• Nine projects will participate in the Almost-Finished Films section and nine others in the Films-To-Be-Made one
• The seventh edition of the market will be held from April 19 to 21 at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas and Hotel Cristina by Tigotán
• From April 18 to 20, training and networking activities will take place in parallel to the market, aimed at professionals of the audiovisual industry in the Canary Islands
• Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival’s industry area consolidates its position as an international market with a record number of over 400 works received
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, April 10, 2024. MECAS, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival’s Market of Almost-Finished Films, has announced the 18 titles selected in its seventh edition for its two international markets, the Almost-Finished Films and Films-To-Be-Made ones. The event will take place on April 19, 20 and 21 at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas and at Hotel Cristina by Tigotán. From April 18 to 20, Terrero Isla MECAS. Put your film project to the test, a proposal of training and networking activities aimed at professionals of the audiovisual industry in the Canary Islands, will be held there, too.
The industry area of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Film Festival has consolidated its position as an international market with an all-time record of over 400 submissions, mostly from Latin America (71.7%), with a notable European presence (24.6%) and the remaining 3.7% from the rest of the Americas, Oceania, Asia and Africa.
Of the more than 400 projects submitted, 9 were finalists in the Almost-Finished Films section, the market for works in the final stages of production, editing or post-production, and 9 in the Films-To-Be-Made one, aimed at filmmakers with projects in the development stage. Among those selected, 6 are Spanish, 4 from Argentina, and the rest from Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela, Georgia, Italy, Peru, Poland and Portugal. According to Lorena Morin, director of the market, “it is a very diverse selection, full of strength and fragility as the human condition. These are films that, when they are finished, will not be documentaries, they will not be fiction; they will be voices narrating from their most personal universe. Male and female directors who are not satisfied and express it through pictures. Acts of resistance that have captured us.”
The works selected for the Almost-Finished Films section are: Auspicia* by María Gisèle Royo (Jur Jur Productions), a project selected as well in Semilleru Lab at the Gijón International Film Festival; El movimiento de las cosas by Alexandra Cuesta (La República Invisible, Caballo de Viento Producciones); Hijas by Matías Ítalo Scarvaci (NASO CINE); La isla sumergida by Lucía Malandro and Daniel Saucedo (Estudio ST, Archivistas Salvajes); La memoria de las mariposas by Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski (Miti Films, Oublaum Films, Perpetua Cine); No more by Kote Kalandadze and Keko Chelidze (Parachute Films); Tiempo de morir by Ana García Blaya (NOS Films); Under the volcano by Damian Kocur (Lizart Film), and Woman bites dog by Armand Rovira (From Outer Space).
The Films-To-Be-Made finalists are: Francisco Marise’s Camionero (Amania Films), a project selected as well in Cinema Pendent de L’Alternativa; Daniela Muñoz Barroso’s Diarios del silencio (Estudio ST); Renzo Cozza’s El profesor de música (Aurora Cine); Mo Scarpelli’s Faith (Rake Films, DD Wigley, La Faena Films); La belleza by Marina Lameiro (Hiruk Filmak); Lo que trajo la tormenta by Miguel de Zuviría (La Azotea); Valvas by Andrea Hoyos (Tiempo Libre); and the Canarian ones Fiesta negra by Guillermo Magariños (Las Hormigas Negras) and Fuego en la boca by Alois Sandner Díaz (Tourmalet Films).
The 18 titles will compete for €16,000 in cash prizes and others in kind. The main prizes are the Almost-Finished Films Award with €9,000, the Films-To-Be-Made Award with €6,000 and the Isla MECAS Award, for a project from the Canary Islands, with €1,000. Furthermore, there will be the Cinema Pendent Award to participate in the next edition of Cinema Pendent de L’Alternativa, the Very Good Script Award that includes a script consultancy, the Music Library &SFX Award that grants a music supervision consultancy and the use of its music catalog, the Semilleru Lab Award to participate in the next edition the Gijón International Film Festival’s Semilleru Lab, and the Blackout Films Award for the creation of the DCP of the winning project.
Having the internationalization of the Canary Islands’ audiovisual industry and its filmmakers as one of its main objectives, this year MECAS has established an alliance with the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival (FICCI), one of the oldest film festivals in Latin America, thanks to which Omar Razzak (Tourmalet Films) has been selected to travel to the 63rd edition of the festival to be held from April 16 to 21 in Colombia. Likewise, one of the 6 projects participating in FICCI’s Ópera Prima Lab will be selected to participate in MECAS 2025.
MECAS is funded by Consejería de Universidades, Ciencia e Innovación y Cultura from the Canarian Government, and has the support of the program for the internationalization of Spanish culture, PICE Visitors, of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E). It is also sponsored by the Gran Canaria Film Commission (Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria), and Music Library &SFX, and collaborates with Proexca, Very Good Script, Gijón International Film Festival’s Semilleru Lab and Cinema Pendent de L’Alternativa.
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