ZINEBI – International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, organised by Bilbao Town Hall, has presented the seven short films competing in the Official Section – International Short Film Competition at the 65th Festival from 10 to 17 November, to be screened at the Arriaga Theatre after ZINEBI’s tribute to the first of the winners of this edition’s Mikeldi of Honour Award.

Bilbao film critic and journalist Félix Linares will be collecting the Festival’s honorary award at the opening ceremony, again led by María Goiricelaya and Ane Pikaza (La Dramática Errante), with music by Zabala (formerly of We Are Standard).

The opening ceremony will be followed by screenings of the Basque short films contending in the Official Section – International Short Film Competition:

1. Agrio | Fiction
David Pérez Sañudo – Basque Country – 18’ – 2023
The Bilbao filmmaker who won a Goya award for his feature film Ane (2020) continues his prolific and successful career as a director of short films, accompanied once more by actresses Patricia López Arnaiz and Itziar Ituño, playing two sisters: one lives elsewhere, and the other is accused of selling a meringue in poor condition. State premiere.

2. Betiko gaua | Fiction
Eneko Sagardoy – Basque Country – 18’ – 2023
ZINEBI is the venue for the world premiere of the directing debut of the Vizcaya actor who took the Goya Award for best revelation actor in 2018, Eneko Sagardoy, currently shooting the series Those about to Die with directors Roland Emmerich and Marco Kreuzpaintner. For his first short film as director (co-produced by Sumendi, Galapan and Ikusgarri, with photography by Artur Pol Camprubí and music by Aránzazu Calleja and Maite Arroitajauregi), he chose Miren Gaztañaga and Elena Irureta for a story in which one of the woman recognises the other and decides to pursue her along the road. World premiere in association with the FICX Gijón/Xixón International Film Festival.

3.In a Nearby Field | Documentary
Laida Lertxundi & Ren Ebel – Basque Country – 18’ – 2023
The Vizcaya artist and teacher, winner of the 2020 Gure Artea award, is back in ZINEBI’s Official Section after showing her work at New York’s MoMa, the Reina Sofía Art Centre National Museum, and the Rotterdam and San Sebastián film festivals. Laida Lertxundi and US writer and artist Ren Ebel co-direct this collage of the daily routines, work and improvisations needed to provide for a family, a home and the making of a film. State premiere in association with the FICX Gijón/Xixón International Film Festival.

4.Memories of an Empty House (Memórias de uma casa vazia) | Fiction
Bruno Carnide – Portugal / Basque Country – 11’ – 2023
On this occasion, polyfacetic Portuguese filmmaker Bruno Carnide, nominated twice for the Portuguese Film Academy’s Sophia Awards, moves into an epistolary piece of fiction based on a story by Cátia Biscaia, shot in analogue and digital format in the Iberian Peninsula and the United States. Following its world premiere at the International Tirana Festival (Albania), ZINEBI is screening the State premiere.

5.La mujer ilustrada | Animation
Isabel Herguera – Basque Country – 8’ – 2023
One of the Basque Country’s most respected animators, and a State pioneer of independent animation, following the premiere of her eagerly awaited El sueño de la sultana at the last San Sebastián Festival, she is back at ZINEBI (where she took the Basque Cinema Grand Prix in 2005 and 2015) to premiere her latest short film, La mujer ilustrada, in which Herguera uses an animation workshop in India to outline the desires of people whom no one usually asks. State premiere.

6.Todo lo cubre la sal | Documentary
Joana Moya – Basque Country – 16’ – 2023
Bilbao director Joana Moya will be submitting her debut at ZINEBI, a short film presented by way of an essential first step to implement a cinematographic language which serves her interests. Moya, who studied geology and contemporary dance in the Basque Country and Granada, is now making her first feature film, with the provisional title La Koreana, a visual essay combining family memories and the geological and geo-mining history of the village of La Arboleda / Zugaztieta (Trapagaran, Bizkaia). In Todo lo cubre la sal, Moya presents an introduction to a very personal audiovisual style, homing in on net-makers who still pursue the traditional craft of these women in Euskadi. State premiere.

7.Ximinoa | Fiction
Itziar Leemans – Basque Country / France – 25’ – 2023
Lapurdi director Itziar Leemans, who has already presented the documentary feature film Boca Ciega (2020) at ZINEBI, immerses herself in fiction with this short film set in Donibane Lohizune, Ziburu and Azkain. Leemans, who is now writing her first fiction feature film, Agurra, brings Bilbao this short film co-produced by Gastibeltza and Al Borde Films about young June, who lands her first summer job: looking after a little girl with her parents, who are spending their holidays in the south. State premiere.

These seven films – which will be screened again in the Azkuna Zentroa Auditorium on 16 November at 18:00- are contenders for the ZINEBI Grand Prix (7,000 euros), the Basque Cinema Grand Prix (6,000 euros), the Spanish Cinema Grand Prix (6,000 euros), the Mikeldi awards in the fiction, animation and documentary categories (5,000 euros each) and the Audience Award-EITB (3,000 euros).
The prizes in the ZINEBI-65 Official Section-International Short Film Competition, with 58 films contending, will be decided by the international jury panel, which this year features the coordinator of the Cannes Festival’s Short Film Corner Florian Fernandez; the director of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (Japan) Haruka Hama; Bulgarian film critic and programmer Mariana Hristova; Basque director Estibaliz Urresola; and Galician director of animation, illustrator and drawing artist Alberto Vázquez.

MORE BASQUE CINEMA AT ZINEBI 65

In addition to the seven shorts in the International Short Film Competition, this year ZINEBI’s Official Section includes the Basque-produced feature film Zarata, by Gipuzkoa director Tamara García Iglesias, which is a contender in the International Opera Prima Feature Film Competition ZIFF – ZINEBI First Film, and will have its State premiere (in the wake of presentation at the Marseilles FID in July) at the Golem Alhóndiga Cinemas on Saturday 11 November at 19:45.

In addition to the Official Section, another 26 films will be screened in the section Bertoko Begiradak. Views from the Basque Country, a total of six documentary feature films and twenty short films (three documentaries, twelve fiction films and five animated films), to be screened at Sala BBK and the Azkuna Zentroa Auditorium from Sunday 12 November to Wednesday 15 November.