The lost picture show: first Spanish web film festival goes online

We've already had internet short film festivals (Notodofilm), false trailer festivals for movies that don't exist (Teaserland) and, a month ago, a festival for French feature films?Myfrenchfilmfestival, which in Spain you could see via Filmin.es, the most important Spanish website for indie cinema and viewing films via online streaming.

Now, given the success of that French film competition, Filmin begins its first online festival for Spanish films on Saturday.

"Our aim," says Jaume Ripoll, director of the project and cofounder of the website, "is to distribute Spanish-language feature films shot in the last two years that still haven't been released."

With that in mind from Saturday February 5 until March 5 you'll be able to view 10 unreleased feature films competing in the official selection and, in the out-of-competition strand, another five films that have been released commercially in theaters but are still unavailable on DVD.

"Our aim is to distribute Spanish features that haven't been released"

The jury comprises director Mar Coll and producer Agustín Almodóvar

The festival is called the Atlántida Film Fest: "It's born with the intention of helping the feature films in the competition section find distribution in the rest of the industry's channels," says Ripoll.

"That's why we are awarding two prizes?one from the jury and one from the public?that will guarantee the winning films distribution in movie theaters, on DVD, on TV and that they are seen in eight European countries," says Ripoll.

To that end it is collaborating with the Renoir and Golem cinema chains, distributor DVD Cameo?Filmin's sister company?media store FNAC and the TV channel Cinemateka.

So, how can you see the films in the festival?

"Premium users of our site will have access to the festival without any additional cost, while the rest of the viewers will be able to enjoy the films in the official selection for a price of 1.95 euros per film and the out-of-competition films for 2.95 euros," says its chief.

The profits generated by the films will go to their creators after costs for the event have been taken off.

The jury is made up of the directors Mar Coll and Judith Colell, the producer Agustín Almodóvar, and Alberto Tognazzi, the chief of the Móvil Film Fest.

Among the competition films are several surprises, as well as titles that have been acclaimed following their appearances at "analogue" festivals?you remember, the ones with theaters and stalls. For instance, you can see Todos vós sodes capitáns, the film that won Galicia's Oliver Laxe the FIPRESCI Award at the last Cannes Film Festival Director's Fortnight.

There's also Naufragio, the new work from Pedro Aguilera?director of the much-admired La influencia?which received a mention at the last Seville European Film Festival, and Nicaraguan movie La Yuma, the story of a young girl from Managua who wants to be a boxer that has triumphed on the South American festival circuit.

Meanwhile, Miguel Ángel Jiménez's Ori must be the only Spanish feature film to have been directed in 24 hours... in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia.

Also worth a mention is El árbol, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona, which is produced by two prestigious filmmakers: the Mexican Carlos Reygadas and the Spaniard Jaime Rosales.

The out-of-competition selection features five films little-seen outside the festival circuit and arthouse movie theaters in Madrid and Barcelona.

They are Agustí Vila's La mosquitera, Lluís Galter's Caracremada, Daniel Villamediana's La vida sublime, Jo Sol's Fake Orgasm and Igor Iglesias' Tom Zé, astronauta libertado.

The event also has a few ulterior motives: "We are leaving the deadline for entries open so that any producer or distributor interested in forming part of it just has to write an email to Filmin," says Ripoll.

There's still time, it seems, for the Atlántida Film Fest to grow.