- The Festival’s program includes nine feature films ‒five of which will be released for the first time in Spain, and two in Europe‒ and twenty-two short films from the Official Section to competition 2020
- The actor Ángel del Pozo, the director Sergio Sollima, the production company Babieka Films, and the filmmaker Juan Francisco Viruega will be the honorees of this edition
Almeria, September 29th 2020-. Today, the Almeria Western Film Festival (AWFF), taking place from October 8th to the 11th 2020 in Tabernas and the western villages Oasys Mini Hollywood and Fort Bravo Texas Hollywood, has presented the contents of its 10th edition. The Official Section includes nine feature films ‒five of which will be released for the first time in Spain, and two in Europe‒ and twenty-two short films originating from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica, United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain. Besides, the Festival will include “Panorama”, a special out of competition section that will include two works released for the first time in Spain and will be complemented by the Retrospective Section, literary works presentations, exhibitions, round tables and other playful activities that will be suitable for everyone and free admission until full capacity.
Due to the public health emergency situation because of the Covid-19 pandemic, all the activities will follow the standards of the current regulations and it’s mandatory the use of face masks, the need to respect safety distances and to maintain an adequate hand hygiene. The capacity has been reduced, following the restrictions of the Junta de Andalucía and the Government of Spain. Activities like the opening ceremony or the closing ceremony, as well as two round tables, will be broadcasted live over the Internet. Besides, the Festival has joined an online version available on Festhome TV, where the users will be able to view part of the Official Section program totally free.
The Archaeological Museum in Almeria has been the location to present the 10th edition of the AWFF, which relied on the presence of the delegate of Development, Infrastructures, Spatial Planning, Culture and Historic Heritage, Eloísa Cabrera; the delegate of Tourism, Regeneration, Justice and Local Administration, José Luis Delgado; the provincial deputy of Culture and Cinema in Almeria, Manuel Guzmán; the mayor of Tabernas, José Díaz; and the festival director, Eduardo Trías.
“We have epic westerns, full of action, that deal with the topics of racism and discrimination; a feminist western which plays with gender codes offering a brave and original perspective; emotionless and untypical neo-westerns; based on real life works, and others including fantasy elements. One of them is a fable and other one presents a world of dystopian fiction, that is so fashionable at present, with undesirable imaginary worlds”, the festival director, Eduardo Trías, summed up.
Western Official Feature Film Section| Westerns y Neowesterns
- ‘Adamstown’, by Patrick Merz and Henning Wötzel-Herber (Germany, 2019, 88’).
- ‘Bacurau’, by Kleber Mendoça and Juliano Dornelles (Brazil, 2019).
- ‘Blanco en blanco’, by Théo Court (Spain-Chile, 2019).
- ‘Hell on the Border’, by Wes Miller (USA, 2019).
- ‘L’état sauvage’, by David Perrault (France, 2019).
- ‘Lleno de ruido y dolor’, by Nacho Aguirre (Argentina, 2020).
- ‘Oro y Piombo’, by Emiliano Ferrera (Italy, 2019).
- ‘Never Grow Old’, (Tierra de violencia), by Ivan Kavanagh (Ireland, 2019).
- ‘Pistolero’, by Nicolas Galvagno (Argentina, 2019).
The Panel of Judges for the Official Feature Film Section is formed by the actress Itziar Castro; the Mexican producer and director Lucía Carreras; the famous producer Enrique López Lavigne; the director and scriptwriter Miguel Ángel Vivas; and the producer from Almeria, Kiko Medina. In addition, the festival will include the participation of a professional panel of judges for the Official Short Film Section, the RTVA Prize, and the Film School category.
Judges Panel | Official Feature Film Section:
- Enrique López Lavigne – Producer.
- Itziar Castro – Actress.
- Kiko Medina – Producer.
- Miguel Ángel Vivas – Director and scriptwriter.
- Lucía Carreras – Director and producer.
Judges Panel | Official Short Film Section Official Section| RTVA Award and Film School Category:
- Manuel Carretero – Journalist at RTVA.
- Carlos Mendes Pereira – Director of photography.
- Ana Rosa Diego – Director.
- Thais del Mar – Filmmaker.
