Carolina Astudillo, Xacio Baño and Velasco Broca, guest filmmakers at the sixth edition of the X Films Project

Carretera de una sola dirección (
One Way Road), by Xiana Gómez-Díaz.

For its sixth edition, the X Films Project has selected three young figures who represent the best of the most alternative, worthy and groundbreaking films that are currently being developed on the non-fiction film scene in Spain.  This year, Carolina Astudillo, Xacio Baño and Velasco Broca have been chosen to make themselves known during the festival, presenting a filmed essay project based in Navarra, which is the aim behind X Films, following the trail of the production company created by the businessman and sponsor, Juan Huarte with a similar purpose: to fund and support film adventures whose starting point is an X, standing for uncertainty. Furthermore, the festival will host the world premiere of the 2015 selected project, Carretera de una sola dirección (
One Way Road), by Xiana Gómez-Díaz, in which she makes a personal reinterpretation of a route hidden by society, that of the roadside brothels in Navarra.

The selection committee of the sixth edition of the X Films Project will be made up of the filmmaker, Mercedes Álvarez, the film programmer and curator, Marie Pierre Duhamel, and the theatre director, Alfredo Sanzol. During the festival, they will be responsible for analysing and judging the works proposed by the filmmakers, who will present samples of their previous work in a session open to the public and will defend these new diary proposals filmed in Navarra at another session. 

Carolina Astudillo (Santiago de Chile, 1975) is a journalist and director based in Barcelona. Holding a Diploma in Film Studies from the Catholic University of Chile and a Master’s Degree in Creative Documentary from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Carolina has developed her work on historical research, documentary creation and writing, using women and historical memory as a reference.  In the academic field, she gives documentary, film theory and found footage courses and seminars at Santiago de Chile University, British Chilean University of Culture, La Casa del Cine and the Barcelona Film School. Her documentaries, Of Monsters and Skirts (2008), The Unspeakable (2012) and The Civilization Desire: Notes for the Great Flight (2014) have won awards and been screened at national and international festivals. Her debut, The Great Flight (2014), has been screened at diverse festivals and exhibitions and has won many awards, such as the Silver Biznaga for the Best Documentary Film at the Malaga Festival. She is currently working on the post-production of the full-length film, The Nerv, and the development of the script for Artemisia.

Xacio Baño (Xove, Lugo, 1983) studied Filmmaking at Leon University, specialising in Editing. Following an initial period in which he made the short films, Stereoscopy and Pieces, fiction films which are close to experimental, he got into the non-fiction world with Between the Lightning and the Thunder. In 2014, he premiered To be and to Come Back at Locarno, attended many festivals, such as Mar de Plata and won the Canal+ Award; special mention from the Clermont-Ferrand Jury; the Public Award and special mention from the jury at L’Alternativa; the ASECAN Award; and special mention from the jury at Alcances. In 2015, he has returned to Locarno for the second year in a row, premiering Eco, which was also selected for the Seville, Valdivia and Zinebi Festivals, where it took away the Award for the Best National Work. He is currently working on two full-length films: Trote, for which he has received an artistic residence grant in Tabakalera (Donostia); and Ana and the Future, which is in the funding process. 

Velasco Broca  (Amurrio, Álava, 1978) is a graduate in Audiovisual Communication from the UCM. His trilogy of 16mm short films, Echos der Buchrücken (2001-2007) has won over 20 awards and has been screened at international festivals such as Cannes, Sitges, Torino, Stockholm, Worldwide and Belo Horizonte. Avant Pétalos Grillados (2007), which won the Grand Jury Award for the Best Experimental Short Film at Slamdance, a nomination for the Gold Méliès Award and selection for the Cannes Filmmakers Fortnight is particularly noteworthy. Cameo Media has released his complete works until 2008 on DVD, which includes digital writings, sound compositions and video-diaries. The short film, La costra láctea (2003) also forms part of the FROM ECSTASY TO RAPTURE: 50 years of alternative Spanish film anthology, sponsored by the CCCB. In 2010, he supervised the editing of Val del Omar: Elementary Tryptych of Spain (Cameo Media- Reina Sofía Museum, 2011). In the same year, he co-produced and edited True Love (2010), Ion de Sosa’s first full-length film. He also edited Crumbs (2014), Miguel Llansó’s debut. After his five-year retreat to India, he has returned to 16mm with Our Friend, the Moon and has created the Regional Gods series alongside Canódromo Abandonado.

