EGEDA US

News from Egeda

April 2011

Launch of the First Online European Film Festival

Promoted by the online movie portal filmotech.com, and sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Division of the department stores El Corte Inglés, the 1st European Invisible Film Festival is presenting on the Internet, in a legal manner, exclusively and free-of-charge, the best of Spanish and European cinema not released in movie theaters or distributed on DVD.

On April 11, 2011, the first Festival Europeo de Cine Invisible (“European Invisible Film Festival”), a project promoted by filmotech.com got underway. The festival aims to make known in a free-of-charge manner via the Internet previously-unreleased Spanish and European fiction and documentary films shot in 2009 and 2010. Through the festival website www.festivalcineonline.com, any Internet user may see, for the first time ever and absolutely free-of-charge, all films which are included in this pioneering initiative. The site provides an alternative distribution channel for the participating films and their viewers, demonstrating that legal consumption via the Internet is possible by harmonizing needs of Internet users and remuneration for those who create the cinematographic works. The Festival is open to the public from April 11 thru May 11, 2011. For a whole month, Internet users can see the participating films for free and vote for their favorite.

Sections

Fiction and documentary films not released in movie theaters or issued on DVD, like Roberto Castón’s Ander, Juan Cavestany’s Dispongo de Barcos, Federico Veiroj’s La Vida Útil, Matthieu Almaric’s Tournée, and Sabina Guzzanti’s Draquila, among others, are participating in the three official in-competition sections “Unreleased Spanish Films”, “Unreleased European Films” and “Unreleased Documentary Films”. Out of competition, a parallel section, “Spanish Film Treasures”, lets Internet users see, again legally and free-of-charge, grand classics of Spanish cinema, such as Bardem’s Calle Mayor, Erice’s El Espíritu de la Colmena, Berlanga’s Plácido, and Saura‘s La Caza, among others.

Awards

The participating films participating in the three sections are competing for the Jury Award for Best Film (a single award for all three categories). The winner shall receive 2,500 Euros from the cable TV channel Canal TCM, which will broadcast the winning film. In addition, this film will be issued on DVD and distributed in the film section of El Corte Inglés department stores throughout Spain.

The People’s Choice Award will go to the film receiving the most votes by Internet users from among the 12 films competing in the official sections. Among all viewers voting for the People’s Choice Award, winners of 10 yearly passes for free viewing on filmotech.com will be drawn.

Jury

The festival jury is composed of journalist-writer Boris Izaguirre, film director Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, editor-in-chief of Fotogramas magazine, Pere Vall, programming director of TCM, Rafael Portela, El Corte Inglés Cultural Affairs Division director Ramón Pernas, and journalist, blogger and host of the TVE program Cámara Abierta 2.0, Dani Seseña.

Social Networking & Audiovisual Portals

Viewing of the participating films is done through the festival website www.festivalcineonline.com. Voting can also be done via our facebook page http://apps.facebook.com/festivalcineonline. Extra content viewing (making of, interviews…) of the films in-competition is available on www.youtube.com/filmotech and latest news updates are on www.twitter.com/filmotech_com.