25/10/2012 - The Asturian event, to be held from November 16 to 24, is to screen 17 features in its competition, including eight with European participation and five from the US

The Gijón Film Festival is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, but its next edition from November 16 to 24 gives the impression of being a start from scratch, especially in view of the doubts surrounding Nacho Carballo’s arrival as an inexperienced director (when it comes to large film festivals) to an event with a very clear and defined personality. After 16 years of José Luis Cienfuegos, now director of the Sevilla European Film Festival, directing the festival, local policy makers decided not to extend his contract, which caused great media controversy at the beginning of this year (news).

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Several of the festival’s sections have already been unveiled. In its official competition, the general profile of films does not seem to have changed too much. With 17 features competing, it continues to pay great attention to independent European productions (eight films), even despite a rather massive presence of American films this year (nearly one-third of all films).

Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cosmina Stratan
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
film profile] (photo), a Romanian-French-Belgian co-production that won Best Screenplay and Best Actress in Cannes, is to open the festival and launch its competition. Other titles to join Mungiu’s film in the festival’s main section include Emilio R. Barrachina’s La venta del paraíso and Javier Asenjo and Miguel Ángel Pérez’s Viaje a Surtsey from Spain, James Marsh’s The Shadow Dancer [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] from Britain (Marsh won an Oscar for his cult documentary Man on Wire [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Mads Matthiesen’s Teddy Bear [+see also:
trailer
film profile] from Denmark, Bosnian director Aida Begic’s Children of Sarajevo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aida Begić
film profile] (co-produced by Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, France, and Turkey), Laurent Jung’s animation film Approved for Adoption [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Jung
film profile] (co-produced by Belgium, France, and Switzerland), and Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (co-produced by Afghanistan, France, and Germany).

(Translated from Spanish)