01/12/2008

The 8th Málaga Markets (December 1-3) kicks off today. This year’s edition will host the largest number of participants since the audiovisual market began in 2000.

Málaga Markets comprises three different events (Málaga Screenings, Mercadoc and TV Market) and started under the aegis of the Málaga Spanish Film Festival, which is held in spring and aims to promote Spanish-language audiovisual productions.

According to the organisation’s figures, 415 sales companies and 122 buyers from 41 different countries have confirmed their attendance this year.

Málaga Screenings will present Spanish and Latin American features. Until now, this event has taken place in conjunction with the Málaga Film Festival but will now join the other two sections of Málaga Markets.

Among the 38 films to be shown are 13 Roses [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Spanish Oscar hopeful The Blind Sunflowers, A Tram in SP, Welcome to Farewell-Gutmann, Pretexts, La buena nueva (“The Good Life”) and Santos [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Mercadoc focuses on documentary works. This section includes a video library of 474 films and presentations of projects with pitching sessions.

The youngest section – TV Market – is in its fourth edition and is devoted to the promotion of Spanish drama and animated productions for television.

Finally, a series of conferences is also planned. Two of these will analyse the MEDIA programmes Esodoc (for the production and distribution of documentaries with a social theme) and Eurodoc (intended for the production of European documentaries), while a third conference will look at film distribution via the Internet and the acquisition policy of French company Arte.

(Translated from Spanish)