The Alicante International Film Festival has announced today the programming for the 3rd edition of the 'Fashion Cinema' section, one of the activities that generates great anticipation among cinema, costume, and fashion enthusiasts. In this edition, the program stands out for including exhibitions, roundtable discussions, and meetings with prominent professionals in the sector, which will allow attendees to delve into the fascinating world of film costume design, an essential component that defines the identity of characters and contributes to the development of stories.

In this edition, the MACA will once again be the venue for this section, which will host all its activities. In this edition, the program will serve as a showcase to explore the legacy and influence of renowned costume designer Paco Delgado, through exhibitions and interactive activities that will allow visitors to learn more about his creative process and his impact on contemporary cinema.

Exhibitions

Within the 'Fashion Cinema' programming, three exhibitions will be held at the MACA. The first of them, titled 'Footprints of Cinema', pays tribute to Paco Delgado and his outstanding work in films such as 'Les Misérables', 'The Danish Girl', and 'Snow White'. This exhibition, which has the collaboration of the Elda Shoe Museum, presents a collection of shoes inspired by his most iconic films, showing how footwear also tells stories on the big screen.

The second exhibition, 'From Screen to Mannequin', includes three dresses inspired by Paco Delgado's creations for the aforementioned films. These dresses, created by Tatiana Furukina, director of the Art Costura school, bring the film characters to life, inviting attendees on a textile journey through the art of storytelling through costume design.

The third exhibition, 'Paco Delgado: The Character's Stroke', allows visitors to delve into the designer's creative process through his sketches. The exhibition, created by students from the IES El Pla Institute, reveals how drawing and color become key elements in the construction of characters and the emotions they convey on screen.

Activities

The 'Fashion Cinema' activities program will begin on Tuesday, May 20 at 6:00 PM with the roundtable discussion 'Dressing Cinema: A Look from Styling, Technique, and the Imprint of Fashion Brands'. This discussion will address film costume design from several perspectives: the work of styling, the technical aspects behind each garment, and the influence of fashion brands on screen. Prominent professionals in the sector will participate, such as Natalia Bengoechea, stylist and fashion project developer; Alejandro Navas, audiovisual costume technician; and José Antonio Molla, founder and CEO of fashion and footwear brands. The roundtable will be moderated by Manuela Laguna, director of the Manela Laguna fashion communications agency.

On Wednesday, May 21 at 6:00 PM, the masterclass 'The Influence of Costume: "The Power of Personal Image"' will be held. In this talk, designer Darsy will explore how costume design can influence the construction of personal image and the way we communicate with the world. The class will address the power of design to tell stories, define identities, and transform perceptions.

On Thursday, May 22 at 6:00 PM, it will be the turn of the roundtable discussion 'Author's Footsteps: Creativity, Industry, and Cinema in the World of Footwear'. This meeting will bring together professionals in shoe design and manufacturing to discuss the role of footwear as a creative object, industrial product, and narrative element in cinema. Speakers will include Vicente Pastor, president of the Ficia Foundation; Carmen García, business development manager at Chie Mihara; and Pepe Amat, creative director of Magrit footwear. The roundtable will be moderated by Andrea Paños, director of the Elda Shoe Museum.

The 'Fashion Cinema' activities will conclude on Friday, May 23 at 5:30 PM with the screening of the film 'The Danish Girl', for which Paco Delgado was nominated for the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for his costume design. This dramatic film, based on true events, tells the story of Einar and Gerda Wegener, a couple of Danish artists, and Einar's transformation into the woman who would become known as Lili Elbe.

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Screening of the animated films of "Fairy Tales and Fables" by Lotte Reiniger.

Within the Giroscopia event, the MACA hosts the screening of the short film "Insurrección" by Jorge Hinojosa and Daniel M. Caneiro and a subsequent roundtable discussion with director Jorge Hinojosa and some actors and crew members of the short film. As a closing, the making-of video of the shoot will be screened. Moderators: Enric Mira and Ingrid Granda

Presentation, screening and discussion of the film "Mondays in the Sun" (Fernando León de Aranoa, 2002) with Ignacio del Moral, nominated for the Goya Awards for Best Original Screenplay. February 20 at 6 p.m. Free admission.