Mercedes Álvarez  shot her first full-length film, The Sky Turns (2005), in her home town of Aldealseñor (Soria), for which she has won various international awards, such as the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Festival; First Prize at the Cinéma Du Réel in Paris; or the Fipresci from the International Critics at BAFICI as well as the Jury Prize, the Public Prize and Best Film Award at the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival. In Spain, she has won the Best New Film and the Best Editing Awards from the Circle of Film Writers; Best New Director and Best Documentary Director from the Assembly of Spanish Film Directors (ADIRCE); and the Radio Nacional de España Film Critics Ojo Award. The film has been distributed in France, Portugal, Holland, Latin America and the USA and has been screened in over 30 countries. Her second full-length film, Futures Market (2011), won the Miradas Nuevas Award at the Vissions du Reel Festival (Nyon, Switzerland); Special Mention by the Jury at the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival; Best Documentary at the Nantes Festival; and the Luis Buñuel Gold Navaja from TVE. In 2013, she was chosen along with the French artist, Francesç Torres, to participate in the Venice Biennial, in the Catalonia Pavilion.

Marie-Pierre Duhamel is a graduate in Chinese and Film Studies from universities in Paris, and having spent years devoted to the selection and distribution of documentaries on the French non-commercial cultural network, she worked as a production director for La Sept / Arte, before joining Pathé as a producer. As an independent curator, she was the programmer at the Locarno Film Festival and she was also a member of the selection committee at the Venice IFF Film Festival (2005-2014). She directed the Cinéma du Réel Festival between 2004 and 2008, where she curated competitive sections, as well as retrospectives (Spanish non-fiction, Omar Amiralay, Alexander Kluge, Romuald Karmakar, Lav Diaz and Jim McBride, among others). She is currently working as a curator in retrospectives, themed workshops and tributes (Night has Many Eyes, in 2014; Tribute to Amit Dutta, in 2015) and writes for various film publications in France and abroad, whilst continuing to work as a film translator and subtitler for documentary and fiction films.  She is also a lecturer at several film and art schools in France and in other countries, including the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Marie-Pierre Duhamel is a member of the film art and books committee at the French National Arts Centre.

Alfredo Sanzol (Madrid-Pamplona 1972) is a playwright and theatre director. His plays are characterised by the use of humour to raise the problems of his personal and social biography. His best known works include Yes, but I am not (2008), Laughter and Destruction (2007), Wonderful Days (2010), Delicate Women (2010), On the Moon (2011), Adventure (2012) and The Magic Calm (2014). He has directed and adapted classics, such as Oedipus the King (2015) by Sophocles, Waiting for Godot (2013) by Samuel Beckett, The Importance of Being Earnest (2012) by Oscar Wilde or The Head of the Baptist (2009) by Valle Inclán. He has premiered at the National Drama Centre, Abadía Theatre, La Sala Cuarta Pared, the Grec Festival, Gayarre Theatre and Lliure Theatre. In 2014, he created the Theatre of the City along with Miguel del Arco and Andrés Lima.

Xiana Gómez-Díaz is a filmmaker and visual artist. Co-founder of the Walkie Talkie Films production company (2008), she is specialised in documentary film and experimental video. In her work and studies, she has explored the intimate tale, identity construction, gender roles and non-verbal communication, as well as formal questions on the image/music relationship. She is a Doctor in Audiovisual Communication (UAB), Graduate in Audiovisual Communication (UAB) and Journalism (Southampton S.U.). She is also a musical creator and producer (Ta!, The Adaptation Dance). Her work has been presented at encounters, art exhibitions, film festivals and on public television.  In 2014, she started Project D, transmedia research+production from which the Bedroom Culture: Tales of Female Adolescence (BCN Producció '15) exhibition arose. Based on the same research, she is currently completing her first full-length film.