Festival Internacional de Cine de Almería (23)

Festival start: 15 November 2024      Festival end: 24 November 2024

The 23th Almería International Film Festival will be held in Almería (Spain), in order to promote the province of Almeria through the strengthening the historical links of the province with the audiovisual industry and culture, from Friday 15th November to Sunday 24st November 2024. The Festival is organized by Almería Provincial Council.

Cash Prizes: 24,200€

The award winners will be chosen according to their artistic quality by a jury (comprising a maximum of 7 professionals from the fields of cinema, art, and culture, together with members of the organization who will have a say but no vote) from among all the films officially selected for competition:
1. Award for Best International Short Film, €7,000 in prize money and a trophy.
2. Award for Best National Short Film, €4,000 in prize money and a trophy.
3. Audience Award for Best Short Film, €2,700 in prize money and a trophy. (* This award will be decided by the vote of the audience attending each of the sessions. The audience voting ballots will be accepted, as long as all the short films shown in each session are scored). In the case of streaming, the voting system will be specified on each platform, the number of views and the total votes of each work shall always be taken into account).
4. Cinema Writers’ Association of Andalusia (ASECAN) Award, for the best Andalusian short film (Spain), €2,300 in prize money and a trophy.
5. Journalists Association – Almeria Press Association (AP-APAL) Award for best Almería Short Film, €2,200 in prize money and a trophy. The jury for this award will be made up of professional journalists designated by AP-APAL and a member of the organization with voice, but without a vote.
6. Award for the best direction with €1,000 and a trophy.
7. Award for the best script with €1,000 and a trophy.
8. Cecilio Paniagua Award for best photography, with €1,000 and a trophy.
9. Gil Parrondo Award for the best artistic direction, with €1,000 and a trophy.
10. Award for the best female performance, with €1,000 and a trophy.
11. Award for the best male performance, with €1,000 and a trophy.
12. Special prize for human rights and values-Amnesty International, endowed with a trophy. This prize will be awarded by a jury appointed by Amnesty International.
The amount of these prizes includes VAT, where applicable, in accordance with the provisions of regulation 8. The awards may be accumulative.
The members of the Jury will be appointed by Resolution of the Presidency of the Provincial Council of (Diputación de) Almería, which will also appoint the chairperson of the Jury from among them.
The chairperson will decide any ties that may occur with his or her casting vote.
An official from the Almería Provincial Council, Culture, Film & Almería Identity Department, Legal and Administrative Service will act as secretary to the Jury.
The appointment of the Jury will be published on the notice board of the website of Almería Provincial Council (FICAL).
The Jury will act in plenary session and the attendance of at least two thirds of its members will be required. Its deliberations will be secret. The corresponding minutes will be drawn up of the decision taken, which will be signed by the chairperson and the secretary.
The jury may not declare these awards void, nor grant ex aequo prizes. It may, if it deems it appropriate, award special mentions.
The jury shall act in accordance with the provisions for collegiate bodies in the legislation in force.

23rd ALMERÍA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – FICAL 2024

RULES AND REGULATIONS
“ALMERÍA EN CORTO” INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION

1. OBJECTIVE
The 23rd Almería International Film Festival will be held in Almería (Spain), in order to promote the province of Almería through the strengthening the historical links of the province with the audiovisual industry and culture, from 15th November to 24th November 2024. The Festival is organized by Almería Provincial Council.
All short films produced either domestically or internationally, filmed in 35 mm or 16 mm celluloid, or in High-Definition Video (or higher) shall be considered eligible for competition. The films should last no longer than 30 minutes (credits included). The production date must not be prior to 1st January 2023.
2. BENEFICIARIES AND ENTRY CONDITIONS
a. Any producer or director owning the rights to the films they are submitting is eligible to participate.
b. Each participant may submit as many films as they wish. Each film must be submitted individually together with its own registration form.
c. Works shall be submitted in their original language. Should the language be other than Castilian Spanish, it must have Spanish subtitles or include the original script translated into Castilian Spanish or english.
d. Films selected in the previous festival will not be admitted.
Selected films will be screened exclusively in High-Definition Video (or higher). Selected films are to be sent in a .mov file, with H.264 coded, progressive.
3. AMOUNT AND BUDGETARY IMPLEMENTATION
The amount assigned for this call is twenty-four thousand two hundred (24.200) euros, which will be paid for from budget heading 8000.334.48900 Cultural awards and Grants of the Almería Provincial Council 2024 fiscal year.

