Film Academy Residences is a new initiative being launched by The Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain in partnership with the Ayuntamiento de Madrid. It is hoped that the programme will give a boost to the careers of the filmmakers selected for the first intake, who, from September this year to June 2020, will receive professional support and guidance at the Academy’s headquarters in Madrid. Out of the 985 film treatments submitted, 15 projects were chosen by a committee comprising Belén Atienza (producer of The Imposible [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Juan Antonio Bayona
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Cineuropa got in touch with Portela, a producer in his own right, to find out more about how the idea for the residency programme came about: “It came out of a conversation Mariono and I were having one day, about how important it is for the Academy to get involved in education. That’s why we published the book Cine y educación, to ask politicians to give cinema a bigger role in the classroom, and we also came up with this idea for a residency programme like the ones you find at festivals like Sundance, Cannes and Berlin. We worked with the Ayuntamiento de Madrid to develop this first edition of the programme, but next year we want to branch out to other Spanish cities.”

The selected projects (ten fiction films, two television series and three documentaries) include titles such as Día de caza, directed by Pedro Aguilera (the director behind films like La influencia [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], both of which have been picked up by top international festivals: Cannes and Rotterdam, respectively); Alumbramiento, by Pau Teixidor (who made his feature-length debut with Purgatorio); Ficción consentida, by Ana Serret Ituarte, winner of the 2005 Goya for Best Documentary Short Film for Extras; Ciudad sin sueño, by Guillermo García López, the worthy winner of the 2016 Goya for Best Documentary Film with Delicate Balance [+leggi anche:
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Completing the list are Txema Torres (with Esperando a Ajo), Beatriz Herzog Ruíz de Alegría (La hierba es negra), Mónica Demes (Angie), Amaya Villar Navascues (Culpa año cero), Pedro Collantes (FOSFENO), Lorena Iglesias (Millenials mal), Víctor Alonso-Berbel (Moderación) and Óscar Vicentelli (Una vez fue fuego).

In a press release, Inés Enciso, coordinator of the Film Academy Residencies Programme, said: “We are very pleased with the response to the call for entries, and by the high quality of the projects submitted and their diversity of genres, formats and styles. These are bold ideas that highlight the need for this kind of programme, which can support their creative development and serve as a bridge to foster collaboration between established and emerging filmmakers.” Enciso concludes by noting that her team “is looking forward to getting the programme under way, and confident that it will prove a fruitful and enriching experience for everyone involved.”

“Each of the projects has a very strong and distinct personality,” Portela told Cineuropa. “They’re not a mishmash of previous projects, but they have their own clear identity and have been submitted by intriguing filmmakers with outstanding track records, either of previous films or studies. It was obvious from the treatments we received that they have interesting things to say. At the start of September at the Academy will introduce the selected filmmakers and the mentors — screenwriters, directors and producers — who will be working with them on their projects and also helping them develop their financing plans.”