02/06/2008

Salomón Castiel has announced that he is stepping down as director of the Malaga Spanish Film Festival after 11 years at the helm of the event, which was founded in 1998. Castiel confirmed at a press conference held with Malaga’s mayor Francisco de la Torre that the reasons for his decision are “of a purely personal nature”.

Castiel’s resignation also extends to his role as director of Malaga’s Cervantes Theatre (the city’s main cultural centre for dramatic arts and music) although he will continue to occupy both posts for another three months, until a suitable replacement is found.

Castiel’s departure coincides with the resignation of Juan Carlos Frugone and Manuel Grosso as directors of two other long-established film festivals – the Valladolid Seminci Festival and the Seville Film Festival, respectively.

The press has thus spoken of a real epidemic of resignations, with the newspaper El País asking: “Is it so difficult to run a festival?” Castiel, however, joked about these comments, saying “I haven’t been bitten by this virus”.

Despite the inevitable highs and lows, Castiel’s legacy as head of the Malagan event consists in the creation and strengthening of a festival that has become a “reference in Spanish film". The latest (11th) edition – which closed on April 12 – had a budget of €3.5m and was attended by over 80,000 viewers.

According to what he said at the press conference, Castiel will now focus on “personal and family challenges, putting professional matters on hold".

(Translated from Spanish)