They say that the crisis sharpens the ingenuity of the creators of film stories and - I might add - also of the producers, who have to overcome, as never before, the difficulties of finding aid and credits with which to ‘raise’ new films. It may be because of this, or perhaps because they had them financed earlier, that 2009 has been a year of a long harvest, with a lot of ‘genre’ for sale at film festivals and markets, especially those of Berlin and Cannes. Film markets, apart from the official sections, where there are hundreds of films available for ‘fishing’. Let's not fool ourselves, all festivals fish in these fishing grounds, at least those of us who are looking for something different: independent, risk-taking, committed cinema; auteur cinema, some call it.
In these magnificent fishing grounds that are these markets (to which we must add Toronto) there are films of all types and countries, big productions and small films. You have to have an eye, intuition, sensitivity and also ‘warnings’ or ‘messages’ from the ‘scouts’ we have all over the world to search among so much on offer. Between what was seen in these markets and what came to Valladolid on its own initiative (no less than 40 percent, thanks to the Seminci's reputation as a serious festival), the members of the selection committee will have seen over 400 films this year, from which the films selected for the Official Selection, Tiempo de Historia and Puunto de Encuentro have emerged.
Not as many as we would have liked, but some of them are here. This year Punto de Encuentro, our parallel section, has a new specific jury. Before, only the public voted, and they will continue to do so, but in a qualitative way (the sum of votes divided by the number of voters). I hope you like the selection and that we will be able to achieve, as in the 53rd edition, that there will be cases of coincidence of tastes between the public, the critics and the juries. Amen!
And my personal pride for having achieved after a long year of work a competent retrospective designed by the Spanish edition of ‘Cahiers du Cinéma’ on the 50 years of the Nouvelle Vague and the films that influenced its main filmmakers, which will coincide with an exhibition of the entire filmography of Carlos Saura (‘Saura integral’ is its title), which will be held simultaneously with the exhibition of all his graphic work in three wings of the Patio Herreriano Museum. Enjoy the offer as much as we have enjoyed preparing it for you, and Happy 54th Seminci!
Javier Angulo, Director of SEMINCI
SECCIÓN OFICIAL
Largometrajes
Cortometrajes
PUNTO DE ENCUENTRO
Largometrajes
NOCHE DEL CORTO ESPAÑOL
Cortometrajes
TIEMPO DE HISTORIA
Sesiones fuera de concurso
PROYECCIONES ESPECIALES
CASTILLA Y LEÓN EN CORTO
CARLOS SAURA
Carlos Saura Saura integral (1954-2007)
Nouvelle Vague. Los caminos de la modernidad
CICLO PERSONAL
Ettore Scola
Spanish Cinema
ECAM / Madrid PROMOCIÓN 2009
SECCIÓN OFICIAL
Largometrajes
Cortometrajes
PUNTO DE ENCUENTRO
TIEMPO DE HISTORIA
CASTILLA Y LEÓN EN CORTO
Jurado Internacional
Tiempo de Historia
Punto de Encuentro
Jurado FIPRESCI
Jurado Castilla y León
Jurado AECID