08/02/2008

The Malaga Film Festival, currently preparing its 11th edition (April 4-12), has announced the first winners of the Eloy de la Iglesia Award: director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and producer Enrique López Lavigne, for the international success of their latest film, 28 Weeks Later [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The award, named after the director, distinguishes emerging local filmmaking talent and is presented as part of Malaga’s sidebar section ZonaZine.

Fresnadillo, an Oscar nominee in 1996 for his short film Esposados, made his feature debut Intact in 2001. The film won him a Goya for Best New Director and marked his first collaboration with López Lavigne, who produced the film for Sogecine.

The two reunited in 2007 to make the award-winning smash hit 28 Weeks Later. The film grossed $28m in the US and in Spain picked up over 600,000 admissions, for a total box office of €3.36m.

This year, the Málaga Film Festival will celebrate 11 years promoting Spanish films across its feature, short film and documentary section, along with its traditional retrospective on an influential personality of Spanish cinema – this year, director Mario Camus.

The festival has affirmed itself as an important meeting point for professionals with events such as the Mercadoc (a market for Spanish and Latin American documentaries), Málaga Screenings (specialised in Spanish features) and TV Market (Spanish TV fiction and animation).

(Translated from Spanish)