MADRID FILM FESTIVAL

This year we are celebrating the seventh in-house short film festival of the Madrid Film Institute MAD FEST.

It’s a cause for celebration after a tough year of study and effort on the part of students to give their all in their end-of-year projects. This is an all-for-all party that appreciates everyone’s efforts and awards prizes in various pedagogical, creative and quality parameters depending on each audiovisual project.

And, like everyone else at our school, MAD FEST is a didactic exercise in which students face the last stage of their filmmaking, and soon they will have to face it: the presentation of their work at a film festival.

Conde Duque is once again partnering with the Platform for New Filmmakers to distribute new film projects, this year the Cultural Center has become one of the venues for the Madrid Film Festival.

The festival is one of the oldest events in its discipline in the capital, and since its first holding in 1991, it has established itself as a fundamental showcase for new productions, which it hosts and promotes, bringing together the best selection of diverse national cinema that is not sold in our country.

Focusing on the work of new directors, FCM-PNR is a meeting place that is constantly looking for new narratives and creators who need a window from which to project themselves. This is one of the must-see events for film lovers in Madrid and is included in the short film pre-selection for the Goya Awards of the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Three winners have chosen this opportunity in FCM-PNR.

This year, Conde Duque will feature two sections: feature films from partners PNR and Cinema by Pencils. They have room for more experienced filmmakers who are considered new filmmakers by the Platform due to the risqueness of their offerings or their new storytelling forms, such as Gabriel Velázquez with his main Ärtico or the unclassifiable Portrait of Aida by Antonio Gómez Olea, as well as directors- newcomers such as Roque Madrid (the return of Elias Urquijo) or Antonello Novellino, one of the directors of the Blue Lips collective work. Finally, the cycle will end with documentary filmmaker Belén Santos’ latest production, Memorias Históricos, and with the premiere in Madrid of Year Zero by Mario Jara.

All of these feature films will be preceded by snippets from a short vermouth. Zarro Session, in this case made up of short films from Finland, Costa Rica, Latvia and Italy, where we can highlight the world premiere of Fragrances by Spaniard Sara G. F. Muriel and the presentation in Madrid of the devastating play Padre Argentinian Santiago “Boo » Grasso.

In addition, the Madrid Film Festival and the Popular Solidarity Network organize a collection point for school materials in Conde Duque. At the Cine por Lapiceros on Tuesday, October 20 at 6:00 pm and Wednesday, October 21 at 8:00 pm, attendees will be able to participate in this initiative to collect school materials, which will then be distributed through RSP Centro-Arganzuela, which operates with families in social emergencies.