Basque cinema returns to the Nantes Festival

The 29th edition of the Festival du Cinéma Espagnol de Nantes, the largest showcase of Spanish cinema in France, will take place from March 28^th to April 7^th. Basque cinema will also have a significant presence at this year at the festival thanks to the Fenêtre Basque or Basque Window programme promoted by the Etxepare Basque Institute in collaboration with the Basque Film Archive.

The 29th edition of the Festival du Cinéma Espagnol de Nantes, the largest showcase of Spanish cinema in France, will take place from March 28^th to April 7^th. Basque cinema will also have a significant presence at this year at the festival thanks to the Fenêtre Basque or Basque Window programme promoted by the Etxepare Basque Institute in collaboration with the Basque Film Archive.

Eight feature films and eight shorts will represent Basque cinema at the Fenêtre Basque, now in its 19th edition. The selected films will be shown in original version with subtitles in different sections of the festival, and some may very well go home with an award. The Basque Window at the Nantes Festival gives Basque filmmakers the chance to show their works to the French public, critics and film industry professionals.

In the short films category, the Kimuak programme will be at the festival yet another year, this time with the seven films from the 2018 catalogue. One of them, Kafenio Kastello (2018) by Miguel Ángel Jiménez, may even win the Audience Prize for the Best Short Film. Ya Está (2019) by filmmaker Aizpea Goenaga will also be on the programme.

Koldo Almandoz, whose films have been selected from the Kimuak programme on multiple occasions, brings a feature-length film to Nantes this year, Oreina (Deer, 2018), which is also competing for the Jules Verne Award for Best Film. The feature film Black is Beltza (2018) by the multifaceted artist Fermin Muguruza is vying for the Feature Debut Award. Filmmaker Josu Martinez is once again hoping to take home the Best Documentary Award, this time for Jainkoak ez dit Barkatzen (God doesn’t forgive me, 2018); and the film Mudar la Piel (The Spy Within, 2018), by Anna Schultz and Cristóbal Fernández, is also up for the same award.

Some of the other feature films shown at the festival include Soinujolearen Semea (The Son of the Accordionist, 2019), a screen adaptation of the novel by Basque author Bernardo Atxaga, directed by Fernando Bernués; Dantza (Dance, 2019), by Telmo Esnal; Lurralde Hotzak (Cold Lands, 2018) by Iratxe Fresneda; and Another Day of Life (2018), the multiple-award-winning animation film by Raúl de la Fuente and Damian Nenow.

Several Basque artists and filmmakers are also going to visit Nantes during the festival. Almost all the filmmakers of the feature-length films will visit the festival to present their work. Basque representatives will also sit on some of the juries: actor Eneko Sagardoy will be a member of the jury for the Official Selection, and Aizpea Goenaga for the Documentary Section. The director of the San Sebastián International Film Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, will interview this year’s honoured artist Javier Bardem at the Nantes Opera House. Finally, the director of the Basque Film Archive, Joxean Fernández, will present the translation to French of the book Cine Vasco: Tres generaciones de cineastas (Basque Cinema: Three generations of filmmakers) at an event open to the public.