In Requena, when the temperature gets a bit warmer, I know that a very engaging event is coming. For the symbolic price of just 3 euros, each ticket covers all 3 days of the festival, in addition to free access to well-known monuments and museums for the whole weekend. The short film festival, Requena y…Acción! is, for me, one of the most interesting events held in Requena in the last few years. I never miss it!

The Teatro Principal hosted the fifth edition of the festival during the first weekend of June. As one of the short film directors said in his speech, this local Requena theater is a really pretty place–in his opinion, one of the most beautiful theaters he seen. As a musician, I have performed several different shows in this wonderful venue and I completely agree.

Although I couldn’t attend the oppening gala on Friday afternoon, the program included an aerial dance performance and the projection of a short film outside of the competition.

The festival is divided into two parts. One part is a local contest where amateur filmmakers shoot their own short films, filmed at least in part at locations in Requena. The second part is the official section of the festival, with high quality works, some of which are shown at very renowned international festivals.

Saturday after lunch, it was time for the Astoria contest, the local one, named after an ancient cinema in Requena that closed down several years ago. The festival’s promotional video for this year was a tribute to the Italian film Cinema Paradiso and was filmed in the Cinema Astoria. Siesta is a very risky time to schedule events, but the audience was in the theater ready to watch the shorts.

Afterwards, the official section began, with 3 rounds of 5 short films each. Every round lasted over 70 minutes and had a break of about 15 minutes in between. To be honest, I have to say that sitting in an old seat the whole afternoon was no piece of cake. Then again, I guess I wasn’t too bothered because the next day at 5:30 p.m., I was there for last round, the only one on Sunday.

In addition to films there were other activities throughout the weekend including the projection of a film, live music and a workshop for children. This year, I enjoyed watching short films of several genres, filmed in several languages (e.g: Chinese, Catalan, English…) and in several countries.

In my opinion, each of the 1000 tickets should be sold out every day of the competition; despite the somewhat uncomfortable seating, the festival deserves it. In the end, though, it can be nice to attend events that are not completely packed with people because there is more space to fully enjoy them.