4. PUBLICATION
Almería Provincial Council will, in accordance with Article 20 of Law 38/2003, General Subsidies Law, report the text of this notification, and any information requested, to the National Subsidies Database (BDNS).
The BDNS will transfer to the BOP Almeria (Almeria Official Gazette) an excerpt from this notification for publication. Once the BDNS is officially aware of the publication of the excerpt, in any case 72 hours following reception by the BOP, the BDNS will report all information regarding this call through the National Subsidies Publicity System (SNPS). In any case, the effectiveness of this notification is subject to the publication of the aforementioned excerpt in the BOP Almería.
It shall be published simultaneously on the www.dipalme.org Notice Board (Tablón de Anuncios) in section ‘Cultural Activities’ and in the Transparency Section on the Provincial Council website. www.festivaldealmeria.com.

5. ENTRY FORM
In order to enter, please use the following platform: FESTHOME. The registration form provided by each of the platforms is to be filled in and admitted video formats adhered to. Each platform has different registration categories according to the geographical origin of the production or direction of the short film. You are only required to register in one category.
If the film’s language is not Castilian Spanish, and it is not subtitled in Castilian Spanish, the original script translated into Spanish or english is to be attached.
The registration deadline is 16th August 2024.
The individuals or groups submitting the works are assumed by the organizers to hold all the corresponding copyrights and other exhibition rights for the same, in addition to authorization to receive the award, should the film be coauthored. Under no circumstances shall the organizers be held responsible for any breach of this clause nor for any claims to royalties for public exhibition nor for any other intellectual property rights.
6. SELECTION
A selection committee, composing film industry professionals and members of the festival organization team, will select the works to take part in the official competition from among all the films received, according to their artistic quality. The decisions shall be announced as of 23rd September, 2024, by publication on the Notice Board of the Provincial Council website www.dipalme.org and on the festival website www.festivaldealmeria.com.
The designation of the selection committee will be published on the notice board of the Diputación de Almeria (FICAL) website.
Selected films must be sent for screening, in a .mov file, with H.264 codec and bitrate of between 30 Mbps and 50 Mbps, progressive, no later than 28th October 2024. Should the bitrate be lower than specified, it shall be understood the participant wishes it to be screened with that technical specification. The file will be uploaded to festhome. The file can also be saved to any storage medium or web platform for file sharing. Films are to be sent to the following address:

