20/04/2005

According to the Spanish newspaper Levante, the new artistic director of the Valencia Film Festival, ‘Cinema del Mediterrani’, has just announced that the event will take place in October, although some films will also be screened this Summer (July) on the beach, as a foretaste of the real festival. Juan Piquer added he would confirm some of the measures taken by his predecessor José Antonio Escrivá, but would modify others. He also claimed he would avoid what he calls ‘pseudo-glamour’, that is, the general obsession with celebrities which characterizes film festivals.

Juan Piquer had been the assistant manager of the Valencia Festival for two years when the director José Antonio Escrivá resigned, because of certain disagreements raised by the fact that he ordered the opening and the final speech to a company placed entirely under his management.