Water, once again in the storyline
- The third We Art Water Film Festival begins, now established as a recognised international short film competition
- Micro-fiction, micro-documentary and micro-animation are the three categories open to the public and presented at the San Sebastián International Film Festival
- With an exceptional jury, this year’s competition takes another step towards raising awareness regarding the problems of water and sanitation
The We Are Water Foundation has set into motion the third We Art Water Film Festival. The initiative was presented on the 22 September in the setting of the prestigious San Sebastián International Film Festival (See the news item).
The We Art Water Film Festival gets going with the opening of the period of inscriptions between the 2 October 2015 and the 26 February 2016. During March of next year the jury will decide on the finalists and from the 21 March to the 15 April the public will be able to vote for their favourite short film via Facebook and the competition’s web site.
The winners will be announced during May 2016 at the prize-winning gala to be held in the emblematic space of the Roca Madrid Gallery.
An international referent that values the “micro” format
As is traditional, the competition is open to anyone prepared to create an audiovisual work of between two and three minutes about the subject of the “problem of water and sanitation”. (See the competition rules).
There are three categories of format for the authors to develop their work in: Micro-documentary, Micro-fiction and Micro-animation. Each one of them will have a prize that has increased in the amount: 3,000 euros will be awarded to the winner of each category and, as in other years, the fans of the festival will decide, through the social media, on the Public Prize, which will mean 1,000 euros for the winner. (Go to the Facebook page of the Festival).
A review of the works presented in previous years shows one of the great values of the We Art Water Film Festival: the micro-audiovisual piece, a work of no more than three minutes in length, which obliges the authors to undertake a carefully-crafted exercise in synthesis, and provide a great expressive strength with an extraordinary capacity to communicate feelings and express realities. (See the winning works for 2013/14 and 2011/12).
In just two previous competitions, the festival has gained benchmark recognition in the world of solidarity initiatives and shows signs of spectacular growth in the future. Proof of the enormous potential of communication of this format is in the more than 2,200 entries from 47 countries that reached the second festival and which raises the marker in terms of diffusion for this new step forward of the initiative. As Xavier Torras, director of the We Are Water Foundation stated, “audiovisual work is a great means for sending messages like those the foundation launches to a broad international public; we must raise awareness, and the format of the festival is ideal, since it is attractive and easy for everyone to have access to”.
A competition backed by the UN and with an exceptional jury
The We Art Water Film Festival was founded with the clear conviction of the Foundation that one of the best ways of spreading its messages to raise awareness about the problems of lack of water in the world is through artistic expression, in this case audiovisual. Since the beginning the event has had the support of the UN, through its UNRIC office in Brussels (United Nations Regional Information Centre) whose representative in Spain, Carlos Jiménez Renjifo, is also a member of the jury.
As well as Carlos Jiménez Renjifo, as in previous competitions, the Festival has a jury made up of professionals from the worlds of cinema, communication and cooperation, which this year has formed an exceptional team: Manuela Velasco, recognised film and television actress; Leticia Dolera, actress and film director; Marc Clotet, film and television actor, and currently, of the theatre; Albert Solé, director of documentaries; Rocío García, journalist specialising in cinema in El País; the directors Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, and Juan Campanella, winner of an Oscar; Jordi Folgado, director of the Vicente Ferrer Foundation; and Xavier Torras, director of the We Are Water Foundation.
The organiser of this third competition is Judith Colell, film director and member of the Governing Body of the Academy of Science and Cinematographic Art in Spain. (Find out more about the members of the jury).
The actress and director Leticia Dolera explained in San Sebastián the ideal nature of the competition to raise awareness about the problems of lack of water, since it “encourages the use of cinema as a tool for education and social change”. Manuela Velasco, also attending the presentation of the festival, stated that the initiative of the We Are Water Foundation “is absolutely necessary do that many people become interested in problem posed” and that “I would love this third edition of the festival to serve to make people aware of the lack of sanitation”.
Marc Clotet, highlighted that the festival “serves to place on the table something we take for granted in our everyday lives, and which is basic for us to be able to function”.
About the We Art Water Film Festival
The We Art Water Film Festival is an International Short Film Competition that aims to explore the problem of water in a different way. Through this festival, the talent of all those people with a clear sensitivity towards the problem of water in the world, through the creation of audiovisual pieces that cover the question in a creative and unique way, is recognised and rewarded. Thus two elements are joined: the sensitivity towards the cause of water and the value of cinema as art and a tool of diffusion and raising awareness.
Anyone of legal age of any nationality who has a special sensitivity for the cinema and the problem of water and sanitation in the world and who, moreover, wants to contribute in spreading the Foundation’s message, may participate.
ABOUT THE WE ARE WATER FOUNDATION
The We Are Water Foundation, promoted by the Roca company, has as objectives, on the one hand, to raise awareness amongst the general public and the administrations about the need to promote a new culture of water and, on the other hand, relieve the negative effects related to the lack of hydric resources, through the development of cooperation and aid programmes alongside diverse organisations such as Education without Frontiers, the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, Intermón Oxfam and UNICEF.