Four days of Festival, five categories, 25 hours of cinema and around 200 short films, by directors from almost 50 countries. These are the ingredients of 5th edition of Farcume – International Short Film Festival of Faro, which starts on Wednesday, 26th August and will last until Saturday, at the Algarve Hotel and Tourism School.
In 2015, there are new features at the program level, namely with regard to the alignment of short films. There is also confirmation of the Cinema do Mundo category, which had already been tried out in the 2014 edition, but which now assumes official status.
“Every night there will be films from the five categories [Fiction, Documentary, Videoclip, Animation and Films of the World]. At the time of selection, we define which are the best shorts and which are not so good. Hence, we also have a mix of stronger shorts with less strong ones, to present a more balanced program. We also wanted to balance short films in Portuguese with foreign ones», explained Bruno Lage, director of Farcume and president of the association that organizes the festival, the Faro 1540.
At the end, as is tradition, there are prizes for the best films in each category, awarded by a jury selected for that purpose, but also a prize for the favorite film of the public, who will be able to vote for their favorite short films. The full program of the festival can be consulted on the facebook page of Farcume, where other useful information is also available.
The prizes are “symbolic” and involve the attribution of a medal and a certificate of the prize. «Sometimes we also give a voucher for a hotel stay here in the Algarve. But the prize amount is not very relevant. What interests the directors is having the opportunity to see their work exhibited, to be selected for the festival», revealed the festival director, in an interview with Rádio Universitária do Algarve RUA FM.
On the first day there will be a small opening party, Urban Sunset, which will be a gathering between the directors who are present here, actors, guests and all members of the public who have the bracelet for the four days, in the courtyard of EHTA. From there until the final event, where the winners of the different awards will be announced, there are many hours of cinema to see.
For Bruno Lage, the program of this 5th Farcume denotes the growth and consolidation of this festival. «We always try to grow, in a sustained and very consolidated way. Initially, our idea was to make a festival of short films aimed at national production, but it soon became impractical for the second edition, because we were under great pressure to open the door to the Portuguese-speaking community», he said.
From there, even starting to receive films from all over the world «it was just a step» and the festival is now distinguished by the variety it presents, in terms of the provenance of the films it exhibits.
"From the third edition, we have always been growing, in this field, until we reach the point where, this year, it is easier to say which countries did not compete than those that competed (laughs)", said the president of Faro 1540.
This growing interest of foreign filmmakers in participating in Farcume led to the creation of an extra category, Cinema do Mundo, which had already been launched last year, in an experimental way. «This category has fiction, it has documentaries, but in a very oriented way to the culture of each country or region. And that is also the objective: for people to get to know the culture of distant countries», illustrated Bruno Lage. This category includes films coming from «Dubai, Iraq, Iran, New Zealand and Australia», among others.
This meteoric rise of Farcume, in terms of the interest of filmmakers from all over the world in participating, is still a reason for reflection for the organizers. “We can say that the festival was in the good graces of the directors. Perhaps because of the concept itself, as the EHTA has a fantastic atmosphere, both at night and outdoors. Candidates who come here are dazzled by the whole environment and pass it on to other colleagues», he considered.
The heavy weight of international films did not deprive Portuguese directors of space. «This year, to my great satisfaction, national production increased. Last year we had some Portuguese shorts, but not as many as this year. In 2015 we have 46 Portuguese short films, of great quality, some of them already awarded in other festivals. I was satisfied, because I noticed an evolution in national production», according to Bruno Lage.
The big bet of the Portuguese was in the area of fiction, followed by the documentary and video clip. "There are few Portuguese animations", added the director of Farcume.
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