The 47th Elche International Independent Film Festival moves forward with renewed energy. The Akdeniz Foundation released initial details about the festival, which is planned to run from July 12 to July 19, 2024, at Hort del Xocolater and along the Los Arenales beach. Registrations remain open on the festival website through March 15.
Among the standout changes is a stronger emphasis on feature-length films not only during the festival week but throughout the year. A non-competitive feature film section will run in Elche across 2024, and the festival’s screening minutes will be downloadable to provide more flexibility for planning parallel events.
Simplify the basics
One notable adjustment this year is the streamlining of rules and prizes to make participation clearer for filmmakers. The festival notes a reduced number of awards, while the prize pool remains substantial with financial support for winning projects in several categories. The International award has been redesigned to combine the Ibero-American and European categories.
Even with fewer prizes, the total prize money stands at 15,000 euros. The Elche Film Festival will continue to directly nominate two short films for consideration by the primary Spanish awards body, the Goya Awards, in categories for Fiction and Documentary. Submissions are open to short films completed after January 1, 2022.
cultural activity
Luis Boyer, president of Fundación Mediterráneo, emphasizes that the Elche Film Festival has strengthened its cultural role over the years. The foundation highlights its ongoing engagement with the seventh art, Elche, and the broader province, aiming to maintain continual feature film screenings and to deepen the partnership with Elche across 47 years of festival history.
The Akdeniz Foundation has published a detailed online guide to the registration process, with the deadline set for March 15, 2024. The official phase is slated to begin on May 15, 2024.
Record-keeping will proceed via two Spanish platforms, Festhome and Movilbeta, with Akdeniz Foundation coordinating a special tool for registering and pre-selecting short films for competition.
Selection and Qualification Juries will include members of Elche’s Luis Buñuel Cineclub (founders of the festival) and professionals from production, directing, photography, academia, and design. The final decisions will be announced at the Closing Gala on July 19, 2024.
Awards
The Selection Jury will determine the official selections, with decisions on which works advance to the festival’s Official Sections announced around May 15.
The main Jury, composed of cinema and media professionals, will announce its verdict at the closing ceremony on Friday, July 19, 2024. The awards include:
- Best Fiction Short Film Award. A prize of 3,000 euros plus a Lady Trophy, with national entries potentially qualifying for the 2025 Goya Awards.
- Best Documentary Short Film Award. A prize of 3,000 euros plus a Lady Trophy, with national entries potentially qualifying for the 2025 Goya Awards.
- Animation Award. Open to all nationalities, with 3,000 euros and a Lady Trophy.
- International Award, across any category and nationality (except Spain), 2,000 euros plus a Lady Trophy.
- Prize Fes Kurdish. Awarded 1,000 euros plus a Lady Trophy to a film in the Fes Curt category.
- Cineclub Luis Buñuel Award, for a novel writer, 1,000 euros plus a Lady Trophy, eligible in any category. Spanish and international filmmakers aiming for their third short film participate.
- HORT DEL Short Film Award. The audience votes determine the winning film from the Official Section screenings held at Hort del Xocolater between July 12 and 18, 2024, with the winner receiving a Lady Trophy.
Other awards
Additional collaborations and joint awards for this edition include:
- Award for the Best Short Film on Human Rights in any category connected to the Mediterranean coast, excluding Spain, funded by Elche City Council International Development Cooperation and in collaboration with SocialMed Valencia – Mediterranean Human Rights Festival. It includes a 1,000 euro prize plus a Lady Trophy.
- The Women Filmmakers Association and Audiovisual Media (CIMA) will present the CIMA Award to the Best Filmmaker, accompanied by a statuette and a one-year association membership.
Organized and supported by Akdeniz Foundation, the Elche International Independent Film Festival was established in cooperation with the Elche City Council and the Elche Luis Buñuel Cinema Club. This year, the festival revisits the Hort del Xocolater stage, which was briefly closed last year due to a palm-tree collapse near the screenings, prompting a move to the Grand Theatre.