- Up to seven screens of the cineplex will be available for a program that includes two milestones within its cycles: one dedicated to the Japanese Toshiro Mifune and his bonds with the city, and another that captures Ana Lily Amirpour’s film style, fundamental author of fantastic and supernatural cinema
- The collaboration with the Auditorium and Theater Foundation has resulted in the offer of its premises for screenings, offices and meetings of different significance that will take place between April 19 and 28
- Luis Tosar, Leonardo Sbaraglia, María León and Greta Fernández, protagonists of the fourth edition of the Film Conferences
- The poster and opening film pay tribute to Buster Keaton: on the centenary of Sherlock Jr.’s premiere, the piece will be shown with Duke Ellington’s music performed by the Gran Canaria Big Band
- For this year’s edition, the Festival’s Selection Committee has evaluated 726 submissions
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, April 5, 2024. The 23rd edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival (April 19 to 28) will have the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium and Cines Yelmo Las Arenas as its venues, thus returning the film event to the original premises that hosted its contents in the early years of the Festival, from 2000 to 2004.
During this edition’s presentation, which has been promoted under the picture of the iconic Buster Keaton in the centenary of Sherlock Jr. (1924), the title that will open the Film Festival with Duke Ellington’s music performed by the Gran Canaria Big Band, the Councilman of Culture Adrián Santana and the Festival director, Luis Miranda, pointed out that such return to the origins of the film event is faced with optimism and gratitude to the cinema complex and the Auditorium and Theater Foundation, two institutions without which it would not have been possible to bring out an edition that has had to deal with the lack of theaters, commercial or independent, in the city.
With seven screens of Cines Yelmo at the Festival’s disposal, the facilities of the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium for certain screenings, offices and meetings, and those of Hotel Cristina by Tigotan as a venue for hosting guests and industry-related events, the Festival has been able to accommodate the titles selected among this year’s 726 submissions as well as distribute activities related to the sector.
The new Film Conferences (Jornadas del Oficio Cinematográfico) headline such activities. Starting on the first Saturday of the Festival, April 20, they will bring to the Auditorium the discussions moderated by Carlos del Amor, Televisión Española’s director of Culture, and starred by outstanding and emerging industry figures such as Argentine Leonardo Sbaraglia and Spanish Luis Tosar, María León and Greta Fernández.
Among the issues discussed at the meeting held with the media, Councilman Adrián Santana highlighted the interest aroused by an edition that has seen a significant increase in the number of submissions received.
Canarias Cinema, the only section for which submission was opened, saw a 91% growth: 65 titles have been registered in 2024, compared to the previous year’s 34.
The rest of the program has been selected from proposals received from sales agents, distributors and festivals, making up a preview screening panorama of 726 works from 85 countries. This marks an increase of 55.8% of receptions in regard to 2023, when 466 productions were considered.
The Selection Committee, in 2024, has already reviewed submissions from all five continents. With a clear majority of European works, 419, 226 of which were Spanish, there were as well 9 African productions, 140 Asian, 141 American, and 2 from Oceania, although many of them were in fact co-productions between countries from different continents.
As for the MECAS Festival Market, with its division between the Almost-Finished Films and Films-to-Be-Made sections, it is having a good year in terms of submitted projects: it has broken its record with 378 works in its seventh year of life. Specifically, this number represents an increase of 44.3% compared to 2023, which registered 232 titles.
Most of them came from Latin America (71.7%), with a notable European presence (24.6%). The remaining 3.7% corresponds to works from the rest of America, Oceania, Asia and Africa.
With the program practically closed, Luis Miranda claimed that the selection of titles will be available throughout the day on the website lpafilmfestival.com.
Thus, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria will show its commitment to cinema during the ten days in which the city will once again enjoy, among others, the competitive sections of the Festival: the “Official Section”, hallmark of the Gran Canarian event and, according to its director “one of the most interesting in recent years”; “Canarias Cinema”, always related to the Archipelago and attached to the Festival’s dedication to “examine and promote the culture of cinema as art”; the international and experimental “Bande à Part”; and the Spanish auteur cinema made in the margins of “Panorama Spain”.
As announced in the press conference, the Festival will offer two outstandings cycles in 2024, too. One of them shows the singular connection between a producer and fundamental actor of Japanese cinema and the city, allowing the audience to get to know Toshiro Mifune’s legacy. The screening of the film that the actor shot in Gran Canaria, The Mad Atlantic, is considered by the Festival team as a real milestone. The piece, shot in 1966 by Jun Fukuda, turns Las Palmas de Gran Canaria into the destination of the crew of a ship affected by a squall. This brief incursion into the work of Toshiro Mifune, which will screen five other titles by the Japanese actor, is supported by CCA Gran Canaria. Center for Audiovisual Culture.
Furthermore, the 23rd Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival will include a selection of titles that reflect the stamp of Iranian-born filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and actress Ana Lily Amirpour. Born in the UK and living in the US, Amirpour’s cinema is linked to film shows, especially festivals like Sitges, unavoidably connected to fantasy and horror. The author of the “horror western” A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (USA, 2014) will visit the city and introduce, among others, her four feature films and six shorts.
“Panorama”, the must-see cinema that has not been released in the island and, according to the catalog, “a thermometer of the best 2023 ‘festival cinema'”; the wild evenings of “The Freakiest Nights”, the classics of “Déjà vu” and the silent films with live music of “Camera Obscura”, as well as the screenings and educational activities of “Magic Lantern” will once again be at the disposal of the audience in the framework of an edition that, among other things, will host new debates sponsored by CIMA, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media, the 4th Meeting of Audiovisual Educators, who will offer a diagnosis of the Archipelago’s situation, another meeting with programmer, critic and filmmaker Elena Duque, who will show how she makes her animations, as well as a working gathering of the various Canarian festivals.
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, organized by the Culture area of the Gran-Canarian capital’s City Council through Promoción de la Ciudad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has received public assistance by the ICAA [Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts], the program for the internationalization of Spanish culture, PICE Visitantes, of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), from the Consejería de Universidades, Ciencia e Innovación y Cultura del Gobierno de Canarias, as well as public support from Promotur Turismo Islas Canarias.
Among the Festival’s collaborators we may find Fundación Auditorio Teatro, Cines Yelmo, Las Arenas Shopping Center and Hotel Cristina by Tigotan, places which also function as venues or hold activities of the film event; as well as other institutions and companies such as Sagulpa, Hospitales San Roque, Jameson, Ikigai, Cientouno Group, el Centro de Cultura Audiovisual de Gran Canaria, Audiovisuales Canarias, Music Library &SFX, Blackout Films and International Bach Festival. Likewise, its market, MECAS, has been possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Gran Canaria Film Commission-Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria and the support of Canary Islands Film and Proexca.
The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Mid Atlantic University, the CIFP Felo Monzón Grau-Bassas, the Canary Islands Film Institute, the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas, Digital 104, the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands, CIMA Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales, the Cartagena International Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival, the Barcelona Independent Film Festival and Very Good Script are also collaborators.
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