Punto de Vista ends an edition marked by rich programme featuring more than 20 countries, in which Navarre plays an important part

03/21/2024

Last week Punto de Vista, the international documentary film festival of Navarre, held its eighteenth edition in Pamplona, the third with Manuel Asín as artistic director. Over six days the city was a meeting place for film buffs, industry professionals and film students, who were able to enjoy the latest trends in the genre, as well as discovering the work of both established and emerging directors. Thus, the different activities in the Punto de Vista programme attracted 7,000 viewers to the different festival venues. This audience is up on the previous edition, in a year marked by diverse, open and attractive film.

The film-makers showing their work in Pamplona include names from all over the world. The films of Su Friedrich, Joël Akafou, Néstor Basterretxea, Jerome Hiler, Fernando Martín Peña and Rosa Maria Antuña made up sections including Focos, Contactos and Lan, at the same time rubbing shoulders with the titles in the Official Selection by directors including Kumjana Novakova, Mariano Llinás, Anand Patwardhan, Yaela Gottlieb, Dominique Marchais and Maya Abdul-Malak, among others. They were joined by directors like Anna López Luna and Celia Viada Caso in the X Films section, Gala Hernández in the Mediation Programme and figures from closer to home in Termitas, including names like Elena Duque, Pere Alberó, Hugo Amoedo, Diana Castro Sánchez and Patxi Burillo. The themes running through both the Official Selection and the festival programme as a whole included the first person, family and historical memory, gender and identity issues, migration policy, the climate and environmental emergency and the diversity of humans and other species.

On Thursday 25th April, Filmoteca de Navarra will be offering another chance to see two of the winning films from the Official Selection on the big screen: Silence of reason by Kumjana Novakova (grand prize for best film and youth prize for best film) and Ôte toi de mon soleil by Messaline Raverdy (Jean Vigo prize for best director). Also, the focus on Su Friedrich, "Lazos que unen", is touring all over Spain after its time at the festival, visiting cities including Madrid (Cineteca), Barcelona Filmoteca de Catalunya), A Coruña (Filmoteca de Galicia) and Valencia (IVAC La Filmoteca).

Some key facts and figures that have marked the course of this year's festival are outlined below. The organisers now announce that the nineteenth edition will take place in Pamplona from 24th February to 1st March 2025.

 

Key  figures  at  Punto  de  Vista  2024

• The festival brought together more than 7,000 people at the screenings and other activities organised.

• This year a total of 431 passes were issued, to people including professionals (208 people, 48%), students (146 people, 34%), press (44 people, 10%, youth jury (21 people selected from the 121 who initially applied, 5%) and Young Programmers (12 people, 3%).

• During the festival around 80 films were shown and up to 65 sessions were organised, including screenings and other activities.

• The prizes awarded by the international jury and the youth jury went to three women and three men film makers. The grand prize for best film went to Silence of Reason by Kumjana Novakova, which also took the youth prize for best film. Messaline Raverdy carried off the Jean Vigo prize for best director for Ôte-toi de mon soleil. while Julieta Seco earned a special jury commendation in this category for Corazón embalsamado. The prize for best short film went to Avalancha by Daniel Cortés, the special audience prize for best film went to El Canto de los Años Nuevos by Alexander Cabeza Trigg, and finally Dominique Marchais earned a special jury commendation in the best film category for La rivière.

• The festival concentrated most of its activities at six venues: Baluarte, Cines Golem, Museo Oteiza, Civivox Condestable, Civivox Mendillorri and Filmoteca de Navarra. Alongside them, parallel activities were organised at venues like Katakrak, Txintxarri and the Hotel 3 Reyes.

• For the third year running the Red Balloon play scheme was run, in an effort to make the festival family-friendly for audiences, pass holders and the festival staff. This was available for children from 6 months to 12 years old over several days.

• The full Punto de Vista programme featured films from more than 20 countries around the world, including France, Japan, the Ivory Coast, India, Colombia, Canada, Peru, Latvia, Spain, Cuba, Denmark, South Korea, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy and Turkey.

• This year for the first time four tracks were designed, based on issues that cut across the festival programme, including memory, individualism, queer bodies and the environmental emergency, under the titled First Person, Gender(s), Sick Planet and Come Along to Punto de Vista.

• The festival organised its musical side in nine performances at the Punto de Vista Nights at Txintxarri (DJ Rizos, Mon Dvy, Señora, DJ Moderno and Brecha), the Tres en la Carretera programme on Radio 3 (Peru Galbete and Lilo), and the festival closing event, which ended with a singing and guitar concert by the artist from Seville María Marín.