Festival Internacional de Cine de Ponferrada ()

Festival start: 23 September 2022      Festival end: 01 October 2022

International Thematic Film Festival specializing in the promotion and dissemination of cinematographic and audiovisual works with very specific and alternative content to commercial cinema.

Young and independent cinema from anywhere in the world, where films are generally produced by small, low-budget film studios or by filmmakers with few resources, regardless of their production format (cinema, video or Smartphones), distribution (traditional or Internet) or exhibition (cinema, TV, social networks, etc.).

- RETINA A TOUCH OF HUMOUR + 600€ AND TROPHY: To the best short film in the comedy section.

- RETINA ARC + 600€ AND TROPHY: To the best short film about architecture, supported by Fundación Cultural del Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de León (FUNCOAL).

- RETINA PRO-EQUALITY + 600€ AND TROPHY: To the best short film about Gender Perspective, supported by Consejo Municipal de las Mujeres de Ponferrada and los Servicios Sociales del Ayuntamiento de Ponferrada.

- RETINA YOUTHFUL LOOK + 600€ AND TROPHY: To the best short film made by Young People.

- IMAGE & SOUND SCHOOLS AWARD + 150€ for the best fiction short film made by students of Image and Sound Vocational Training Schools, organized in collaboration with Consejo Local de la Juventud de Ponferrada.

- IMAGE & SOUND SCHOOLS AWARD + 150€ for the best documentary short film made by students of Image and Sound Professional Training Schools, organized in collaboration with Consejo Local de la Juventud de Ponferrada.

- IMAGE & SOUND SCHOOLS AWARD + 150€ for the best animation short film made by students of Image and Sound Professional Training Schools, organized in collaboration with Consejo Local de la Juventud de Ponferrada.

- VIRTUAL MOBILE STORIES AWARD + 150€ for the best audiovisual work made with mobile phones.

- ACCESITS SEE TO EDUCATE 2022 and 200€ to each of the short films of the “See to educate 2022” program that stand out for their values education in values.

- ACCESITS GROW WITH ME 2022 and 150€ to each of the short films selected to participate in the campaign to raise awareness of the needs of children "Grow with me".

All the awards will be voted by the public attending the screenings.

The Virtual Mobile Stories award will be awarded to the audiovisual work hosted on Feshome TV that has the most stars during the celebration of the festival from September 23 to 30 at 24:00 p.m.

The Retina awards will receive a representative trophy of the Festival (a ceramic piece simulating a Retina) that will be sent by post to their corresponding addresses.

All the award-winning works in the official sections will receive a diploma and a laurel of recognition that proves their status as winners of the Festival.

All the finalist works of the official, parallel and complementary sections will receive a diploma and a laurel of recognition that proves their status as selected in the Festival.

The organization reserves the right to award other awards in consideration of the artistic and technical quality of the works presented.

On Saturday, October 1, 2022, the list of all awards will be communicated.

Economic awards will be paid through a deposit in favour of the person or legal entity that owns the film, subject to the suitable withholding according to the current law. Also, the economic amounts may be modified according to the agreements reached by sponsors before the Festival takes place.

The Festival will not pay any financial amount to the authors or those responsible for the works selected in the parallel sections for their exhibition on the festival dates.

TERMS OF PARTICIPATION
20th PONFERRADA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

1) FESTIVAL DESCRIPTION

International Thematic Film Festival specializing in the promotion and dissemination of cinematographic and audiovisual works with very specific and alternative content to commercial cinema.

Young and independent cinema from anywhere in the world, where films are generally produced by small, low-budget film studios or by filmmakers with few resources, regardless of their production format (cinema, video or Smartphones), distribution (traditional or Internet) or exhibition (cinema, TV, social networks, etc.).

In this sense, the organization intends to turn the festival into a meeting point for this more unknown type of cinema, and therefore necessary to be disclosed, even recovered and preserved as the audiovisual archives of our closest environment, since they are part of our historical memory and audiovisual heritage.

The 20th edition of the Ponferrada International Film Festival will be held mainly in person from September 23 to October 1, 2022 with complementary activities throughout the year.

The Association “Mi Retina me Engaña” is the organizer of this event, being Ponferrada Council and Castilla y León Regional Government the main sponsors.

2) SECTIONS

OFFICIAL SECTIONS TO CONTEST (from September 23 to October 1)

RETINA AWARDS:
Fiction, documentary, animation or experimental short film from every country or nationality that comply with any of the thematic contents of each section and the corresponding participation requirements.

OS1) A Touch of Humour. Comedy Films. Different styles of Comedy (Romantic, Sitcom, Surreal, Parody, Sophisticated, Musical, Black Humour, Social Criticism, …)

OS2) Arc. Films and Architecture. Spatial Perception and Architectural Conception. Rehabilitation, Regeneration and Urban Renovation. Bioclimatic Architecture. Industrial Architectural Heritage.

OS3) Pro-Equality. Films and Gender Perspective. Domestic Violence, Sexual Abuse or Harassment, Sexual Diversity, Coeducation, Participation of Women in Working and Social life, Work Life Balance, Roles and Stereotypes, Advertising and Media, Ecofeminism, Glass Ceiling and Invisibility.