Diputación Provincial de Almería
XXIII Festival Internacional de Cine de Almería
Centro de Servicios Múltiples
Negociado de Recursos
Carretera de Ronda, 216
04009 Almeria
SPAIN
The following information must be sent (via email to inscripciones@festivaldealmeria.com) together with the selected film:
• Two digital photographs of the film (300 ppp jpg, no larger than 1Mb).
• A digital photograph of the director(s) (300 ppp jpg, no larger than 1Mb.).
• Completed official online entry form. Available from: www.festivaldealmeria.com.
• .srt subtitle file in Spanish or english, or a copy of the original script translated into Spanish or english (compulsory).
In order to be eligible to compete, all the aforementioned documents must be submitted. Participants hereby authorize the organizers to use frames, photographs and extracts from the films for promotional purposes in any format and media, for the purposes of promoting and advertising this Festival. The information and material received from selected works may be used in the Festival advertising and promotion.
7. JURY, awards AND prizes
The award winners will be chosen according to their artistic quality by a jury (comprising a maximum of 7 professionals from the fields of cinema, art, and culture, together with members of the organization who will have a say but no vote) from among all the films officially selected for competition:
1. Award for Best International Short Film, €7,000 in prize money and a trophy.
2. Award for Best National Short Film, €4,000 in prize money and a trophy.
3. Audience Award for Best Short Film, €2,700 in prize money and a trophy. (* This award will be decided by the vote of the audience attending each of the sessions. The audience voting ballots will be accepted, as long as all the short films shown in each session are scored). In the case of streaming, the voting system will be specified on each platform, the number of views and the total votes of each work shall always be taken into account).
4. Cinema Writers’ Association of Andalusia (ASECAN) Award, for the best Andalusian short film (Spain), €2,300 in prize money and a trophy.
5. Journalists Association – Almeria Press Association (AP-APAL) Award for best Almería Short Film, €2,200 in prize money and a trophy. The jury for this award will be made up of professional journalists designated by AP-APAL and a member of the organization with voice, but without a vote.
6. Award for the best direction with €1,000 and a trophy.
7. Award for the best script with €1,000 and a trophy.
8. Cecilio Paniagua Award for best photography, with €1,000 and a trophy.
9. Gil Parrondo Award for the best artistic direction, with €1,000 and a trophy.
10. Award for the best female performance, with €1,000 and a trophy.
11. Award for the best male performance, with €1,000 and a trophy.
12. Special prize for human rights and values-Amnesty International, endowed with a trophy. This prize will be awarded by a jury appointed by Amnesty International.
The amount of these prizes includes VAT, where applicable, in accordance with the provisions of regulation 8. The awards may be accumulative.
The members of the Jury will be appointed by Resolution of the Presidency of the Provincial Council of (Diputación de) Almería, which will also appoint the chairperson of the Jury from among them.
The chairperson will decide any ties that may occur with his or her casting vote.
An official from the Almería Provincial Council, Culture, Film & Almería Identity Department, Legal and Administrative Service will act as secretary to the Jury.
The appointment of the Jury will be published on the notice board of the website of Almería Provincial Council (FICAL).
The Jury will act in plenary session and the attendance of at least two thirds of its members will be required. Its deliberations will be secret. The corresponding minutes will be drawn up of the decision taken, which will be signed by the chairperson and the secretary.
The jury may not declare these awards void, nor grant ex aequo prizes. It may, if it deems it appropriate, award special mentions.
The jury shall act in accordance with the provisions for collegiate bodies in the legislation in force.



8. BENEFICIARIES, METHOD OF PRIZE MONEY PAYMENT AND INVOICE
8.1 Beneficiaries of the prizes.
The prizes numbered 1 to 5 included in regulation 7 (juries and prizes) will be paid to the person or production company that appears on the registration form, in the section 'Awarding of prizes'.
The prizes numbered 6 to 11, as they involve artistic recognition of an individual person, will be paid to the corresponding natural person.
8.2 Form of payment and invoice, if applicable.
The prizes will be paid by bank transfer and upon presentation of an invoice, where applicable. The prizes will be subject to applicable tax regulations.
For the bank transfer, registration on the database of the Provincial Council is required: "Third parties - powers of attorney", where the winner will enter the: personal, representative and bank details required to proceed with the payment. The route for the procedure is as follows:
www.dipalme.org
Tramites online (online procedures)
Terceros – Apoderamiento (Third parties – Power of Attorney)
After registering on the database, an email will be sent to sjacultura@dipalme.org, indicating that the procedure has been completed and that the name of the winner and the category of the award will be recorded.
Registration on the database indicated in the previous paragraph is an essential requirement and must be carried out previously for the bank transfer to be carried out.
Applicants who win prizes and are resident in Spanish territory may find themselves in the following situations:
1) If their participation is carried out within the framework of a business or professional activity, they must issue the corresponding invoice, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 4.One, 5.One b) and 5.Two of Law 3//1992, of 28 December, on Value Added Tax (LIVA). The beneficiary shall issue the invoice in accordance with the provisions of Articles 6 and 7 of Royal Decree 1619/2012, of 30 November, which approves the regulations on invoicing obligations, and the VAT or the specific section of Article 20 of the LIVA on which the exemption is based must be stated.
2) In all other tax situations, the legally applicable withholding tax shall be levied by the Provincial Council.
In order to process the awarding of the prizes, the beneficiaries (in the event that they are registered as a businessperson or professional in an Economic Activity linked to the creation or production of the audiovisual work that is eligible for the prize) are required to present an electronic invoice for the amount of the corresponding prize, in the following terms:
- It must be submitted in accordance with article 4 of Law 25/2013, of 27 December, on the FACe platform: https://face.gob.es/es/, with "L02000004" as the unique code for the three FACe bodies.
- It must comply with the requirements of current legislation and must be issued to the Diputación Provincial de Almería, as the contracting administration, with the file reference "2023/D61000/850-400/00002" and the proposing body "D6110000".
The concept must clearly indicate the name of the prize awarded.
Successful applicants who are non-residents in Spanish territory, may find themselves in the following situations:
1) If their participation is carried out within the framework of a business or professional activity, they must issue the corresponding invoice, in accordance with the applicable tax regulations, so that the prize will be paid after deduction of the amount corresponding to the taxes levied on the prize.
2) In all remaining situations, the legally applicable withholding tax shall be levied by the Provincial Council.
In the case of non-residents, as they are unable to access the database of Third Parties - Powers of Attorney, they shall submit a request to the general registry of the Diputación de Almería, stating "FICAL 2024" and the category of the prize awarded. The application shall be accompanied by:
- General and bank details form, which may be obtained at www.festivaldealmeria.com .
- Certificate of tax residence signed and stamped by the competent tax authority of the country concerned.
- Identity document issued by the corresponding authority.
- And, where applicable, the corresponding invoice for the total amount of the prize.
The documentation is to be sent to the following address: Almería Provincial Council, Área de Cultura, Cine e Identidad Almeriense, Pz. Julio Alfredo Egea, 3, 04001 Almería.
The deadline for receipt of documentation, both for Spanish and non-Spanish winners, ends on December 10th, 2024. Should this not have been received on or prior to the established deadline, receipt of the prize money will be understood to have been waived.

