51st Gijon International Film Festival (FICX51)
The 51st edition of the Gijon International Film Festival (FICX51) will take place in this city of the North of Spain between November 15 and 23 2013.
The Festival's origins date back to 1963. In the beginning it was an initiative of the CityCouncil of Gijon in co-operation with Caja de Ahorros de Asturias (nowadays Cajastur). At present both entities still co-operate with the Festival, the first as organizer and the second as sponsor.
The present director, Nacho Carballo, was appointed in 2012. On May 1996 the Entidad Mercantil Artístico-Musical Teatro Municipal Jovellanos de Gijón, S.A., body in charge of the organization of the event together with the City Council, was founded. This institution is in charge of the theatre's running, the festivities department and the organization of the Film Festival.
During the Festival many other events take place, such as courses, round tables, meetings with the directors as well as concerts and music live parties.
The Festival awards several prizes at its different competitive sections and for that it relies on an International Jury, made up of at least five film professionals from different countries, a Young Jury, made up of 10 to 15 young adults aged between 17 and 26 years-old, and from 2005 a FIPRESCI Jury. The contest also takes part in other projects aimed at promoting the film industry in Asturias.
This year´s poster was created by the famous designer Isidro Ferrer. The main character is an elephant built from “such key elements of film making, typical but useful nonetheless, as celluloid, rolls and a film projector” Ferrer explains; from this base, different chromatic variations allow for its adaptation to different formats. The result i fan anthropomorphic character, an allegory of memory and, thus, of FICX’s history.
Patrice Leconte will be Chairman of the Jury and he will also premiere in Spain his latest film, “A promise”, a romantic drama set in Germany just before WWI and centered on a married woman who falls in love with her husband's protégé. Separated first by duties and then by the war, they pledge their devotion to one another. Starring Rebecca Hall ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona"), Alan Rickman ("Harry Potter", "Sense and Sensibility) and Richard Madden ("Game of Thrones").
Jean-François Laguionie retrospective
Gijon Film Festival, true to its original essence, will devote one of its retrospectives to the well known French animation director Jean- François Laguionie. The retrospective will show most of the work of the great French director, most of it never released in our country. The audience in Gijon will be able to enjoy his four long features and the short feature “La traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame” which made a name for him in 1978 after winning the Golden Palm to the Best Short Feature in Cannes Festival and later the Cesar from the French Film Academy in the same category. The remaining for features in the retrospective are the films “Gwen le livre de sable” (1995), prize winner in the Festvials of Annecy and Los Angeles, “Chateau des singes” (1999), “L’íle de Black Mor” (2004) and his latest work “Le tableau” (2011), which was also nominated to the Cesars in the category of best animated feature.
