From the 7th to the 23rd of November, the 29 edition of Black Nights Film Festival from Tallinn (Estonia), one of the most prestigious film events in northern Europe. This year, from the Department of Culture, through the ICEC and the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL), a focus on Catalan cinema has been promoted in which more than 30 Catalan productions and a delegation of more than 50 professionals both in the festival and in the context of the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, the market space.
In the Official Section the director Julia de Paz premiered her second feature film worldwide The good daughter (Astra Pictures, Avalon, Krater Films), a film about family and intergenerational ties that is Carmela’s story.
Catalan production returns home with three outstanding awards: the Grand Prix for Best Filmthe award to the best actress for Kiara Arancibia and the Audience Award .
The film is the result of a short film fed up (Mayo Films), selected in the Shortcat 2022
In the Just Film Youth and Children’s Film Festival sub-festival of the PÖFF – Black Nights Film Festival, in the section In Focus: Catalonia , Children’s Competition Programme y Children’s Rights Programme the feature film was presented Leo & Lou (Zeta Cine, Zeta Audiovisual, Zeta Audiovisual, Limited, Motion Picture Management) by Carlos Solano. The film has won the Award for Best Film .
The Catalan short film has also stood out with force and has been awarded in PÖFF Shorts: the piece of animation Because today is Saturday (Studio Kimchi, Animais AVPL, La Clairière Production) by Alice Guimarães has won the award for Best Animation .
In the framework of industry, two Catalan projects have been awarded in Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, the event where projects in the development and post-production phase are presented that seek opportunities for financing, co-production and distribution to international professionals in the sector.
On the one hand, the project presented in TV Beats Co-Financing Market , Waters of darkness (Lastor Media, Cataluña Federation Studios, Federation Spain, New Media), by Víctor Garcia has won the award TV Drama Vision Gothenburg .
On the other hand, the project by David Gutiérrez Camps The convulsions (Auca Films, Cinética Producciones, Timber Films, IMY Prod), which was presented in International Works in Progress, he has taken the prize International Works in Progress Public Favorite.
Since a few years ago, Catalan cinema is leaving an important mark in Europe. The audiovisual productions of fiction, animation and documentary play a very relevant role in festivals all over the world, receive international awards and are released on screens all over the world. The recognition of critics and the international public is unanimous, and the prestige of Catalan professionals is a reflection of a very powerful industry, with undeniable talent and training of enormous quality.
In 2024, the Department of Culture dedicated more than 60 million to the audiovisual sector, a record figure. Audiovisual is still one of the axes of the Government for this legislature and it is a priority to promote it as a strategic sector. The Department of Culture’s subsidy lines – managed by the ICEC – cover the entire audiovisual value chain, with items earmarked, for example, for development and co-production. The Ramon Llull Institute, for its part, promotes the internationalization of audiovisual through its competition lines and collaboration with international film festivals.
This support has helped to make visible and consolidate some of the values for which Catalan audiovisual stands out: the talent of the professionals, the existence of internationally recognized training centers, the work and commitment of a powerful audiovisual industry, which draws from a long tradition and generates an enormous variety of productions, and the richness of a very large number of festivals located in the country.