Ignacio del Moral (San Sebastián, 1957) is a prolific and award-winning Spanish playwright, screenwriter for film and television, and educator. He began his theatrical career in 1977 as an actor, although since 1990 he has worked as a screenwriter for film and television, and is vice president of the Association of Theater Authors.

He is the winner of a Goya Award for the screenplay adaptation of The Adventures of Tadeo Jones, and nominated on three other occasions for: Mondays in the Sun, The Sleeping Voice, and Ashes from the Sky. He has won the Medal of the Circle of Cinematographic Writers on two occasions, and the Egeda Award.

He is a screenwriter for films awarded at the festivals of Málaga, Montreal, Valencia Film Festival and Nanterre in France. Mondays in the Sun is, among other awards, Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival and selected by the Film Academy for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

His notable works in television are: Pharmacy on Duty, The Commissioner, Tell Me How It Happened, Sisters, and Ulysses Syndrome; directing the screenwriting team in several of them.

He has more than 30 published dramatic works, with translations and performances in more than ten languages, for which he has received the SGAE Awards and Hogar Sur Theater of Comedies Award, and the Circle of Writers Award on two occasions.

Wednesday, September 13 at 6 p.m. 'Chocolat' by Lasse Hallström with Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench and Alfred Molina. With five Oscar nominations, it is the story of a very traditional French village where nothing has changed in the last hundred years, when the North wind brings with it two outsiders: Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol). Vianne opens a chocolate shop full of sweets capable of awakening the hidden appetites of the village inhabitants. She also possesses a special gift that allows her to perceive the desires of others and satisfy them with the exact sweet.

Thursday, September 14 at 6 p.m. 'The Last Recipe' directed by Yōjirō Takita with Kazunari Ninomiya and Gou Ayano. Mitsuru Sasaki is a world-class chef who has lost his passion for his craft. Although he can cook any dish having tasted it only once, his restaurant has gone bankrupt due to his extremely perfectionist character. To pay his debts, he makes a decision: he will personally cook one last meal for whoever is willing to pay one million yen for it.

Friday, September 15 at 6 p.m. 'Babette's Feast' by Gabriel Axel, starring Stéphane Audran, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Gudmar Wivesson. This film, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, is set in the 19th century in a remote village in Denmark, dominated by Puritanism where two elderly unmarried sisters recall with nostalgia their distant youth and rigid education. The arrival of Babette, who comes from Paris, will change their lives. The outsider will soon have the opportunity to repay the kindness and warmth with which she was welcomed. A lottery prize allows her to organize an opulent dinner with the finest dishes and wines of French gastronomy. All the neighbors accept the invitation, but they previously agree not to show satisfaction that would be sinful. But, little by little, in an intense and emotional ceremony, they give in to the pleasures of French cuisine.

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Presentation of the short film "Incandescent Women Artists", written and directed by Mairea Seguí Buenaventura.

"INCANDESCENT WOMEN ARTISTS" is an audiovisual work of artistic research, where the aim is to deepen and connect the stories and experiences of some contemporary women artists, related to digitalization, new technologies and other areas of knowledge. In its poetic and narrative form, it approaches the video art technique, reflecting on the impact their works have had. It concludes with proposals for the future of art, documenting their vision of the world and whether art empowers people, whether it drives social movements, and what experiences move the artists.

It focuses especially on those spaces of collective creation and artistic experimentation related to women and art. Because in some way, they served to showcase the avant-garde scene and promote artistic alternatives through computing, the combination of apparently unrelated disciplines (architecture, music, psychology, poetry, mathematics...) and their influence on later artists.

The research concludes by bringing together proposals and perspectives on possible utopias of digital art. A topic that will be addressed in an artistic and poetic manner, through the works and stories compiled from interviews about this collective artistic movement. Prominence is given to the artists and their perception of the process experienced, framed in a specific sociopolitical context. Relating the different artistic manifestations and their importance, both historical, personal, social and cultural. The audiovisual assembly will be composed, in part, of images of the artists' works, previously recorded, to be projected and recorded again in installations and everyday spaces relevant to them and imagined.

The structure of the script is formed in 3 blocks of related themes: Pioneers; Personal-social-cultural influence; Impulses-futures or utopias in art.