The Official Short Film Section is composed of twenty-two works of fiction and animation that will be valued by the panel of judges that will give the Prize to the Best Western Short Film and to the Best Neo-Western Short Film. For this edition, hundreds of registrations from countries of five continents have been received through Festhome, FilmFreeWay, Movibeta and ClickForFestival platforms, showing the interest generated by the western genre and also its revitalisation in different places in the world.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Festival will include the RTVA Award for the Best Western Audiovisual Creation in Andalucia. Four different works from Almeria, Malaga and Sevilla have been selected for this section. In adittion, six works from schools in Spain, Germany, Mexico and USA will compete in the Film School category.
International Short Film Section | Western and Neo-Western:
- ‘Calamity Jane 1882’, by Enrique Novials (Spain, 2020).
- ‘El buen samaritano’, by Raúl Mancilla (Spain, 2019).
- ‘El heredero’, by Gerard Claramunt (Spain, 2020).
- ‘Entre la piel y el alma’, by Aarón Acuña, (Costa Rica, 2020).
- ‘Her name was no one’, by Sean George (USA, 2019).
- ‘La Higuera’, by Mikel Mas, (Spain, 2019).
- ‘La nieta del carnicero de Páramo’, by Ainhoa Beascoechea and Víctor Díaz, (Spain, 2019).
- ‘Le trou’, by Fred Gobin (France, 2020).
- ‘Only time’, by Manuel Olaya (Spain, 2020).
- ‘Oro y sangre’, by José León (Spain, 2020).
- ‘Ruckus, the film’, by Guilherme Suman (Brazil, 2020).
- ‘Snake oil’, by Remy Archer (United Kingdom, 2019).
- ‘Sus últimas horas’, by Jeziel Mezquida (Mexico, 2019).
- ‘Una vez en Teense Town’, by Elixto Garayalde (Spain).
- ‘Veggie Western’, by José Carlos Jiménez (Spain, 2020).
- ‘Viento Norte’, by Daniel Biondi (Argentina, 2019).
Special Film School Section:
- ‘Deathbed Reckoning’, by Bob Peartree and Alexander Peskador (Germany, 2020).
- ‘En la nada’, by Luis Paulo de la Fuente (Mexico, 2020).
- ‘Father I have sinned’, by Juan Verdú (Spain 2019).
- ‘Lesbian Bandida Massacre’, by Vicent Augusto (USA, 2019).
- ‘Luciérnagas’, by Álvaro Sancho (Spain, 2020).
- ‘Wind Train’, by Pancho Aguirre (Spain, 2020).
“Panorama”, the special section that doesn’t take part in competition, includes two documentaries that will be released for the first time in Spain. One of them is dedicated to Ennio Morricone, who recently passed away, that presents his distance relation with Almeria. The director Guillermo de Oliveira sums up this work like “a tribute offered in the form of a musical and historical review of the more than twenty-five films filmed in Tabernas and whose soundtracks were created by the master”. The second documentary is dedicated to John Wayne, the most popular actor of the 20th Century, and widely regarded as the best cowboy even forty years after his death: “It’s time to discover who is behind the legend”.
“Panorama” Special Section:
- ‘Ennio Morricone en Almería: tres décadas de relación a distancia’, by Guillermo de Oliveira (Spain, 2020).
- ‘John Wayne, the Patriot’, by Jean Baptiste (France, 2019).
The “Tabernas de Cine” Award of the 10th edition of the AWFF will be awarded to the actor Ángel del Pozo, as the major of the town, Jose Díaz, has announced. “He has a long career, he has participated in more than sixty films, from which thirty are included in the western genre. He stands out because of his participation in films directed by the Italian director Sergio Sollima, who took part in the trio “Los Sergios”, as it was denominated by the spaguetti westers lovers, together with Leone and Corbucci”, José Diaz, has affirmed. Therefore, the Special Retrospective Section will include the screening of “Cara a cara” (Sergio Sollima, 1967), that was filmed in the Tabernas desert, and whose cast includes the actor Ángel del Pozo and the soundtrack was created by the master Ennio Morricone.
The “Desierto de Tabernas” Award will be awarded to the production company Babieka Films for its contribution to the spreading of the Desert as a film cinema icon. “It is one of the most important production companies at national level and has collaborated in a lot of works filmed in Tabernas; such as several episodes of series like “Black Mirror”, “Intergalactic” and “Bounty Hunters”, as well as different sequences of “Exodus” and other productions like “Indiana Jones y la última cruzada”. The founders of this production company have always had into account the province, especially our village, for the development of some of their projects”, José Díaz explained.
