36th Algarve International Film Festival
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
12 / 17 May
Algarve
PORTUGAL
A SUMMARY OF FICA 2008
Yet another year, and the new edition of FICA2008 brought new challenges that the festival team cheerfully resolved with great enthusiasm, expertise and dedication.
We are once again travelling from one end of the Algarve region to the other, giving wings to our vision of decentralising a film festival that has firmly established itself over the years, with numerous initiatives and well-wishers scattered throughout the world. The 2008 Festival will especially focus on the theme that has been chosen for the short-films competitive section “Cinema and Globalisation in the World”.
The world is sick, conflicts increase with each passing day. Life is replete with selfishness and violence, culture shocks, precariousness, discomfort, a lack of love, insensitivity, sacrifice, a crisis of values, domestic violence, an absence of security, and a lack of protection for the elderly and the sick. Cinema faithfully portrays all of this.
As a responsible and serious festival, we could not simply stand aside and remain indifferent to these kinds of concerns, which filmmakers from all over the world show us every day. This is what we have tried to achieve in this edition of the festival, which has grown, been modernised and moved to new theatres, but still continues to highlight social issues, providing a screen and a projection room for those who filmed and made these issues their own…issues that concern all of us.
The Festival’s competitive component
The most important action and the one that creates a bigger impact is, undoubtedly, the SHORT FILM COMPETITION already in its 36th edition, an initiative that polarises all attentions and that usually brings to Portugal and the Algarve a great number of interested people.
The scheduled programmes to the competitive presentation of the films that will integrate the "2008 Official Selection" concerning short films, will be presented in PORTIMÃO, in sessions daily beginning at 9:30 pm (10/18 May).
All these films will be presented with digital subtitles in Portuguese and some of them will even be subtitled also in English or French.
PORTIMÃO is the main projection centre of the FICA/2008, and is a modern room fully equipped with the most recent technology - Dolby digital, DTS, DIGITAL SDDS, DIGITAL DOLBY.
The FICA accepts films of professional or independent directors, ONLY/35 mm.
There are only two categories: Fiction and Animation.
To the best film of all, in each FICA edition, is attributed the "City of Portimão Grand Prize".
At the Algarve International Film Festival, the trophy that distinguishes the wining film of a category (animation & fiction) in competition is an original statue.
The winner of "City of Portimão Grand Prize", also receives an original golden statue along with another money prize.
There are also special prizes which intend to distinguish the "Best Film of Portuguese Director", "Best film about nature and environment", "Best film with a message of love and peace amongst men" and, finally, "Best film about the Algarve".
All together, the value of all the attributed prizes, goes over 20.000 Euros, about 25.000 US Dollars.
The FICA/2008 "City of Portimão Grand Prize" will conquer the some of 2.500 Euros.