The qualitative and exploratory research method proposes as its thesis the influence of art as a process that seeks rarity, wonder and the peculiar to transform a set of particular perspectives into a framework of collective thinking where we rediscover the history and the mark left by these women.

A project designed, directed, produced, and starring mainly Spanish women artists who are part of culture as creators and mediators at the same time, survivors through art at a time in Spain when it was unthinkable that this could happen.

The purpose of the documentary is not so much to serve as a tribute but to propose other ways of approaching the history of the artistic experimentation movement to bring them to the present, incorporating questions related to identity, memory, authenticity, transformation and the future of art.

Artists collaborating in the project

Concha Jerez

She is a multidisciplinary Spanish artist and pioneer since the 1960s in conceptual art, installation, performance and video art. Her work of worldwide projection has been exhibited in Mexico, Germany, Denmark as well as in the Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. This year she starred in ARCO in the stand of the newspaper "El País".

Esther Ferrer

Spanish artist pioneer of performance from the mid-1960s, individually or as part of the ZAJ group, created by W. Marchetti, Ramon Barce and J. Hidalgo. As performances, she has participated in Festivals in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, England, Holland, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Palestine, etc. She has exhibited at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, at the Galerie Satelite in Paris, Statsgalerie, Stuttgart (Germany), etc.

Yolanda Domínguez

Spanish visual artist, photographer and activist. She develops themes of feminist awareness and social criticism related to gender, consumption and art as a tool for social intervention. She has given lectures at the UAM, UCM, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, UPV, Ministry of Culture of Argentina, Frontiers Design Sweden, University of New Mexico USA, Parsons Paris, University of Communication Perugia and University of Mannheim, Germany. TEDxMadrid, Caixaforum, Fundación Telefónica, Emakunde, Museo Picasso Málaga, San Sebastián Advertising Festival, Etnosur and Red Cross. She collaborates weekly with El HuffPost Spain and on the radio program Efecto Doppler on Rn3. She carries out awareness campaigns for government organizations such as The Government of Cantabria, The Government of Asturias, The City Council of Soria and The Canary Islands Institute for Equality.

Sonia Megías

Spanish composer and multidisciplinary artist, choir director, performer of various instruments, educator. She has performed her compositions in places such as Cervantes Institutes, Cultural Centers of the AECID around the world, American Space Madrid, Teatro Real de Madrid, Centro Dramático Nacional, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Juilliard School in New York, theaters and museums in El Salvador (Central America). Since 2017, she works as a resident composer for the Madrid Choral Federation, and since 2018, for the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Ana Buenaventura

Spanish sociologist and artist pioneer in the Research and Analysis of automated processes at the Computing Center of the Complutense University of Madrid where since the 1970s she has developed her work and participated in seminars, conferences and exhibitions such as: Architecture, Art and Computer in Seville and Córdoba, International Congress on Automation and Art in Madrid, International Congress at the Institute of Research in Computer Science and Automation (I.R.I.A) in Paris, etc. She participates in collective exhibitions: VI Youth Biennial of Paris, "Computable Forms", CCUM in Madrid, IBM Exhibition, Congress and Exhibition Palace of Madrid, "Art and Computers", German Institute, Madrid, "Encounters: Architecture and Painting", Pamplona, "Art of SPACE ERA", Huntsville, United States, THEO Brandão Gallery, Maceió, Alagoas (Brazil). Her pieces have been acquired by the Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Móstoles and the FRAC Centre Val de Loire, Orleans (France). Feminist video collectives in France. During the 1970s, Delphine Seyrig formed together with Carole Roussopoulos, Ioana Wieder and Nadja Ringart the collective Les Insoumuses to produce video works that accompanied their activism within the Women's Liberation Movement.

Co-founders of the Simone de Beauvoir Audiovisual Center in Paris, France.

Shirin Salehi.

Shirin Salehi, Iranian artist and multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, engraving, installation and video. Work recognized through artistic residencies and awards, highlighting the scholarship from the Academy of Spain in Rome (2020), the Casa de la Velázquez (2014), 1st prize for artist book Ankaria Foundation (2015), special award Combat Prize (Livorno, 2015), Pilar Banús award in the National Engraving Awards of the Museum of Contemporary Spanish Engraving (2014) and 1st prize at FIG Bilbao (2012). Fundación Miró Mallorca in 2021 exhibition of her co-authorship project, A Fixed Point to Orient Oneself, with Spanish artist Inma Herrera after both received the Pilar Juncosa and Sotheby's Biennial Award for Creation 2019. Recently she has been nominated for The Queen Sonja Print Award in Norway.