OS4) Youthful Look. Film made by Young People. Theme to be chosen by the film-maker.

SCHOOLS AWARDS:
Productions made by students from any Spanish educational center that teaches studies related to the professional family of Image and Sound can participate in the following categories:

OS5) Fiction Schools. Theme to be chosen by the film-maker

OS6) Documentary Schools. Theme to be chosen by the film-maker

OS7) Animation Schools. Theme to be chosen by the film-maker

FICP AWARDS:
Fiction or documentary audiovisual works from any country or nationality can participate:

OS8) Virtual Mobile Stories. Audiovisual works made with Smartphones. Theme to be chosen by the film-maker

PARALLEL SECTIONS (from September 23 to October 1)
Short films, feature films or audiovisual fiction, documentary, animation or experimental films from any country or nationality that reflect the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of any region of the world, as part of the most unknown universal audiovisual heritage, can participate or be invited by the organization.

COMPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES 2022
Short films, feature films or audiovisual fiction, documentary, animation or experimental films from any country or nationality that meet any of the thematic content of each scheduled complementary activity can participate or be invited by the organization:

CA1) “SEE TO EDUCATE 2022” PROGRAM (from September 23 to December 23)
Fiction, documentary, animation or experimental short films from any country or nationality that comply with thematic content that reflects educational values for children and adolescents can participate or be invited by the organization: Family, housing, education, health, food, play, equality, friendship, solidarity, protection against child labor, respect for the environment, etc.

CA2) 38RETINAS 2022 (from July 15 to December 23)
Complementary activity that aims to bring the best of short films and audiovisuals from any corner of the world to the 38 municipalities of the El Bierzo region that so wish, through the 4th Itinerant Film Festival by The Bierzo (www.38retinas.com)


ACTIVITIES IN COLLABORATION WITH OTHER ENTITIES 2022

- The Solidarity Look 2022. Short films or feature films that deal with issues of solidarity, humanitarian aid and development cooperation can participate or be invited by the organization, to be programmed and screened in the activities organized within the Municipal Development Cooperation Plan of the Town Hall of Ponferrada.

- Grow With Me 2022. Selection of the best short films registered in the "See to Educate 2022" program to participate in the awareness campaign on the needs of children "Grow with me", coinciding with the week of activities organized on the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child that is celebrated on November 20, with face-to-face projections aimed at the 5th and 6th grades of Primary Education of the Educational Centers of our environment. Activity organized in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare, Children and Equality of the City Council of Ponferrada.

3) PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS

- Films shot in any format and produced after January 1st 2021.

- The maximum duration of the short films participating in the official sections will not exceed 30 minutes, except in the official section of Schools will not exceed 10 minutes.

- Films shot in a language different from Spanish must show Spanish subtitles, preferably with a file in SubRip (SRT) format.

- Films shot in any format and produced in the academic years 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 may be presented in the official Schools section.

- In the official sections of The Youthful Look and Virtual Mobile Stories, audiovisual works made by young people between 18 and 35 years old may participate.
- The films that participate in the official section Virtual Mobile Stories must have been shot with a smartphone and their authors must indicate the brand and model used during filming. The use of accessories such as microphones, filters, lenses, as well as the editing or subsequent processing of images with the editing programs that the participants consider appropriate, is allowed. "Making of" and photographs of the shooting or recording where the use of mobile devices can be verified must be attached.

- The contestants will be solely responsible for ensuring that their video does not violate the rights of third parties in terms of image, graphic material, music and authorship of a work. The organization will be exempt from any responsibility.

- Under no circumstances will those short films or audiovisual works that threaten the honor of a group, include discriminatory material and/or violate the rights or dignity of individuals be accepted.

- The organization reserves the option of declaring any of the different sections of the competition void, if the films received do not meet the minimum technical quality required by our festival.

- Films can only participate in one section.

- Films that have been registered or shown in previous editions of the festival or were released in movie theaters in Ponferrada cannot participate.

- The organizers reserve the right to invite films to participate in the parallel sections and complementary activities.

4) REGISTRATION

The submission of the works that participate in the official sections and complementary sections must be carried out exclusively online through the Festhome platform (www.festhome.com) It will be mandatory to upload as attachments: technical/ artistic sheet, the poster, 2 frames of the film and a photograph of the director. A copy of the director's ID will be required only in the official sections of The Youthful Look and Virtual Mobile Stories. It is recommended to send a promotional trailer.

Those films that want to participate in the parallel sections, in addition to being able to do it through Festhome, can also register and send the works through any online platform (WeTransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive, Vimeo, etc.) to our e-mail (info@ponferradafilmfestival.com). Registration in these sections does not mean the screening of these films in the schedule of the Festival, but they will be checked by a Committee which will decide the selected works.

The deadline for submissions will end on May 31, 2022.

5) SELECTION PROCCESS

Every section will have a selection committee that will decide the finalists from among all the works and the respective categories. The decision of the selection committees will not be open to appeal.

From July 15 the organizers will inform the selected participants about the decision through the e-mail address they have supplied in the application form in the corresponding section containing personal information or datasheet of each film.