The festival continues on the path initiated last year and wants to recognize the work of the companies and professionals of the area. In this respect, the ASFAAN Award (Andalusian Film Festival Association Award) will be awarded to the filmmaker Juan Francisco Viruega, who stands out because of his five short films which has been selected more than three hundred times in international festivals, and have been awarded in twenty-five countries. Viruega was director of the Almeria Western Film Festival between the years 2016-2018. From 2014, he is the director of the Official Degree in Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts offered by TAI (Escuela Universitaria de Artes y Espectáculos- University School of Arts and Entertainment), and he is preparing his first fictional feature film, that could be filmed in Madrid, Tabernas and Rodalquilar.
Retrospective Section:
- ‘Cara a cara’, by Sergio Sollima (Italy, 1967).
AWFF Honorary Awards 2020:
- ‘Tabernas de Cine’: Ángel del Pozo, actor.
- ‘Leone in memoriam’: Sergio Sollima, director.
- ‘Desierto de Tabernas’: Babieka Films.
- ‘ASFAAN’: Juan Francisco Viruega, director and filmmaker.
The AWFF 2020 program has completed its cinematographic offer with some parallel activities, such as the presentation of the book “¡Desenfunda, forastero!”, by Alfonso Bueno, who offers a review of more than a century of western films. The author will present anecdotes and curiosities of the extraordinary westerns carried out by the best narrators of legends, from John Ford to Quentin Tarantino. Besides, “Grandes temas del western” will be presented in the festival, coordinated by Xavi J. Prunera. it is an essay, in which all the big western cinema concepts are honored and made visible. It is a colective work which has counted on the participation of different authors.
With regard to the educational field, the Festival has organized two meetings with professionals in order to make known the script figure, at the hands of the filmmaker and member of the pannel of judges, the Andalusian Ana Rosa Diego in collaboration with the Asociación de Técnicos de Empresas del Sector Audiovisual de Almería (TESA- The Association of Technicians and Companies of the Audiovisual Sector in Almeria); the other meeting will be with the director Miguel Ángel Vivas and the producer Enrique López Lavigne, who will analyse the influence of Spanish people in the European western.
In this edition, the Municipal Theatre of Tabernas will be the venue for the exhibition “Especialistas del Viejo Oeste”, by the photographer from Almería, Rubén García. It consists of a collection of period portraits, in which we can see the Western Leone and Fort Bravo Texas Hollywood specialists wearing their work clothes, what reflects the essence of people who embody the characters in the different shows.
Presentation of the literary works:
- ‘¡Desenfunda, forastero!’, by Alfonso Bueno (Spain, 2019).
- ‘Grandes temas del western’, coordinated by Xabi J. Prunera (Spain, 2020).
Professional meetings:
- ‘La figura de la script, 20 años en un solo instante’, with the participation of the filmmaker from Andalucia, Ana Rosa Diego, in collaboration with the Asociación de Técnicos de Empresas del Sector Audiovisual de Almería (TESA)
- ‘El español en el western europeo’, with the participation of de director Miguel Ángel Vivas and the producer Enrique López Lavigne.
Exhibitions:
- ‘Especialistas del Viejo Oeste’, by Rubén García.
The Almeria Western Film Festival includes other activities, such as the 7th western tapas route, the 3rd Western Window Display Contest, and the performance of the play “Chamaquili en el país de las palabras tristes”, a playful poetic show for children, by Alexis Díaz-Pimienta. For the first time, the Characterization Contest will be celebrated online, in order to promote the participation of the enthusiasts who are not able to be present at the festival due to the covid restrictions to travel to Spain. The AWWF reconnects with the educational community of the province with a new edition of the Drawing Contest and the Short Story Contest.
All activities are subject to preventive measures against Covid-19, considering the reduction of capacity, the compulsory use of face masks, safety distance, and hand hygiene. José Díaz has expressed his gratitude for the support given by the Junta de Andalucía and the Diputación de Almería, as well as private companies which demonstrate their compromise with the Almeria Western Film Festival. This support allows the festival to keep growing and consolidate as the great international western film festival, unique in Europe, and that attracts the film industry and promotes the tourism not only in Tabernas, but throughout the province.
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