Official section jury
Lucía Salas
Lucía Salas is an Argentine film critic, programmer, editor and filmmaker based in Donostia, whose work negotiated between cinema of the past and the present. She studied Image and Sound Design at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Aesthetics and Politics at the California Institute of the Arts and is currently a PhD candidate in Communication–CINEMA at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
Her activities speak of her wide range of interests: Salas is co-editor of the magazine La vida útil and one of the hosts of the podcast We Can’t Go Home Again, a programmer at Woche der Kritik, a lecturer at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola and a contributor to Con Los Ojos Abiertos and Jugend ohne Film.
As part of the LaSiberia Cine collective, she co-directed the films Implantación (2016), Los exploradores (2016), and Implantación (2011). She also edited the books Una luz revelada. El cine experimental argentino, by experimental filmmaker and writer Pablo Marín (La vida útil, 2022) and Se acercan otros tiempos. El cine de Peter Nestler (Caniche Editorial/Punto de Vista, 2023), together with Ricardo Matos Cabo.
Violeta Kovacsics
A film critic and PhD in Communication, Violeta Kovacsics is a professor of Aesthetic Currents at Rovira i Virgili University. She has taught Film and Literature at Pompeu Fabra University and Film History at ESCAC.
She coordinated the book Very Funny Things. Nueva Comedia Americana (San Sebastián Festival) and has also penned Jacques Rivette (Cátedra) and 50 maneras de morir: cine negro y poética de la fatalidad (UOC Press).
She writes reviews for publications such as Caimán – Cuadernos de Cine, Diari de Tarragona and the website OtrosCines, and is a regular contributor to the La finestra indiscreta radio programme on Catalunya Ràdio.
She is a member of the programming committee of the D’A – Barcelona Film Festival and is a former head of publications for the Sitges Film Festival, as well as a member of its selection committee. She is also a programming advisor for the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, and served as president of the Catalan Association of Film Critics and Writers, as well as a delegate for FIPRESCI. Violeta Kovacsics was the first woman to preside over the Catalan Association of Film Writers (ACCEC).
Antonio Martín Medina
Antonio Martín Medina has lived in Arrecife (Lanzarote) since childhood. With a BA in Hispanic Philology he currently teaches Spanish Language and Literature in secondary schools. He is also pursuing a doctoral thesis on the relationship between autofiction and lyric theory.
He has collaborated in the Cinema and Thought section at the Las Palmas Film Festival, taking part in a roundtable on Escribir lugar, a film essay by José Manuel Mouriño on José Ángel Valente, and Itinéraire de Jean Bricard by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet.
Martín Medina has also coordinated the Poetic Readings Series at MIAC (Lanzarote Museum of Contemporary Art) and has contributed to the magazines Al margen and Calibán. In addition, he has taken part in literary events such as La Laguna de Poesía and the 3rd Congress of Canarian Poetry.
His poetry collection De la incomodidad was recently published by Mercurio Press as part of its Faro de La Puntilla series. He is also featured in the anthology Poesia espanhola, anos 90, edited by the Portuguese poet and critic Joaquim Manuel Magalhaes.
Description
Film festivals have to deal with many different challenges, ranging from the promotion of the local film industry to serving as a platform that gives a voice to the industry’s ventures elsewhere, fostering a rich and relevant intercultural conversation. In addition, there are other goals that are no less important, such as giving audience access to lesser-known cinema, which is arguably one of our most significant cultural missions, achieved thanks to the alternatives offered in innovative programmes that focus on unexplored themes, emerging genres or the work of filmmakers at the beginning of their careers. Promoting the value of cinema, screening films and providing meeting places between audiences and professionals are also core concerns for those who dedicate their time, effort and sacrifice to organizing this kind of project.
Moreover, in certain contexts, these film events also include a competitive section that attracts a lot of media attention, and the interviews, reviews and programmes generated by the press prove an essential element in publicizing our events and programming. These competitions bring together a wide range of values and perspectives and attract both seasoned filmmakers and emerging directors presenting their debut projects.
Deciding who will receive the award, which film is deemed “the best,” who will obtain the monetary prize that accompanies the distinction, is the difficult task of the jury, whose members not only have to make their individual judgments but also reach a collective agreement.
Each year, the Muestra de Cine de Lanzarote carefully selects a small number of individuals who will analyse the films in competition, on the basis of the prestige of their judgment, their experience in the world of cinema and criticism, or their track record in any field of the audiovisual and cultural industries. A unique feature of this film festival is that, besides the demanding task of viewing and evaluating all the films, the final consensus is reached in a public debate. No other festival invites the public to listen to the reasoning and arguments of the jurors behind each year’s awards. As those who have attended previous editions can attest, it is a rigorous and rewarding intellectual experience.
It is well worth attending this open forum, in which the audience is given an opportunity to participate at a specific moment during the deliberations.
Description
La Muestra de Cine de Lanzarote is a project organized by the Tenique Cultural Association, a non-profit organization whose main objectives are to promote, exhibit and debate independent cinema.
Awards
Granting an award is always an important decision. Prizes and awards implicitly recognise a proposal, work or contribution in culture, science, sports or other fields. But distinctions also inevitably imply the establishment of a hierarchy of sorts in which the views of a group of people—the jury—decide that a specific contribution stands out amongst the others in terms of value or interest. Prizes usually involve at least two additions: a financial reward (occasionally) and the prestige of winning (always).
With that in mind, and considering the frequent objections, criticism or doubts produced by the deliberations of juries behind closed doors, five years ago the Muestra de Cine de Lanzarote decided to change its method of deciding on the winner of the Official Section prize. A specific methodology was established in 2018 to make it possible for the jury to deliberate openly and in front of an audience in a film theatre. Hence, anyone interested can attend and witness the reflections of the jurors. Only individuals directly connected to the productions of films competing in the festival are excluded from participating in the deliberation.
These last five years have seen a series of gripping debates backed up by coherent and well-thought-out arguments. Each year, jurors have had to face different situations. Sometimes the criteria have led to quick consensus; other times, reaching a decision proved far from easy. But in all cases, the experience of the juries openly debating in public has been extraordinary, both for their members and for the audience listening to their opinions. Each public deliberation has been a display of profound respect for reflections about cinema, the expression and defence of ideas and, ultimately, of the implications in awarding a particular film.