After its first weekend with full theaters, ALCINE has now fully entered the week with the Open Screen feature films, the possibility of seeing all the shorts from the National Contest and the European Short Film Contest in Continuous Session, the new section of the festival dedicated to fantasy and horror cinema, AL(U)CINE, and a clandestine session organized by the renegades of the festival who did not see their shorts selected for competition, Off ALCINE. This is just part of what awaits us before knowing next Friday the winners of ALCINE 53, the Alcalá de Henares / Community of Madrid Film Festival.
“This weekend we have seen the rooms full of audiences as we had not seen them in a long time, especially the Corral de Comedias sessions, which sold out tickets in several sessions. It is the result of having been breaking stones little by little, those seeds are bearing fruit,” says Pedro Toro, artistic director of the festival.
Although the die has already been cast for the 51 short films in competition at the National Competition and the European Short Film Competition (screened over the weekend and whose winners will be known next Friday, November 15), those who could not attend the sessions or Those who wanted to see one in particular still have the opportunity to enjoy them, during the week, with free admission, in a Continuous Session.
With this new section, the 53rd edition of ALCINE has recovered those leisurely movie afternoons, in which viewers can watch all the shorts, divided into four sessions. Continuous Session started this Monday and will offer two more sessions, today, Wednesday, November 13 and Thursday, November 14, at Gilitos / Laboratorio de Creación Alcalá, starting at 5:00 p.m. For those who three hours of cinema, or more, are too many, or who only want to see one or several shorts, there is the possibility of entering and leaving the theater during the screening, for which they can consult the detailed schedules on the and on their social networks.
The short films do not end at ALCINE 53 with the National Competition and the European Competition. This Tuesday, ALCINE 53 viewers were able to see, and vote, part of the short films competing in the Audience Awards of the best festivals in Europe (the ESFAA), to find the favorite of European viewers, an award that will be presented in 2025, after completing the circuit, in Brussels. This Wednesday, November 13 (7:30 p.m., Corral de Comedias) a second session awaits us with the European cinema best valued by the public.
Tickets are on sale online at a price of €3 (€1 with the Friends of the Theater Card).
Although specialized in short films, ALCINE reserves a special place in each edition for the first feature films of the directors who passed through the festival with their short films: the competitive Open Screen section. In the 53rd edition of ALCINE, since Monday, neighborhood stories, family dramas, unique biopics or science fiction stories, among other beautiful pieces, are being featured.
This Wednesday, November 13 (6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.) and tomorrow, Thursday, November 14 (only at 6:00 p.m.), three of these feature films can still be seen at the Teatro Salón Cervantes: La Hojarasca, by Macu Machín; The Aspirant, by Juan Gautier, and Where the Silence Passes, by Sandra Romero. Tickets are on sale online at a price of €3 (€1 with the Friends of the Theater Card).
Fantasy, horror and related genre short films, including several films nominated in the Goya 2025 shortlist, are those that can be seen this Thursday (7:30 p.m., Corral de Comedias) in the festival's new competitive section, AL(U)CINE. The Girls, by Laura Obradors; The Fence, by Sam Orti; Oysters, by José Antonio González Olivares; Pesudo, by Miquel Díaz Pont; Wan, by Victor Monigote, and Tragedium, by Gaston Haag, will compete for a €600 prize awarded by the General Foundation of the University of Alcalá and CIMUART, and chosen by the public after the screening. In addition, we will have the presence of its directors.
Since it couldn't rain to everyone's liking, on Thursday one of the most cheeky and fun nights of the 53rd edition of ALCINE, Off ALCINE, also awaits us. A group of rebels, fed up with not being selected for the festival, have hacked ALCINE 53's programming and now have control. They are not willing to let their films be lost like tears in the rain and have organized their own clandestine short film session, this Thursday, November 14, at 10:00 p.m., at Santissimo Gastro & Drinks.
Karim Shaker and Pablo Schumann will present this night of cinema, subversion and lots of laughter. There will also be party, madness and debauchery by Giorgie Dance from the Yes We Pop collective, all with free entry for any rebel who wants to join the ALCINE renegadOFFs.