Inma Herrera.

Spanish multidisciplinary artist. Scholarship recipient from the Royal Mint to train as a Specialist in Graphic Printing Media and Artistic Design and Minting. Currently active and residing in Helsinki, Finland, where she is pursuing an MFA in Printmaking at Kuvataideakatemia, University of the Arts, thanks to one of the Postgraduate Scholarships in Europe 2014 from the Social Work of la Caixa. Recently awarded a Taideapuraha City of Helsinki Art Grant. She stands out as an Honorable Mention for the Young UCM Award 2011; finalist for Art 40 Spain 2012, FIG GRAPHIA in Bilbao 2013 and Miniprint Finland 2014. She has exhibited individually in Helsinki, Spain, and Stockholm.

Capi Corrales Rodrigáñez

She is a Spanish mathematician dedicated to research and teaching. Throughout her career she has made a large number of publications, from articles in specialized journals to collaborations in collective works and her own books. Part of her research explores the relationship between mathematics and art, focusing on the work of Elena Asins.

Jose Rubio Mira.

She is a Spanish painter. She has held exhibitions in the United States, Mexico and in various Spanish galleries. She is part of the group of partners of the Círculo de Bellas Artes where they have been holding ephemeral collective exhibitions for several years.

Vera Chaves Barcellos

Brazilian photographer and multidisciplinary artist. Of worldwide projection, dedicated to the dissemination of Contemporary Art, organizing various exhibitions with several publications. Co-founder of Nervo Óptico, a group of artists active in Porto Alegre between 1976 and 1978. She managed the influential exhibition space Espaço NO, with 8 female artists and promoted alternative formats, such as mail art, performance, dance-theater and installation. Since 1980 she has created multimedia installations, manipulated photography, computerized images, objects, videos and animation. Exhibitions in Brazil, Spain and the United States. The Museo Reina Sofía has acquired her work.

Noemí Martínez Díez

Argentine pedagogue and artist. Specialist in Art Therapy. Her versatility has led her to carry out numerous works over the years in the field of pedagogy and sculpture. From teaching, starting with art education for children. She taught classes at the UCM and in parallel conducted extensive research on Art Education, specialized in Art Therapy, directing doctoral theses, without abandoning her artistic career.

Irene Buarque

She is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist and pioneer in geometric art since the 1960s. In 1973 she goes to Portugal and settles there. Founding partner with Helena Almeida and Ernesto de Sousa, among others, of the Cooperative of Artists Diferença Comunicação Visual / 78. She has exhibitions in Brazil, Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain.

Maria Mallo

Architect, Spanish multidisciplinary artist and sculptor. Her latest projects have been financed and/or exhibited at the Orleans Architecture Biennial, Matadero Madrid, Medialab Prado, Fundación Banco Santander, DKV seguros, COAM, Young Art Hall of the Community of Madrid and Casa de la Cultura of El Escorial.

Additionally, she was Deputy Commissioner of the Spain Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennial 2018 and Co-commissioner of the Madrid Future Festival, within the III International Congress of Architecture Loading 2010 Construtec-COAM. Co-founder of the architecture and design collective Leon11.

Mireia Luzárraga

Spanish architect and co-founder of Takk, a space for architectural production at the intersection between nature and culture with headquarters in Madrid and Barcelona. Part of her work belongs to the FRAC-Centre architecture center in France. Additionally, Takk has participated in international exhibitions in Venice, Orleans, Oslo and Rabat and has held two individual exhibitions in Vienna and Barcelona. Mireia is a professor at the University of Alicante, IAAC and BAU.

Nadja Jamard

Community psychologist and theater artist. Her research explores art, dance and theater as methodology for social work. She has worked on social interventions in countries such as Brazil, France and Spain.

Project presentation by its authors.

