A week after the publication of the new Goya Awards rules, and following the post on the national premiere strategy that I published last Monday, I have been reviewing the impact of the new rules on the national festival strategy for a fiction short film. This is particularly relevant if you have a short film selected for Seminci or Gijón that would require us to apply for the rating license and nationality certificate this year, with the 2018 Goya Awards already in mind.
This has been one of the successes and positive changes of the new rules; previously, it was mandatory to win an award at a national festival on the list, but now, in addition to awards, I can achieve up to 6 festival selections from that same list.
In this post, we are going to look at the strategy for a Spanish short film based on some prior premises:
- That it is selected for the Official Section of Gijón and does not win an award (an award automatically pre-selects the film).
- That it is fiction.
- That it is not a comedy.
- That it is not subsidized by the Community of Madrid.
Initial considerations to keep in mind for our strategy:
- I must have the rating license and nationality certificate before the festival takes place; it is advisable to request them only once the selection has been communicated.
- Under the current rules, the nationality certificate must be dated between January 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016. We can assume that for the 2018 Goya Awards, the date range will be from January 1, 2016, to September 30, 2017. Therefore, if I had to request the rating prior to the Gijón Festival, which is held in November, I have until September 30, 2017 (which is also the registration deadline) to achieve the festival selections I need to qualify for the 2018 Goya Awards.
- I need to achieve 5 more selections (I already have 1 of the 6 required); due to the dates, most festivals that are for premieres and held in October and November no longer count.
- Keep in mind that we are working on the national strategy. At an international level, there is a very extensive list where being selected for just one of them is sufficient.
Let’s look at the calendar with the festivals I can opt for and those that fall outside this strategy. The festivals following Gijón, where we could participate without issues, would be (list sorted by date of celebration):
- MECAL Barcelona International Short and Animation Film Festival (March)
- Medina del Campo Film Week (March)
- Málaga Festival. Spanish Cinema (April)
- Lanzarote Film Festival – FICL (April)
- Latin American Film Festival of Catalonia (April)
- Sant Joan d’Alacant Film Festival (May)
- Torrelavega Short Film Festival FICT (May)
- Huesca International Film Festival (June)
- Alicante Film Festival (June)
- Valencia International Film Festival – Cinema Jove (June)
- Elche International Independent Film Festival (July)
- Iberian Film Festival of Badajoz (July)
- L’Alfàs del Pi Film Festival (August)
In total, we have about 13 festivals where we must achieve 5 selections; it is very possible to achieve this, but we must be very attentive so that none of them slip away.
There are three festivals on the list that, despite being held after Gijón, would be excluded, as at the time of registration we would not yet know if we have been selected for Gijón:
- Vitoria-Gasteiz Short Film Festival. CORTADA (December, but the registration deadline is in September)
- “Almería en Corto” International Short Film Festival (December, registration deadline in September)
- Aguilar de
Campoo International Short Film Festival (December, registration deadline in September)
The rest of the festivals that fall outside our strategy due to their celebration dates are:
- Cortocircuito. International Film Festival (October)
- Madrid Film Festival. PNR (October)
- Guadalajara Film Festival – Fescigu (October)
- Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia (October)
- Octubre Corto. Arnedo Film Festival in La Rioja (October)
- Guadalajara Solidarity Film Festival. FESCIGU (October)
- Seminci. Valladolid International Film Week (October)
- Soria City International Short Film Festival (November)
- Alcine (November)
- Zaragoza Film Festival (November)
- Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival (November)
- Barcelona Independent Film Festival. L’Alternativa (November)
- ZINEBI – International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao (November)
The total number of festivals we cannot consider would be 16.
Finally, there are two cases we can consider, only if our short film is a comedy and has a subsidy from the Community of Madrid:
- Tarazona and El Moncayo Comedy Film Festival (August)
- Community of Madrid Short Film Week (May)