Zinebi Networking comprises two competitions, and in each of these, a prize worth €10,000 will be handed out to the team behind the winning pitch. The first is aimed at encouraging emerging creative talents specifically in Basque cinema and the development of audiovisual productions in the region, while the second, enabling the participation of documentary projects from all around Spain, was introduced last year. Both awards will be handed out at the festival’s closing ceremony on 17 November.
One notable new feature this year is that Zinebi Networking is strengthening its ties with Madrid’s ECAM film school by means of various activities and the Impulso ECAM Award, which consists of personalised consultancy services for one of the participating projects.
The projects will be weighed up by a jury of audiovisual-industry heavyweights comprising no fewer than 15 members: Cecilia Barrionuevo (ECAM, EQZE), Luca D’Introno (Doclisboa), Anette Dujisin-Muharay (advisor on internationalisation, festivals and distribution strategies), Ione Feijoo (Basque.Audiovisual), Luis Ferrón (LAZONA), Fernando Franco (writer, director and producer), Ainhoa González Sanchiz (Creative Europe - MEDIA Desk Euskadi), Marijo Larrañaga (Movistar Plus+), Elodie Mellado (Filmin), Noé Mendelle (University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Documentary Institute), Elena Mera (Treeline), Ana Peláez (RTVE), Aintzane Pérez del Palomar (EITB), Ainhoa Ramírez Lucendo (producer) and Montse Triola (producer and performer, Andergraun Films).
Already prior to the pitching forum, the selected projects have been partaking in various personalised tutorials run by Virginia García del Pino (who is also presenting her new film, Romance Scam [+see also:
film review
interview: Virginia García del Pino
film profile], in the festival’s “Beautiful Docs. Panorama of World Documentaries” section). From 13 November onwards, the teams behind the projects (be they directors or producers) will attend meetings set up by Zinebi, will pitch their projects to the public and will take part in tailored, one-to-one consultancy sessions. Once this edition has wrapped, Zinebi Networking will commit to organising online follow-up meetings during the rest of this year and in 2024, in order to accompany and provide consultancy to the selected works.
Besides the pitching forum, Zinebi is also hosting myriad meetings and conferences, including “Basque Cinema and Literature”, “The Editing Table”, “Working With (and From) Archives”, “Models in the Art of Animation: Artisanship and Industry”, and “Documentary Films, Documentary Series and Platforms”, in addition to a chat between ECAM’s Cecilia Barrionuevo and one of this year’s Honorary Mikeldi winners, Rita Azevedo Gomes (see the news), on 16 November in the awe-inspiring surroundings of the city’s Guggenheim Museum, hinging on her debut feature, The Sound of the Shaking Earth, which will also be screened.
Zinebi Networking is organised by the festival itself, and is made possible thanks to the backing of the ICAA, the European Union - NextGenerationEU, EITB MEDIA SAU (EITB), Zineuskadi and Creative Europe Desk Euskadi, and is run in collaboration with Cannes Docs, the Scottish Documentary Institute and Madrid’s ECAM.
The list of projects set to be pitched at Zinebi Networking is as follows:
Basque projects
Cuatro días - Itxaso Díaz
Inmersas en el Imserso - Aitor Arruti
La isla sumergida - Lucía Malandro, Daniel Saucedo
Producer: Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola – EQZE
La maleta de Álex - Alejandro Cortés
Producer: Larrua Creaciones
Spanish projects
¿Es usted secuestrable? - Charli Bujosa
Producer: Mansalva Films
Artefactos de guerra - Jorge Caballero Ramos
Producer: GusanoFilms
Atlas de la desaparición - Manuel Correa
Producers: Artefacto Fílmico, GusanoFilms
Infiltrada - Ione Monje Martínez, Paco Martínez-Abarca Sánchez
Jo Sóc - Patricia M Félix
Producers: Diana Toucedo Films, WKND
La maleta de Centelles - Pilar Pérez Solano
Producer: Estrela Audiovisual
La Pietà - Rafael Molés, Pepe Andreu
Producers: SUICAfilms, AXfilms, Studio Nominum
Se eu morrer (Si me muero) - Esther Vital García
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