After several exhibition sections, samples and cycles throughout its first three decades, ALCINE finally makes the international leap. The European Short Film Contest will be consolidated as the second competition of the festival with a level of participants and spectators similar to the national one. Alcalá's presence also increases in other renowned festivals such as Tampere, Brussels or Clermont-Ferrand, forming part of the ESFAA network that annually awards the European Audience Award. The incorporation of Annette Scholz as coordinator will be essential. With it, the team expands and becomes multilingual by incorporating workers and interns from various European universities. This career will culminate in 2017 with the selection by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of ALCINE as the Academy Qualifying Festival for the Short Film Awards, becoming one of the five festivals in Spain whose awards qualify directly for the Oscars.
From the exhibition History of a Film Festival.
(Pedro Toro, 2021)
When I came from England to work on Curtocircuito in 2006, I was unaware of the Spanish festival landscape, but I soon realized that ALCINE was an inevitable player in the short film industry in Spain. For many like me, it is the most important competition in the state and one of the most powerful at the European level. ALCINE has launched the professional careers of many directors and has helped discover a lot of talent that makes the city of Alcalá de Henares and Spain shine inside and outside its borders.
Tim Redford, Coordinator of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France)
To learn more, consult the free access book "Historia(s) de un festival de Cine” (in Spanish).
