Zinebi is set to kick off on Friday 8 November and will be celebrating its 61^st edition this year. The gathering, headed up by Vanessa Fernández Guerra, will unspool in Bilbao until 15 November, offering a varied programme of short films and documentaries. In addition, China’s Wang Bing will pay the festival a visit and will have a tribute dedicated to him; as part of this, a selection of his shorts and medium-length films will get an airing. Two other Honorary Mikeldis will also be handed out: one to Hungarian filmmaker Márta Mészáros (The Unburied Man), who will have a retrospective available for audiences to enjoy, and the other to France’s Claire Simon (Young Solitude [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Claire Simon
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In total, 57 short films hailing from 29 countries will form part of the International Competition within the Official Section, where they will be vying for the festival’s Grand Prix, and the Mikeldis for Best Fiction, Best Animation and Best Documentary. The jury will comprise filmmaker Fernando Franco, producer Nahikari Ipiña, the director of the Annecy Film Festival, Marcel Jean, Portuguese programmer Susana S Rodrigues and Palestinian author Reem Shilleh.

At the fourth edition of its international competition dedicated to feature debuts, nine movies will lock horns for the Zinebi First Film Award, endowed with €12,000, and open to fictions, documentaries and animated films. Standing out among them are European productions such as On the Names of the Goats [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Miguel G. Morales e Silvia…
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intervista: Florenc Papas
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On the other hand, for the non-competitive “Beautiful Docs. Panorama of Documentary Features from Around the World” section, the festival has selected a batch of nine recently produced titles, which cover a diverse array of topics and film languages. Worth mentioning among them are the doc Krabi, 2562 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ben Rivers
scheda film] (Thailand/UK) by Ben Rivers and Anocha Suwichakornpong, My Nudity Means Nothing by France’s Marina de Van, Living and Knowing You’re Alive [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alexe Poukine
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Finally, it is worth noting that the gathering has selected eight projects (from among the 22 submitted) to form part of its second professional documentary film forum, which seeks to foster local talent and support audiovisual production in the region. It is being organised in conjunction with the Basque Producers’ Association (EPE-APV), Euskal Telebista, the Basque government, the Biscay Provincial Council (BEAZ) and Creative Europe/MEDIA Desk Euskadi.

The selection committee has chosen the following projects: El Peso, a film to be directed by Tamara Lucarini and produced by Banatu Filmak; Bost Minutu by Amaia Nerekan and Marmoka Films; Tetuán by Iratxe Fresneda and Pimpi & Nella Films; Historia de un volante by Iban Toledo Ibáñez and ON Produkzioak; ¿Me regalas un cuadro? by Ainhoa Urgoitia and BitArt New Media; Europa a la Intemperie by Roberto San Sebastián and Naiel Ibarrola (Plátanobolígrafo); Balika by Lander Ibarretxe and Aitor Sánchez (Veredastudio and Nightwalkfilms); and Caminho Longe [+leggi anche:
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On 11 November, starting at 4.30 pm, the Sala Bastida in the Azkuna Zentroa will host the presentation of these projects, which will be open to the public, and a jury will then evaluate them, offer professional advice to the participating filmmakers and decide on the winner. The project that comes out on top will receive the 2019 Zinebi Networking Prize, worth €10,000, which will be handed out on 15 November in the Arriaga Theatre, during the festival’s closing ceremony.