The Festival will give out cash awards worth €214,000, the highest figure in its history, including new categories like the FUNDOS award, the inclusion of medium-length films in Time of History and a new designation for one of its consolidated sections, now renamed as Film, Wine & Gastronomy
March 19, 2021.- Registration is now open for feature-length and short films willing to take part in the 66th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival, which will run from 23 to 30 October this year. The regulations for the 2021 edition of Valladolid’s “Film Week” are available HERE, while registrations must be processed through the Eventival platform. The registration deadline will remain open until 5 July, 2021.
To be eligible for competition in the Official, Meeting Point, Time of History and DOC.España sections, submitted titles must meet several requirements. They must have been produced in 2021 or in the last quarter of 2020, and they should not have been released in Spain whether theatrically, or on television or in DVD/video formats. They will be likewise excluded from participation if they have been distributed on the Web free of charge for Spain-based audiences.
Similarly, Seminci will not consider film entries that have previously participated in any other Spanish festival, both in and out of competition, or those having screened in any other event held in Spain, whether special or regular.
The Festival will be giving out €214,000 in cash prizes, the highest figure in its history, to be shared out among the several competitive sections of the 66th edition of Seminci: one that will include a number of new features by comparison with previous editions.
New at the 66th edition
The festival will present, in collaboration with the Fundación Obra Social de Castilla y León, the Fundos Award: a distinction to be granted to the director of the film in any of Seminci’s sections which best reflects an example of a social action initiative. The award’s cash endowment is This award’s cash endowment is € 6,000.
Starting in this year’s edition, on the other hand, Time of History, the festival’s competitive section for documentary features and shorts, will incorporate medium-length films in its programme grid. Titles with running times between 30 and 60 minutes will compete, together with short films, for a cash prize of €3,000. In addition, an audience award will be handed out for the first time in this festival section, which is organised in collaboration with the regional daily El Norte de Castilla.
Another fresh development consists in that the non-competitive section Film&Wine, organised in partnership with the Valladolid City Council, the Provincial Council, the Ribera del Duero, Cigales and Rueda DOs and the long-serving newspaper El Norte de Castilla, will be renamed Film, Wine & Gastronomy in order to expand its range of contents and screen film titles that bring together the world of cinema and, from this edition onwards, that of wine and also gastronomy.
Cash awards worth €214,000
The Official Section, which offers an overview of world cinema today, will be awarding nine prizes to feature films, including the corresponding cash endowments for the Golden and Silver Spikes (€75,000 and €25,000, respectively, for the Spanish film distributors of the winning films), the Pilar Miró award for Best New Director (€10,000 for a director competing with a first or second feature film) and the Ribera del Duero award for Best Director (€6,000).
The international jury will also grant three prizes to short films, all of them with a financial endowment: the Golden and Silver Spikes (respectively €6,000 and €3,000, and the award for Best European Short Film, including a cash prize of €2,000.
Meeting Point, the competitive parallel section that brings together first or second fiction films that have a special relevance for their thematic or stylistic value, will award a €20,000 prize for the best feature film and some other two for an amount of €3,000 each to the best foreign short film and the best film screened as part of the Spanish Short Film Night special programme which will go to the directors of the winning titles.
The Festival’s competitive documentary section Time of History, in turn, will award three prizes, all including financial rewards for the directors of the winning films: a first prize (€25,000), a second prize (€15,000) and an additional prize for the best short or medium-length film (€3,000).
DOC. Spain, dedicated exclusively to Spanish documentary cinema, and Seminci Joven (Young Seminci), a section for young audiences between ages 12 and 18, will award a prize of €6,000 each to the directors of the respective winning titles.
To the above cash prizes, and starting in this year’s edition, we should add the new FUNDOS award, endowed with €6,000, which will go to the director of the film in any of the festival sections that best reflects examples of social action initiatives.
Other awards
The rest of the competitive sections, this time without cash awards, are Castilla y León en Corto (“Castile and León in Short”), which showcases short films either directed by filmmakers born or based in the region or shot or produced in the latter, and Climate Change, a selection of titles that are particularly sensitive to the need to protect the planet and to environmental values competing for the Green Spike.
Aditionally, the Valladolid Festival has several other non-endowed prizes such as the audience awards for the Official, Meeting Point and Time of History sections, organised in collaboration with El Norte de Castilla; the Rainbow Spike, which distinguishes the film from any section that shows the deepest awareness of issues around the LGTBI collective; and the FIPRESCI award, which provides recognition from specialized critics to the most valued film in the Official Section.
The 66th edition’s programme grid will be complete with the non-competitive sections Castilla y León en Largo, screening feature-length fiction and documentary films by directors born or based in the region or shot/produced in this part of Spain; Film, Wine and Gastronomy, a roundup of films that bring together both worlds; Miniminci, a selection of movies for kids aged 7-12; and the thematic retrospectives, one of which will be devoted to Argentinian cinema.
