The spectators of the official sections are those that have grown the most compared to recent years, reaching 3,500 in this edition
More than 17,000 people will have passed through ALCINE when its educational sections end in December, without counting the activities that still continue such as exhibitions or online programming at FILMIN
Corto Prisión, the International Feature Film Festival and The Shortest Day are the next ALCINE events before the end of the year
ALCINE closed its 53rd edition on Sunday with a record number of spectators: 3,451 people passed through its official sections (Open Screen, National and European Competition), almost 50% more than in 2021, when 2,303 tickets were sold. In total, more than 17,000 people will have attended the Alcalá de Henares / Community of Madrid Film Festival this year when the screenings of the ALCINE educational sessions, scheduled until December, end, not counting the activities that still continue as exhibitions or online programming at FILMIN.
“The increase in the public in the official sections is good news, since they are the fixed sections each year, in which the public trusts our criteria more, and can be read as an increase in trust and a greater connection between the public and festival, the result of the different actions undertaken in this new stage,” says the artistic director of ALCINE, Pedro Toro.
During this stage, ALCINE has also managed to win over viewers and overcome the obstacle of changing their consumption habits: in 2014, before the emergence of online platforms and the pandemic made us get used to watching more movies at home, the Tickets sold for those same sections amounted to 2,556, which represents an increase of 35% compared to that year.
Along with the good figures, which reflect the positive moment that ALCINE is experiencing with 53 editions behind it, the festival has premiered new sections this year, such as AL(U)CINE, dedicated to fantasy and horror cinema, and has repeated those inaugurated last year, such as the Alcalá Film Jam and Off ALCINE, which the public has received with enthusiasm. Something that, in Pedro Toro's opinion, represents “the consolidation of the most popular aspect of the festival's sections.”
The same interest was aroused by the surprise session of ALCINE 53 (which turned out to be Daniela forever, by Nacho Vigalondo), which brought together more than 300 people who went to the Teatro Salón Cervantes blindly trusting ALCINE's criteria.
Although with less attendance, about 400 spectators in total, the also new sections Sesión Continuous (where the public could see the National and European Competitions again during the week) and ALBIBE (adapted to the public with babies) have served to “make a festival every increasingly accessible to all types of audiences,” indicates the artistic director of ALCINE.
In addition to the remaining screenings of the educational sections (ALCINE Kids, Junior and Languages), the festival still has Corto Prisión ahead of it this year, in the Madrid 1 and Madrid 2 penitentiary centers, the International Feature Film Exhibition, from the 4th to the 8th December, and The Shortest Day, December 19. Likewise, it is still possible to visit the exhibitions Close up nobody is normal, with portraits of artists such as Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz or Viggo Mortensen made by the photographer Leticia Díaz de la Morena, and Award for the best short film poster, with the 10 finalist posters of the official sections and other versions made by the 'Alberto Corazón' Art School. Both exhibitions will remain open until December 8 in the Antonio López Room of the Antiguo Hospital de Santa María La Rica.
