The Festival de Cine Fantástico de Canarias Isla Calavera presents the selection of titles that will compete for the Best Short Film Award in its third edition, to be held at Multicines Tenerife (C. C. Alcampo, La Laguna), between November 23 and 30 with the sponsorship of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Government of the Canary Islands, Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council and San Cristóbal de La Laguna City Council, among other public and private entities.
The program will devote two sessions, on the afternoons of Monday, November 25 and Thursday, November 28, to the screening of short films in competition, which stands out for the extraordinary quality of the works entered, as pointed out by the Selection Committee of the Festival Isla Calavera, through a very heterogeneous selection in which numerous subgenres of the fantastic genre are represented. More than 3,000 works were entered in competition, most of them from Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, France and the United States.
Among the Spanish short films selected are proposals such as: 'Amargo era el postre', by Diego H. Kataryniuk Di Costanzo; 'El fin de todas las cosas', by Norma Vila; 'Equals', by Javier Yañez Sanz; 'Hug', by Toni O. Prats; 'La Guarida', by Iago de Soto; 'La Noria', by Carlos Baena; 'Llámame Vampus', by Víctor Matellano and 'Lobisome', by Juan de Dios Garduño.
Also competing for the Jury Award for Best Short Film and the Audience Award for Best Short Film will be 'Noctámbulos', by Romén Rivero, 'Mi nombre es Koji', by David Muñoz; 'Miedos', by Germán Sancho; 'No quiero estar sola', by Sergio Rozas; 'Samsa', by Enrique García; and the international productions 'Lay them straight', by Robert DeLeskie (Canada) and 'Atomic Ed', by Nicolas Hugon, France).
Committed to the dissemination and motivation of new filmmakers, the Isla Calavera Festival, in collaboration with Cinedfest, the Educational Film Festival, will screen out of competition the works 'Horror Movie' and 'Unintentional', both winners of the Isla Calavera awards for Best Horror-Fantastic Short Film, in the categories of Secondary and FP-CEPA, in the last edition of the educational event.
In addition, the Festival Isla Calavera will rescue two short films to be screened out of competition during the opening and closing ceremonies of the event, with the presence of their directors. The Opening Gala, to be held on Saturday, November 23, will feature 'Porque hay cosas que nunca se olvidan' ( 2008), by the Argentine director Lucas Figueroa, who lives in Spain and holds the Guinness Record for the most awarded short film in history after winning more than 300 awards in just a year and a half. Shot in Italian in a village in Segovia, it was nominated for the Goya Awards and shortlisted for the Oscars. It tells the revenge story of four boys playing soccer in the streets of 1950s Naples, with cameos by Italian soccer players Fabio Cannavaro and Amedeo Carboni.
On Saturday, November 30, during the Closing Gala, the awards ceremony for the best short and feature films participating in this edition will be closed by the first work as director of Canarian filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 'Esposados' ( 1996), nominated for Best Short Film at the Oscar Awards in 1997 and the Goya Awards of the same year. The screenwriter, film director and producer born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife will receive the S.S. Venture Award that same night, an award with which the Isla Calavera Festival recognizes the career of those Canarian filmmakers who have taken their talent to the frontiers of the fantastic. Shot in black and white and starring Pedro Mari Sánchez and Anabel Alonso, Fresnadillo's directorial debut marked the beginning of his career and after winning the Goya for Best New Director in 2001 for his debut feature, 'Intacto', he has worked on international genre productions such as '28 Weeks Later' and 'Intruders'.
