FANCINE WILL CELEBRATE ITS 33RD BIRTHDAY WITH AN EDITION“TO COME LIVE IN”
The Spanish youtuber Etsy Quesada (Soy una pringada) will present the opening gala that kicks off 9 days of cinema under the slogan ‘Home Sweet Home’.
“There’s no place like Fancine”. That is how the Vice-rector for Culture of the University of Málaga (UMA), Tecla Lumbreras, has referred to the newest edition of Fancine, the fantastic film festival of Málaga, which will celebrate its 33rd birthday from the 8th to the 16th November under the slogan ‘Home Sweet Home’. A new event that will focus on houses as the central theme and that will feature more than 80 films to be screened at the Albeniz cinema and other university venues over the nine days of the event.
The presentation of this anniversary took place this morning at the Rectorate of the UMA, with the presence of representatives of the collaborating institutions: María Paz Flores, Councillor for Education and Employment Promotion of the Málaga City Council; Manuel López Mestanza, Head of Culture of the Provincial Council, and Antonio Mª Lara, Academic Coordinator of Enterprise and International Projection of FGUMA.
Lara has defined the event as a “rogue festival” and a leading event in Málaga within the cultural field for the big amount of films it features and its well-established trajectory, also showing her gratitude for the incorporation of FGUMA as a Fancine collaborator. López Mestanza went back to the beginnings of Fancine to affirm it was “a revolution in Málaga”, as well as referring to it as “one of the most important festivals in Spain in its genre”, valuing the initiative as the UMA, as a public university, to make this firm commitment to culture. Lastly, Flores has encouraged the public to enjoy this event and attend the different screenings, especially encouraging the youth, to instil a taste for the fantastic. “We’ve got the great opportunity to watch quality films on the big screen”, he concluded.
On her behalf, Lumbreras was in charge of reviewing the contents of the film tribute that Fancine will pay to houses as reference elements in the filmography of this genre, so the different sections of the programme will include titles with plots set at home, so it plays a big part of the plot. “We have filled our programme with haunted houses, dwelling homes and neighbourhood grudges that will make us forget about Euribor, the cláusulas suelo, commissions, spill overs and never-ending renovations. We have created an edition to come live in,” joked the Vice-rector.
Amongst the innovations that Lumbreras told us about, there is also one of the best kept secrets of the festival: the presenters of both the opening and the closing galas. The content creator Etsy Quesada (Soy una pringada) will leave her unclassifiable mark on the opening gala next Wednesday at the 1st screen of Alcazabilla, an event that will end with the screening of the film ‘The Book of Solutions’, the latest project by the famous French director Michel Gondry. The moment when the winners will be listed will also have a touch of comedy and exoticism: Miguel Ángel Martín, the actor from Málaga, whose social media user is Tú no mandas, and Max Nitrofoska the cyborg, will take on the task of bidding farewell this homely Fancine birthday celebration until next autumn, introducing the film ‘We are Zombies’, which will definitely turn off the projector at the university event.
In the meanwhile, more than 80 titles will be screened, including more than ten national premiers and so many other debut films distributed throughout the programme. The Sección Oficial is leading this programme, consisting of ten films that will be competing for the 9000 euro prize that Fancine awards to the best film of the festival. This competition section includes, for the second time ever, an animated film (‘Mars Express’), as well as a Spanish film (‘La espera’), as it has become usual in the past three editions. They will compete on the big screen against productions by well-known filmmakers from the international circuit, like Alice Rohrwacher (‘La chimera’) or Bertrand Bonello (‘The Beast)’ and some other premiers in Spain like ‘Little Bone Lodge’.
The official jury who will be in charge of evaluating this ten films and then deciding the final podium, will consist of the production manager Melina Frías, the film critic Carlos Aguilar and the festivals programmer Annick Mahner.
The rest of the programme will include the festival’s usual sections, such as the Sección Informativa which will screen other quality films although out the competition; Horror Zone, where blood, gore and extreme horror will be the protagonists; Fanzriller, which consolidates its position as one of the programmes’ main points by extending its contents to other related genres; or Ánima Zone, which will add colour and fantasy with films such as the latest film by illustrator Bill Plumpton (‘Slide’). In addition, Fantástico Nacional and Fantástico Local will make a comeback, acting as a showcase for recent productions from Spain, and Fantástico en Familia, which will screen ‘Little Monster’ for children’s audiences.
The heart of the screenings will once again be the Albéniz cinema, although the university character of the festival will be reinforced with free screenings at the Rectorate of the UMA, such as the cycle of CineAsia, and with a wide range of parallel activities that will take place on different venues on the Teatinos Campus and the Contenedor Cultural. Among the events that will compliment the films on the programme, there will be competitions, like the popular K-Pop competition, children’s workshops, stage performances like the one from the Mu Teatro company, a presentation of the newest book by the journalist Jesús Cintura, a concert from the heavy metal band Santo Rostro and the traditional recital at the ETSI de Informática y Telecomunicaciones, an exhibition at Galería Central or a guided tour of the most mysterious hidden places of Málaga’s city centre.
Furthermore, the event will be given a more social character with a number of guests incluiding the teams of the films ‘Pandemoniun’, ‘Os reviento’, ‘La mesita del comedor’, ‘Deviant’, ‘Keratyna’ or ‘No One and Nothing’. The presenter Moisés Rodríguez, from Secuencias on the 24h channel, will receive a special metion for his work in the diffusion of cinma in his TVE programme.
Tickets, which have been on sale since last Friday, can be purchased at a single price of 3 euros via Uniticket and at the Albeniz box office. They can also be purchased at the box office in Calle Alcazabilla. Those interested can purchase a voucher exchangeable for ten different films for a fixed price of 20 euros.
To conclude the meeting, Lumbrearas wished to bid farewell to the team working for the UMA Culture Service, responsible for the organisation of the event, after leading the project for the last eight years as Vice-rector. “Thank you for letting me be part of this miracle that, without your dedication and effort, we wouldn’t be able to make year after year. I had never imagined this punk and cheeky haven we set up in November would end up becoming my favourite place in the world. Today, tomorrow and always, Fancine will be my home”, she concluded.
Fancine, the fantastic film festival of the University of Málaga, is an film event internationally known that is hold annually in the city of Málaga. Since its creation in 1990, Fancine has become one of the most outstanding film festivals of its genre worldwide, with more than 80 films screened per edition and attracting an average audience of 25,000 users. It is the only film festival in Europe organised by a public university, as well as it is the longest running activity of the UMA. Throughout its more than thirty years of existence, this event has been attended by prominent cultural and film personalities such as Linda Blair, Rutger Hauer, Tippi Hedren, Brian Yuzna or Brillante Mendoza. Fancine celebrates its 33rd edition from the 8th to the 16th of November 2023, thanks to the institutional support provided by the following collaborators: Málaga City Council, the Provincial Council, the Junta de Andalucía and the FGUMA.