Guest post by Carlota Coronado
I am writing this post to reflect on the changes established this year in the 2016 Goya Awards rules. First of all, I want to express my gratitude for the work done by the short film associations and for some of the changes introduced, which I believe are very beneficial for the sector (the issue of qualification, the role of the producer, etc.). However, I believe certain things were overlooked in these changes, especially regarding animated shorts. I understand the decision to align the three short film categories with the festival filter, but I believe these three categories are completely different. The reality of animation is very different from that of fiction.
In 2015, 234 short films were qualified in Spain, of which only 24 were animated. This is a very small figure because making an animated short requires not only a lot of money but also a lot of time (an average of about two years). This means that every year there is a maximum of 30 animated shorts submitted to the Goya Awards. In that sense, I believe a filter is unnecessary because the number is so meager. Once that filter is established, there may not even be 10 shorts for the pre-selection, as it is very difficult to meet those requirements—especially since the festivals and awards included do not benefit animation at all compared to fiction shorts. Although animation can compete in the 24 national festivals included, it is very difficult (and one only needs to look at the data from the last 30 years) for an animated short to win the award for best short film at Alcine, Aguilar, Soria, Valladolid, etc. One could look for examples in the history of Spanish shorts, and I doubt we would find any (perhaps only Tadeo Jones) that has won an award at one of these festivals while competing against fiction. We all know that an animated short can be in the official selection of one of these festivals, but it is very rare for it to be awarded (they usually receive a special mention, which does not count toward the Goya).
On the other hand, a short can enter the Goya if it has at least 3 selections in these festivals, but if we look at these official sections where there is no animation category, how many animated shorts are there? Few, very few, because fiction is selected more often than animation and documentaries in most festivals. And here are the figures:
- At Medina del Campo 2016, there were 28 shorts in the official section and only 2 were animated.
- At Cortogenia, out of 19 Spanish shorts, none were animated.
- At the Tarazona y El Moncayo Comedy Film Festival, out of 55 shorts, only two were animated and none were documentaries.
- At Aguilar, things were better (2 out of 12).
- At the PNR Festival, out of 25 shorts, only 1 was animated.
- At Fescigu (2 out of 28 shorts), and we could continue reviewing all the festivals on the list.
This is not an attack on the decisions of the programmers at the listed festivals: it is normal that there are so few animated shorts, not only because fiction is usually prioritized over other genres, but because so few are produced per year and there are not many to choose from. That is why I insist again on the lack of necessity for a filter for animation: there is already so little of it that filtering it further is unnecessary.
Furthermore, another major problem with the selected animation festivals must be considered: of the 10 Spanish festivals that count, 5 are international. If we look at the winners from recent years, few Spanish animated shorts have won at Animac, Alicante, Lanzarote, Sitges, or Torrelavega. This means that of the 10 Spanish festivals with an animation category that award points, only 5 really count: and what happens if, in one year, those five are won by the same Spanish short? In 2016, 4 of these 5 festivals were won by the same short, Alike, the 2016 Goya winner, so it will no longer be submitted in 2017, and therefore, there will be fewer shorts for the pre-selection.
In international festivals, things aren’t much better: of the 99 international festivals that count, there are only 5 specific to animation and one with a special animation category. All others have an official section but no specific category. So we return to the same idea: it is very difficult for an animated short to make it into the official section of general festivals.
To get an idea of the journey of an animated short, we can use the example of Juan y la nube: it was sent to 825 festivals in two years; of those, only 155 were animation-specific. It achieved 168 selections, of which only 6 earned points. Of these 6, 4 were Spanish festivals (Medina, Aguilar, FIBABC, Alicante). Of these four, only one (Alicante) has an animation section, but it is international (and the year Juan y la nube competed, a foreign short won). In the others, no animated shorts have been awarded in the last 10 years or more. This means the only possibility of entering is through American festivals that also count toward the Oscars (Austin, for example), but they have fees (for fiction too, of course), which represents a significant expense for production companies.
I have used this example not because I want to personalize this or create rules for my own convenience: I believe any Spanish animation producer who looks at the festival numbers from recent years will find themselves in the same situation. Surely the winners of the Goya Award for Best Animated Short in the last 5 years did not meet these requirements, nor did the nominees. And the problem is not reaching 4 nominees per year. If we look at the numbers for the next edition of the Goya Awards and see the winners at Spanish festivals in 2015-16, we will realize that in Alicante, Torrelavega, Sitges, Lanzarote, and Animac, foreign shorts won. Among those that count, as I have already mentioned, the same short, Alike, won in 4 of the 5—the only one where it didn’t win was Málaga 2016. If you look at how many animated shorts can participate this year, the number is minimal: the one from Málaga and those that have been selected in an international festival (Decorado, for example, selected at Cannes) and little else, because Alike has already won the 2016 Goya and even though it continued winning the 2015-16 qualifying awards, it obviously cannot be submitted. Other animated shorts selected in qualifying festivals were already submitted for the 2015 Goyas, so they cannot be submitted again even if they pass the filter. I believe this anomaly can occur every year: there are very few animated shorts each year and often the same one (sometimes already a Goya winner) wins at the qualifying festivals.
I don’t think it’s right for an animated short to face so many obstacles to compete in the Academy Awards of its own country, especially when the production of animated shorts is so low.
On the other hand, to make these changes, I think it would have been good to consult the sector in a more specific way. I know it was done with the agreement of the associations and members were consulted through a survey, but I believe the situation of fiction shorts is better understood than that of animation, as there are more fiction production companies. I believe that, although a survey was conducted and it was democratically chosen that animation and documentaries should also pass a filter, it would have been advisable to ask the specific sector for a better analysis of the situation.
I hope that the work done by the associations, for which I applaud them (for the improvements, of course), can be improved in the future, and I hope to contribute to it or at least encourage other animation producers to speak up and support what I am trying to present.
I think a good option could be to establish a minimum number of specific festivals in which an animated, fiction, or documentary short would have had to compete, even if they are not on the list: an animated short that has been selected in 30 festivals that have a specific animation section or are animation-focused, I believe, has sufficient guarantees of quality and is already passing a filter that not all Spanish animated shorts could pass. In this way, it would be easier for the 24-30 animated shorts produced per year to pass the filter.
I believe that as short film associations, we should not trip up short films by setting impossible filters, especially for animated or documentary shorts, particularly because we might find ourselves not even reaching four nominees per year.
I hope I have been able to contribute something and that this situation can be changed in the future.
Carlota Coronado is a director and producer of fiction, animation, and documentary short films. She is a founding partner, along with Giovanni Maccelli, of the Madrid-based production company Zampanò, whose shorts have participated in more than two thousand festivals worldwide, winning more than 200 international awards, including the 2015 Goya for best animated short for Juan y la nube.