ZINEBI

ZINEBI, fifty years of film in Bilbao
Bilbao, 15/4/2008

The International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao (ZINEBI) this year celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Created in 1959 by the Instituto Vascongado de Cultura Hispánica ("Basque Institute of Hispanic Culture"), then an agency under the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, under its initial name of Certamen Internacional de Cine Documental Iberoamericano y Filipino ("International Competition for Spanish-American and Philippine Documentary Films"), circa 1968, coinciding with the rise of short fiction films in Spain, knew how to find its identity in this field and was able to expand its activities in the international arena. In 1974 it won recognition from the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) as a competitive festival in the categories of fiction, documentary and animation and in 1981 its organisation and management were institutionally taken over by the City of Bilbao.

In its last edition, there were some 2,648 registered films coming from 75 countries, thus accrediting its consolidation as one of the most important festivals in the world in its speciality.

Throughout ZINEBI the following important filmmakers have made an appearance, either as participants, on international juries or as award winners of the Mikeldi de Honor, ("The Golden Mikeldi") such as Jacques Demy, Pierre Perrault, Claude Lelouch, Santiago Álvarez, Richard Lester, Bárbara Kopple, Peter Greenaway, Ennio Morricone, Carlos Saura, Julio Medem, Roman Polanski, Hanna Schygulla, Anna Karina, Jane Birkin, Elías Querejeta, Arturo Ripstein or Père Portabella.

Over these fifty years, with a staunch determination to continue for another fifty years, ZINEBI has contributed to the dissemination – and thus the survival – of short films and documentaries from around the world, in particular Basque, Spanish, European and Latin American, as a way of understanding cinema as a commitment with the realities of men and women of our age as well as the individual artistic requirement that young producers of the five continents who decide each and every day, from the industry fringes, to take their first steps in their attempt to portray life by means of using moving images.

Today, after years of crisis that festivals such as ZINEBI have succeeded in making life easier, the new media and profound changes brought on by new information and communication technologies are tracing a new audiovisual landscape in which short films and documentaries are beckoned to bring into prominence many of the keys of the cinema of the future with a mixture of individual audacity, earnest originality and talent which has been its distinct identity in the last half century. ZINEBI wishes to remain as a privileged witness and a necessary partner for new filmmakers in the adventure that is filmmaking in this very exciting period which we have embarked upon.

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