9. DELIVERY AND RETURN OF FILMS
Delivery/Postage costs of copies are payable by the participants.
Submitted film copies, will not be returned, and will become part of the Festival Archive. They will be available for authorized persons to watch during the Festival.



10. AUTHORISATION OF USE
The copies exhibited that win: The Award for Best International Short Film, The Award for Best National Short Film, The Audience Award for Best Short Film, the ASECAN award for Best Andalusian Short Film and the AP-APAL award for Best Short Film from Almería will become the property of the video library of the Provincial Council of Almería, which will have the right to use said short films, for cultural and non-profit purposes, for exhibition in the province of Almería and the promotion of the Almería International Film Festival. For the payment of the aforementioned prizes, a document of authorization of use is required. Therefore, the registration form includes the "Authorization of Use", which must be completed at the time of application, and which the Diputación de Almería (Almería Provincial Council) will use exclusively with the films that receive the aforementioned awards.
11. AWARD GRANTING RESOLUTION
The jury award granting proposal will be subject to legal authority of Provincial Council for agreement to be adopted.
The resolution will end administrative proceedings and it may be appealed by Contested Administrative Jurisdiction within two months and, optionally in advance, through administrative proceedings, by appeal for reversal in accordance with the provisions of Law 39/2015, Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations.
Granting agreement shall be notified to award winners by publication in the BOP Almería (Almería Province Official Gazette) and on the Notice Board (Tablón de Anuncios) in the Transparency Section on the Provincial Council website.

Award winners may reject the awarded prize within three working days by sending a written waiver. It will be understood to have been accepted if no waiver is received.
12. CONSENT AND PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA
Participants in this contest agree that their personal data contained in their request for participation, are treated under the responsibility of DIPUTACIÓN DE ALMERÍA (ALMERIA PROVINCIAL COUNCIL) in order to manage CALLS FOR prizes AND COMPETITIONS ORGANISED BY THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF ALMERIA, based on the legitimacy of CONSENT. Further information regarding personal data protection is available via this link (by pressing CTRL+Click) alternatively you may request a hard copy in person from the information office responsible for processing your documentation.
You may exercise the rights of access, rectification, deletion, opposition, limitation and portability by proving your identity, as indicated in the information on the link.
Your refusal to supply them will determine the impossibility of participating in the contest.

13. ACCEPTANCE OF THE RULES / TERMS
Participation in the 23rd Almería International Film Festival implies the acceptance of all the sections of these rules and terms, as well as the resolution by the organization of any problem not included in them.