Beneath the frescoes of the Royal Monastery of Santa Clara de Toro (Zamora), the signature of Teresa Díez appears inscribed: «TERESA DIEÇ ME FECIT». Author or possible patron of one of the scarce murals from the Spanish Gothic period (14th century) signed by a woman, and dedicated, in this case, to the effigy of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The blessed woman whose «golden legend» recounts how in her martyrdom she dismantled a toothed wheel with her own faith, before being beheaded by the emperor Maxentius (306-312).

The artist Susana Guerrero, in collaboration with filmmakers Mario-Paul Martínez and Vicente J. Pérez, recovers the work of this enigmatic figure of sacred art, as well as her interpretation of the martyrdom of Saint Catherine, in a project that combines audiovisual media and sculptural installation. On one hand, featuring a documentary short film that addresses Guerrero's trajectory and the mythological and cultural imaginaries that link her to these important figures in Art History. And, on the other hand, featuring a series of sculptural installations created by Susana Guerrero herself, as a result of these investigations into Saint Catherine and Díez (and that connection between centuries and women artists that is being researched).

The documentary Guerrero. The Head in Her Hands, follows the creative processes of these and other works by the artist. Accompanying her in her own work studio (Elche), in the foundry and welding workshops of the Faculty of Fine Arts (Altea), or in the terrains where she collects materials, while also reflecting on her own work: how her stays in Greece and Mexico opened her eyes to the importance of myths and popular traditions; how rituals play an essential part in her artistic processes; or how working with the everyday constitutes an «anthropology of experience», key to approaching her work. Accompanying her in these reflections will be art critic and member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language, Joaquín Badajoz (Cuba/New York), the director of 532 Gallery, Thomas Jaeckel (New York), and the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante (Alicante), Rosa María Castells.

The sculptural pieces that accompany and are exhibited alongside this video speak to us of the severed body of Saint Catherine, rewriting it as a beheaded woman who survives her decapitation. A reconstruction of her body through her legend, her attributes and her martyrdoms, translated poetically and symbolically into metal structures embroidered with agave leaves, in enameled ceramics and flesh made of braided cables: an «object of faith» with which to invoke the power of this sacred figure.

PROYECTA is a cultural, educational and leisure event aimed at children, young people, parents and teachers that seeks audiovisual literacy in the province of Alicante. A competition that aims to be a space for coexistence between the audiovisual sector (content and professionals) and the educational environment to promote the inclusion of values, encourage critical thinking and foster the creation of audiovisual content both inside and outside the classroom linked to topics of social interest of local and global character without forgetting the use of new technologies.

MACA, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante, collaborated in the educational and cultural event Proyecta Alc organized by Mediterránea Audiovisual* in 2017. This event, which featured audiovisual content as its protagonist, was mainly focused on children, young people, teachers and parents, and aims to promote cinema based on values, knowledge and the use of educational innovation related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

The activities carried out were:

Screenings of short films from the aula corto website and Valencian productions as extracurricular and educational activities for schools and high schools in the province.

Premiere in Alicante of the film The Story of Jan by Bernardo Moll, which premiered in the province for the first time at the Kinépolis cinemas in Alicante.

Teacher training on the use of audiovisual language and narrative and tools for creating a short film, and well, my colleagues can also mention your application there so they know what it can do.

Talks on school bullying plus the creation of professional national audiovisual products for the educational framework.

Workshop day for young people aged 14 to 18 years (photolab, podcast, youtuber and the video game world), screenings of shorts made in the classroom, collaborative gymkhana between parents and children and finally awards ceremony.

*Mediterránea Audiovisual is a non-profit association that, after two years linked to the Mice, International Educational Film Festival based in Valencia, creates and organizes the Proyecta Alc Competition for 2017. Within its organizational framework are the people from Alicante Bea Martínez (producer and cultural manager), Luis López Belda (Critic and teacher), Rocío Vicente (Graduate in Advertising and Public Relations and cultural manager) and Antonio L. Clavo, pedagogue at the IES Thiar center in Pilar de la Horadada (Alicante).

Following the success of the two previous editions, starting next week the MACA will once again host the original language film cycle in its facilities.

On this occasion, viewers will be able to enjoy a showcase on Kurosawa in the 80s, the latest Buñuel and a showcase of dance in cinema.