10-18 November 2021

PRATICAL INFORMATIONS

FANCINE LAUNCHES ITS WEBSITE WITH THE COMPLETE PROGRAMME AND SCHEDULE OF ITS 31ST EDITION

Tickets for the showtimes at the Albéniz cinema and the drive-in will go on sale as of tomorrow, October 29th, with a single price of 3 euros

Last rehearsals for the 31st edition of Fancine. After several programme previews and revealing last week the films that comprise this year’s competing section, the Fantastic Film Festival of the University of Málaga has published on its website the entire contents of its next event. This edition, under the emblem of ‘Schrödinger’s kitty, will bring a varied selection of the current film genre production from November 10th to November 18th, together with a full calendar of parallel activities in different venues.

A total of 92 titles will be screened this year at Fancine, including those at the Albéniz cinema, simultaneous showtimes during the week, or pre-festival events. The official section — which on this occasion brings together the works of acclaimed directors such as Sion Sono, Zhang Yimou, Mamoru Hosoda, Manuel Martín Cuenca, or Alex de la Iglesia — will share the billboard with other regular sections of the festival which classify the different films by genre and tastes. All of them include science-related themes — the common thread of the 31st edition. This is the case of the well-established informative section, featuring ten proposals just as interesting as the competing films, but out of competition, such as the terrifying ‘A Banquet’, or the Asian science-fiction film ‘Hot Soup’, which will have its Spanish premiere at the festival.

The Horror Zone category — one of the most requested by gore, blood, and extreme terror lovers — will also be present in the programme. It will exhibit, among others, the claustrophobic ‘Caveat’ or ‘Brain Freeze’, which belongs to the zombie subgenre. The Ánima Zone section — the space dedicated to animation — increases the number of its titles, up to a total of six. It will present the national premiere of ‘Climbing’, as well as the long-awaited ‘Mad God’ project, from the Oscar-winning filmmaker Phil Tippett, who has taken three decades to shape this monstruous nightmare in stop-motion.

Half a dozen films will also conform Fanzriller — one of the sections that has grown in strength the most in the recent editions of the university festival — in its aim to open up to other similar genres and to reach a greater number of audiences. It will include the oriental films ‘Midnight’ and ‘Recalled’, both national premiers. Moreover, another classic of the Fancine billboard will also return:  the Family Session, which takes over the weekend matinees to offer children the screening of two titles, the moving ‘Wall-E’ and Tim Burton’s black and white film ‘Frankenweenie’, both following a storytelling performance by the actor Rafa Castillo, from Málaga.

And, for the first time, Fancine incorporates the National Fantastic category, with the presence of the Spanish titles ‘La pasajera’ — co-directed by Fernando González and Raúl Cerezo — and ‘Jacinto’ — directed by Javi Camino — in order to promote the presence of Spanish productions as part of the contents of the international event.

Finally, the film in charge of turning off Fancine’s 31st edition’s projector will be the Brazilian ‘The Pink Cloud’. After being in Sundance and Sitges, the film will close the Málaga event with its odd love story unfolding during an enforced worldwide quarantine, at a gala where the list of this year’s winners will have been revealed beforehand.

All these titles will join those already announced by the festival in previous programme previews, where the cycle coordinated by CineAsia, the competing twenty short films, the Autocine Málaga’s program (recently inaugurated as a venue of the festival), or the animator Bill Plymton’s special session were revealed.

As a result, and unlike last year, Fancine will drop its online section on platforms, as a commitment to recovering the social component of the event and to encourage the return of audiences to theatres, encouraged by the remarkable evolution of the health situation. The current regulations also allow recovering full attendance, although the necessary security measures will be maintained: masks will always be mandatory when accessing the facilities and the time between sessions will be extended to allow a smooth and staggered exit of attendees, thus avoiding crowds. 

The ticket sale for the showtimes at the Albéniz cinema and the drive-in will be available as of tomorrow, Friday October 29th, through their box offices and websites with a single price of 3 euros. Likewise, those interested may purchase a voucher in person for ten different showtimes for 20 euros at the Alcazabilla street box office. Screening schedules and venues are also available from today on the programme schedule that Fancine has posted at fancine.org.


Parallel activities

But there will not only be cinema during the nine days of the festival. As usual, Fancine will add to its contents other activities that will bring the world of fantasy, science-fiction, and horror to audiences of all ages in a playful and entertaining way. That is why, once again, performances, exhibitions, conferences, and contests will complete the agenda of this edition.

Music will maintain an essential role in this list of events, with a soundtrack concert by the Provincial Symphony Orchestra organized with the support of the Málaga council. This recital is a fancine tradition and an unmissable event in all editions, and will return to its habitual venue: the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Telecommunications from where it will also be broadcast on the festival's Youtube channel. These spaces that will host the activities will reinforce Fancine’s university aspect even more. Therefore, one of the main focal points of the festival will once again be the Rectorate, headquarters of the University of Málaga, where the screening of the latest work by the young creators’ collective Samcreta will take place, among other events, 

Fancine’s Educational Project at the Paraninfo — aiming to instilling a taste for fantasy cinema among high school students — and the Comic and Illustration Contest — in which the participating schools in this activity during the current edition will take part — will also continue to take place.

The Teatinos campus takes on a bigger dimension in this edition by adding new venues, such as the hall of the Educational Sciences and Psychology Complex, which will host a Planetarium with guided tours during the weekend. Nearby, in the Central Gallery — the exhibition space of the Faculty of Communication Sciences — people will be able to visit an exhibition by the award-winning director of photography Nahia Fito. And last but not least, UMA’s  Contenedor Cultural, which devotes most of its November programme to Fancine: it will become the stage for concerts such as 'El Altar del Holocausto’, the stage performance of Mu Teatro, the K-Pop contest, as well as different talks and alternative screenings, such as the presentation of the short films 'Au Pair' — with text by the Goya winner for best screenplay, Marina Parés — or 'Ivy' from Málaga— which will include a piano recital.


Press accreditations

Media interested in covering the festival are reminded that the deadline for requesting a press accreditation is Friday, November 5th. To formalize the request, please fill out the form that can be found in the Accreditations section of the Fancine website.

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