ZINEBI – International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, will be presenting a selection of Basque short films produced over the last ten years at the 69th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (Germany). The cycle, which was drawn up by ZINEBI at the request of the German festival, came about thanks to the excellent relations between both festivals, and is entitled “Focus Basque Country: Heterogeneous Landscapes”.

ZINEBI’s presentation of the programme for Germany was assisted by Etxepare Euskal Institutua, Kimuak and Basque Audiovisual (Zineuskadi – Basque Government), and will be in three sessions composed of 18 short films – documentaries, fiction, animation and experimental films produced in the Basque Country between 2014 and 2021. Some of them won prizes at ZINEBI:

  • Amore d’inverno (Isabel Herguera, 2015) [prize at the 57th ZINEBI festival]
  • Ancora lucciole (Maria Elorza, 2018) [prize at the 60th ZINEBI festival]
  • Areka (Atxur Animazio Taldea, 2017) [prize at the 59th ZINEBI festival]
  • Ehiza (Hauazkena Animazio Taldea, 2020)
  • Gaur. Berriz (Aitor Gametxo, 2020) [prize at the 62nd ZINEBI festival]
  • Ikusleak / Los que ven (Jesús María Palacios, 2018)
  • In ictu oculi (Begiak hesteko artean) (Jorge Moneo Quintana, 2020)
  • Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi, 2021)
  • It Is All Right Here (Teresa Sendagorta, 2018)
  • Love Needs Time to Kill (Txuspo Poyo, 2021)
  • Lursaguak (Izibene Oñederra, 2019)
  • Luz a la deriva (Iñigo Salaberria, 2015)
  • Montes Bocineros (Juan Pablo Ordúñez, MawatreS, 2014)
  • No hay nada más moderno que envejecer (Sra. Polaroiska, 2018)
  • Plágan (Koldo Almandoz, 2017)
  • Soroa (Asier Altuna, 2014)
  • Variaciones de Winterreise (Inés García, 2018)
  • 592 metroz goiti (Maddi Barber, 2018)

Along with the director of ZINEBI, some directors will be presenting the sessions directly in situ at the Rhineland city’s Kino Gloria.

 

THE LONGEST-STANDING SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

From Martin Scorsese to Chris Marker or Krzysztof Kieslowski, and also  Agnès Varda, Lindsay Anderson, Chantal Akerman and George Lucas (who took a prize in 1968 for THX 1138 4 EB), thousands of directors have presented their films over seven decades at the world’s oldest short film festival.

Founded in 1954, its programme has always been a benchmark for all the specialist events that emerged afterwards. Among which ZINEBI, which was founded in 1959 and which, like Oberhausen (and the Krakow Festival in Poland, and the Tampere Festival in Finland), is certified each year by the FIAPF Federation as one of the world’s Class A festivals in the short film and documentary category.

The Cradle of New German Cinema, it was this festival which, in 1962, led to the signature of the so-called “Oberhausen Manifesto” by up-and-coming directors such as Alexander Kluge and Edgar Reitz, declaring their rejection of the conventionalism of the film industry in their country. This manifesto brought to the fore young filmmakers who blazed a trail with an innovative vision of German cinema in the 60s and 70s: among others, Werner Herzog, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer W. Fassbinder and Wim Wenders, who, in fact, grew up in Oberhausen.