The competition, which was presented today in Madrid, premieres this year Prisma, an international co-production meeting for networking and project development.
The 9th edition of the Skyline Benidorm Film Festival registers an unprecedented growth in short films, scripts and shortpitch projects
Jaime Jesús Pérez, Councillor for Culture, has highlighted that the festival “grows every year in scope, impact, attention and interest from the public, creators and the industry itself”
The Skyline Benidorm Film Festival continues to grow significantly as the editions go by. From March 29 to April 5, the event will celebrate a new edition, the ninth, which was presented this morning in Madrid. The data confirms that the festival grows exponentially another year.
Thus, more than 800 short films have been registered for the competition, which represents 27% more than last year. 497 scripts have also been submitted to the competition - 51.5% more than in 2024 - and there are 53 projects in the Shortpitch competition, which is 47.2% more than in the last edition.
Of those more than 800 shorts submitted, the organization has selected 26 in three categories; fiction, animation and documentary: 'Ángulo Muerto', by Cristian Beteta; 'Capitanes', by Kevin Castellano and Edu Hirschfeld; ‘Carmela’, by Vicente Mallols; ‘Co-Haunting’, by Paula Sánchez, Adrián Carande and Pepe Rico; ‘Cólera’ by José Luis Lázaro; ‘When the Flood Comes’, by Antonio Lomas Domingo; ‘Cura Sana’, by Lucía G. Romero; ‘De Sucre’, by Clàudia Cedó; ‘A Midsummer Night’s Tale’, by María Herrera; ‘El Princep’, by Alex Sardá; ‘The Showman’, by Cristian Martínez; ‘Els buits’, by Isa Luengo, Sofía Esteve and Marina Freixa Roca; ‘Felina’, by María Lorenzo; ‘La niña tatuada’, by Elisa Lanzas; ‘La noche dentro’, by Antonio Cuesta; ‘Las chicas’, by Laura Obradors; ‘Los cayucos de Kayar’, by Álvaro Hernández Blanco; ‘Mapa de la geografía emocional’, by Julu Martínez and Candela Megido; ‘Mi Juego’, by David Navarro Bravo; ‘El palacio de la viola’, by Kote Camacho; ‘Semillas’, by Kivu by Néstor López and Carlos Valle; ‘Tesoro’ by Carmen Álvarez Muñoz; ‘Tito’, by Javier Celay, ‘Una cabeza en la pared’, by Manuel Manrique; ‘Utländsk’, by Alba Lozano and ‘Violetas’, by Borja Escribano.
Skyline Benidorm Film Festival also remains one of the few festivals in Spain that grant a selection fee of 200 euros to each work selected in the official national section and since 2022 it has the distinction of being an official qualifier for the Goya Awards.
The Benidorm competition also gives visibility to foreign productions and young talents. Thus, six short films from countries such as China, Germany, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom are competing in the International Section. The Ibero-American Section brings six works from Peru, Mexico, Portugal, Cuba and Chile. Finally, the Young Filmmakers Section promotes new voices with eight selected short films.
One of the novelties this year is the creation of Prisma, an initiative to connect and strengthen the professional fabric of the short film sector by serving as a link between audiovisual agents and promoting networking and the development of new projects. It was created to internationalize the Skyline Industry Days that have been held for six years, as well as “serving as a link between production companies and short film projects that are in any phase of production development,” according to Beatriz Hernández, director of Skyline.
Hernández has highlighted “the quality of the selected short films” and that the festival “continues to consolidate itself as a reference for filmmakers and professionals in the sector.” She added that this year Prisma “is a unique opportunity to promote synergies between production companies.”
For his part, Jaime Jesús Pérez, Councillor for Culture, stated at the presentation that the Skyline “has become a benchmark in the Spanish audiovisual space and occupies a prominent place in the cultural programming of our city” and stressed that year after year it grows “in scope, impact, attention and interest from the public, creators and the industry itself”. In this sense, Pérez considered that the figures of this edition are “the confirmation and endorsement of a job well done that reaches the entire scale of value of the event”.
The councillor insisted that Benidorm “always tries to be up to par and offer its best version”, which has led the industry to identify and value the city “as a film-friendly destination”.
Jaime Jesús Pérez also referred to the “continuous improvement” of the event, which this year focuses on its internationalisation with the launch of Prisma, “a space that will serve as a meeting point between producers and short film projects at any stage of production from different nationalities, promoting interculturality, synergies and collaboration”. Finally, he emphasised three aspects of the festival that are “fundamental” for Benidorm, such as “being a quality cultural proposal, an initiative promoted locally by a professional from Benidorm and being committed to inclusion”.
