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Malaga Film Festival Readies Spanish Screenings for November

Returning for its fourth year, although necessarily postponed from its traditional March dates by the COVID-19 pandemic, Malaga Film Festival’s Spanish Screenings will take place Nov. 17-20 in an entirely online format.

Last week Mafiz, the industry section within the Malaga Festival’s framework, launched an open call for accreditation and Spanish productions interested in participating in the country’s premiere, and according to Malaga its only, format dedicated to promoting exclusively Spanish cinema internationally.

When March’s festival was pulled at the very last moment – Spain began locking down major cities on Friday March 13, the very day the festival was meant to kick off – rather than canceling, Malaga postponed the festival. Eventually, a hybrid in-person-online version was held the final week of August, one of the first such events to do so globally. The Spanish screenings going digital will be a return to form for Mafiz, as the Malaga Works in Progress and Malaga Festival Fund & Co-production Event were both held entirely online.

“The objective is to maintain the Malaga Festival Industry area as an ideal space for the meeting of the audiovisual industries in Spanish,” explains Malaga Festival director Juan Antonio Vigar, “and to do so through an event adapted to the circumstances where, due to the complexity of international travel, the face-to-face event is replaced using virtual communication, platforms and online work processes that allow us to continue to advance in our objective : the promotion, dissemination and international sales of Spanish cinema.”

Over four days, Mafiz will host, via its Veo Spanish Screenings Platform, a marketplace where international buyers, sales agents, festival programmers and producers will be exposed to the latest Spanish feature films at various stages of development and production.

Film content available to accredited badgeholders is broken down into six categories: Previews 2020, for Spanish films in production as of Q2 2020; Neo Screenings, dedicated to the most experimental and innovative films on the market; Next from Spain, a selection of trailers for finished, upcoming releases; Spanish Film Library Room, a collection of films and series produced in Q4 2019; Spanish WIP for films currently in post-production; and Malaga Film Festival Winners, featuring fictions, documentaries and short films which won at August’s in-person festival.

Attendees will also be granted access to Mafiz’s Industry Club, where background on all participating films and projects will be available including contact info, a list of participating buyers, company catalogs and other relevant information.

Mafiz’s Spanish Screenings are backed by the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), ICEX Spain Export and Investment, the Society of Services for Audiovisual Producers (EGEDA) and the regional government of Andalusia.

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