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FESTIVALS Spain

Zinebi turns 60

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- The Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival will celebrate the big six-oh with an appealing, intriguing and diverse programme

Zinebi turns 60
Ronco rumor remoto by Jorge López Navarrete

Friday 9 November marks the kick-off of the 60th edition of Zinebi – the Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival, which will unspool until 16 November. The highlights this year will include an overhauled image for the gathering, the handing out of two awards – the Honorary Mikeldis – to Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethatkul (who will be honoured with a retrospective in the Guggenheim Museum on 14 and 15 November) and Argentina’s Mariano Llinás, and the screening (once a day for three consecutive days) of Llinás’ work La flor, which lasts 14 hours and was shot over a period of nine years.

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In its official section, Zinebi – which this year is being helmed by Vanessa Fernández Guerra for the first time – will provide audiences with an opportunity to enjoy 52 short films hailing from 28 countries, which will be weighed up by a jury comprising director Concha Barquero, Iranian filmmaker Ghasideh Golmanaki, Romanian producer Zsuzsanna Kiràly, British experimental animation director Jodie Mack and Carolina Martínez Urbina, an editor on series such as Crematorium and The Zone.

Within the competitive Zinebi First Film (ZIFF) section, dedicated to the most gutsy feature debuts, in which an award worth €12,000 will be given out, nine features have been selected that have previously taken part in major festivals such as Berlin and Locarno, including Acid Forest [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(Lithuania) by Rugilè BarzdziukaiteAre You Sleeping, Brother Jacob? (Austria) by Stefan BohunCrystal Swan [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Darya Zhuk
film profile
]
(Germany/Belarus/USA/Russia) by Darya Zhuk, Ronco rumor remoto (Spain) by Jorge López Navarrete and Casanova Gene [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (Germany) by Luise Donschen, a documentary starring John Malkovich.

The non-competitive Beautiful Docs – Panorama of World Documentary Features section will showcase titles such as All the Women I Know by Galician director Xiana do Teixeiro, Srbenka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nebojša Slijepčević
film profile
]
(Croatia) by Nebojsa Slijepcevic, Meeting Gorbachev [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (UK/USA/Germany) by Werner Herzog and André Singer, and Graves Without a Name [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rithy Panh
film profile
]
 (France/Cambodia) by maestro Rithy Panh, in addition to works by several other great documentarians, such as Margarethe von Trotta (Searching for Ingmar Bergman [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), Sergei Loznitsa (The Trial [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) and Dora García (Second Time Around [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
).

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that in conjunction with EiTB, the Basque Producers’ Association (EPE-APV), the Bizkaia Provincial Council (BEAZ) and Bilbao Ekintza, the festival has organised the First Professional Documentary Film Forum-Zinebi Networking, in order to support Basque audiovisual production. Until a few days ago, the initiative had been open to producers and filmmakers, who presented feature-length documentary projects that are either currently in production or at an advanced staged of development.

On 13 November, the Dome Room in the Campos Theatre will host the climax of the forum: in the morning, there will be a pitching session (where the projects will be presented) in the presence of its committee, while in the afternoon, one-to-one meetings will be organised between producers, filmmakers and experts. The winning documentary project – which will receive €10,000 – will be revealed at the Zinebi 60 closing ceremony on 16 November, in the Arriaga Theatre.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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