The organizers can change the section of the selected film when it deems convenient.

The selected films will appear in the magazine or the official program and on the Festival website (www.ponferradafilmfestival.com).

All the selected films will have to upload before September 15 a trailer and a screening copy in HD file with the codec H264 and minimum resolution of 1920x1080 -1080p- in .mov or .mp4 format to Festhome (www.festhome.com)

In case of any queries or doubts, please e-mail us at: info@ponferradafilmfestival.com


6) SCREENINGS AND ONLINE VISUALIZATIONS

All screenings of the official sections, parallels and complementary activities will be held in person, except for Virtual Mobile Stories and See to Educate 2022 program, which can be viewed online during the official dates of the festival:

The online viewings of the films selected to participate in the official Virtual Mobile Stories competition section will be made using the files of the selected films, which will be converted and stored on the servers of FesthomeTV, for streaming playback in HD and with high levels of DRM security, and will be accessed from (www.ponferradafilmfestival.com) after registering on the platform.

The films selected to participate in the See to Educate 2022 program can only be viewed online in the infant and primary schools in our closest environment, during the last quarter of 2022.
Educational centers will have to register through our email to register them on the FesthomeTV platform, and be able to access the content hosted in the Festival's private video library. After the viewing in the classrooms, the students will participate in the proposed educational activities (school drawing contest, alternative poster contest, etc.) and will be public on (www.verparaeducar.miretina.org)

The copies of the films and trailers sent by the participants will remain the property of the organization, which will be integrated into the visual archive of the Festival.

The finalist films of the official sections may be used for projections of a non-profit cultural nature in collaboration with other entities.

The producers of every piece of work will allow the use of the trailer requested or a 3 minutes fragment (max) for them to be distributed as promotional and informative material in every media used by the festival (cinemas, public screenings, television, internet etc.)

7) AWARDS

- RETINA A TOUCH OF HUMOUR + 600€ AND TROPHY: To the best short film in the comedy section.

- RETINA ARC + 600€ AND TROPHY: To the best short film about architecture, supported by Fundación Cultural del Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de León (FUNCOAL).

- RETINA PRO-EQUALITY + 600€ AND TROPHY: To the best short film about Gender Perspective, supported by Consejo Municipal de las Mujeres de Ponferrada and los Servicios Sociales del Ayuntamiento de Ponferrada.

- RETINA YOUTHFUL LOOK + 600€ AND TROPHY: To the best short film made by Young People.

- IMAGE & SOUND SCHOOLS AWARD + 150€ for the best fiction short film made by students of Image and Sound Vocational Training Schools, organized in collaboration with Consejo Local de la Juventud de Ponferrada.

- IMAGE & SOUND SCHOOLS AWARD + 150€ for the best documentary short film made by students of Image and Sound Professional Training Schools, organized in collaboration with Consejo Local de la Juventud de Ponferrada.

- IMAGE & SOUND SCHOOLS AWARD + 150€ for the best animation short film made by students of Image and Sound Professional Training Schools, organized in collaboration with Consejo Local de la Juventud de Ponferrada.

- VIRTUAL MOBILE STORIES AWARD + 150€ for the best audiovisual work made with mobile phones.

- ACCESITS SEE TO EDUCATE 2022 and 200€ to each of the short films of the “See to educate 2022” program that stand out for their values education in values.

- ACCESITS GROW WITH ME 2022 and 150€ to each of the short films selected to participate in the campaign to raise awareness of the needs of children "Grow with me".

All the awards will be voted by the public attending the screenings.

The Virtual Mobile Stories award will be awarded to the audiovisual work hosted on Feshome TV that has the most stars during the celebration of the festival from September 23 to 30 at 24:00 p.m.

The Retina awards will receive a representative trophy of the Festival (a ceramic piece simulating a Retina) that will be sent by post to their corresponding addresses.

All the award-winning works in the official sections will receive a diploma and a laurel of recognition that proves their status as winners of the Festival.

All the finalist works of the official, parallel and complementary sections will receive a diploma and a laurel of recognition that proves their status as selected in the Festival.

The organization reserves the right to award other awards in consideration of the artistic and technical quality of the works presented.

On Saturday, October 1, 2022, the list of all awards will be communicated.

Economic awards will be paid through a deposit in favour of the person or legal entity that owns the film, subject to the suitable withholding according to the current law. Also, the economic amounts may be modified according to the agreements reached by sponsors before the Festival takes place.

The Festival will not pay any financial amount to the authors or those responsible for the works selected in the parallel sections for their exhibition on the festival dates.

8) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND IMAGE PROPERTY

The authorization of the authors or the owners of these rights for the projection of the selected works of the festival is implicit, without contractual obligations on the part of the Association "Mi Retina me Engaña" with the material or intellectual author of the work, nor of any another management company.

9) ACCEPTANCE OF RULES AND REGULATIONS

The participation in this Festival implies the acceptance of the rules and regulations explained above. If any relevant piece of information is missing from the application form or the material attached to it or if deadlines are not met, the piece of work will not participate in the Festival. Any kind of incident that takes place during the festival will be taken care of in the way the organization finds most appropriate.