V EDITION

In its fifth edition, Elche International Fantastic Film Festival – FANTAELX celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the “Star Wars” saga. As a prelude, the documentary feature film “I am your father”, by Toni Bestard and Marcos Cabotá, was screened, a tribute to David Prowse, the actor who played anonymously the villain Darth Vader. There were also several talks and guests related to the universe created originally by George Lucas, such as the collector Gaby Navarro or the association Star Wars Alicante.

A new program of activities was also designed to watch on the big screen outstanding short films of fantastic genre in three categories: international, national and Alicante.

As complementary activities, a new edition of the colloquium “The Fantastic Panorama in Alicante” was carried out, with six presentations by authors from the province of Alicante, and two new sections were added that extended the festival during one more day: the Gorgona Section, coordinated by Dr. Mario-Paul Martínez Fabre, and the Frankenstein Section, coordinated by the writer Gregorio Sánchez.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2017 – CINES ODEÓN

22:00h-23:30h: SCREENING OF THE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM “I AM YOUR FATHER” (VOSE)

Tribute to David Prowse, the actor who played, anonymously and without showing his face, the villain Darth Vader. Not even in “The Return of the Jedi”, a fact that marked him forever. In the feature film, directed by Toni Bestard and Marcos Cabotá, the reason for this decision and its consequences is revealed.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2017 – CONGRESS CENTER

Festival conducted by Carmina García.

10:30h-13:30h: GORGONA SECTION

Conferences conducted by Dr. Mario-Paul Martínez Fabre on behalf of the Miguel Hernández University and the Vice-Rectorate of Culture and University Extension.

Theme: Creation of fantastic genre characters.

– José Manuel Meneses.
Professional of the world of FX, Characterization and Makeup. He’s worked in DDT’s Special Effects and Make-up department, and his career covers more than 40 titles. He’s participated in films such as “The Devil’s Backbone”, “Hellboy”, “A Monster Calls”, “El corazón del guerrero”, “Dagon”, “Timecrimes”, “Eva”, “Mama”, “Sleep Tight”, “Return to House on Haunted Hill”, “Doom”, “Agora”, “Darkness”, ” Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt”, “Common Wealth”, “[REC] 4: Apocalypse”, “The Impossible” or “Pan’s Labyrinth”, whose team won the Oscar for Best Makeup in 2007.

– Emilio and Jesús Gallego (Gallego Bros).

Professionals from the world of animation, illustration and digital design who studied at the Murcia Art School. In their works they emphasize series like “Qué frío hace en Helsinki”, “Shuriken School”, “The Fishtail Saga”, “Pirata & Capitano”; the illustration of books like “La tarde dorada”, “Iris y Dédalo: Buscadores de Dragones”, “Aprendiz de Fantasma”; or short films such as “La Sombra del Hombre Lobo”, “Arcade” or “Chupasangres”, which received the recognition of the Animacine International Animation Festival in Brazil and the Fantastic Film Marathon of Sants, in Barcelona.

16:30h-21:00h: FRANKENSTEIN SECTION

Conferences conducted by the writer Gregorio Sánchez Ceresola.

Theme: The world of science in fantasy cinema.

– “Science in the cinema: From King Kong to the Gravitational Waves”, with Francisco Javier Martínez Guardiola.

– “Geology and astrobiology: The science that Star Wars advanced”, with Nahúm Méndez Chazarra.

– “The spectator with X-rays in the eyes”, with Daniel Torregrosa.

Francisco Javier Martínez Guardiola holds a degree in Physics and Electronics Engineering. He obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Alicante in 2015. His research area is holography. He is currently an assistant professor at the University of Alicante and a researcher at the Institute of Physics applied to Sciences and Technologies. He develops diverse scientific divulgation activities with podcasts and talks. He is the founder of the Association of Scientific Dissemination of the province of Alicante (Spain). And he likes movies, but he is passionate about finding scientific flaws in films, although lately it is more difficult.

Nahúm Méndez Chazarra is a geologist and scientific disseminator, especially of topics related to planetary geology. He is currently collaborating with the HiTranslate project of the University of Arizona, with which he tries to bring planetary geology to the general public. He also writes in Naukas and Principia, and collaborates in the podcasts of Geocastaway and in the science section of the Cadena Ser Elche on Mondays.

Daniel Torregrosa is a chemist and science popularizer. Tesla Award of Disclosure 2017. Author of the blog “That pale blue dot” and sporadic collaborator of diverse media of science: journals (Principia), webs (Naukas, Cuaderno de Cultura Científica), press (La Verdad), radio (Onda Regional de Murcia, Radio 3, RNE), television (Trending Murcia TVM) and lecturer in events such as Naukas Bilbao, Passion for Knowledge, TED, University of Murcia, University of Alicante, UPV, gastronomic events (Soria Gastronómica), Weeks of Science (Murcia and Elche), ADCMurcia, schools and institutes. Co-founder and former president of the Association of Scientific Dissemination of the Region of Murcia.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 18, 2017 – CONGRESS CENTER

10:30h-13:30h: COLLOQUIUM “THE FANTASTIC PANORAMA IN ALICANTE”

Conducted by the journalist Óscar González, 6 fantastic genre projects are presented, covering different disciplines:

– El coleccionismo en el universo de Star Wars, with Gaby Navarro.
– The cinema project Colores, with Arly Jones and Sami Natsheh.
– The book Piel Metálica, with Irene Robles.
– The company IlustraStudios, with Jose Mojica.
– The book Metacine, with Miguel Herrero Herrero.
– The association Star Wars Alicante, with Toni Rico.

16:30h-18:30h: SCREENING OF SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION

– Alguien en la casa, by Ezequiel Vega (Argentina)
(1000 Gritos Festival Winner, with direct acces to FANTAELX)
– Lo Supero, by Ainhoa Menéndez (Spain)
– Count Your Curses, by Lorène Yavo (Belgium)
– Einstein-Rosen, by Olga Osorio (Spain)
– La Caja, by Aris Deligiannidis (Greece)
– La Bombarda, by Gregorio Sánchez (Alicante)
– MegaZoe, by Marc Oller (Spain)
– The Scared One, by Romain and Thibault Lafargue (France)
– Roake, by Joan Cobos (UK/ Spain)
– Modellastry, by Risto Kütt (Estonia)
– Le Plan, by Pierre Teulières (France)

Break.

19:00h-21:00h: SCREENING OF SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION

– Evströnger, by Silvia Conesa (Spain)
– Mírame, by Guillermo López Aliaga and Rafa G. Sánchez (Alicante)
– Flutter, by Vladimir Todorov (USA)
– Caronte, by Luis Tinoco (Spain)
– Verde Pistacho, by Paco Cavero (Spain)
– Marta, by Lucía Forner (Alicante)
– Pépé le Morse, by Lucrèce Andreae (France)
– Z Fest, by David Cordero (Spain)
– Fe, by Juan de Dios Garduño (Spain)
– RIP, by Albert Pintó and Caye Casas (Spain)

21:00h-21:30h: CLOSING

Award ceremony for the three categories:

– Best Short Film from Alicante (Spain): gift + direct access to Festival Navidades Sangrientas from Alicante.
– Best National Short Film (Spain): gift + direct access to Festival 1000 Gritos from Buenos Aires (Argentina).
– Best International Short Film (outside Spain): gift + direct access to Festival Internacional de Cine de Terror de Valparaíso (Chile).

Access to all festival activities was free, without prior reservation of invitation.

During the celebration of the festival, the public participated in the drawing of 5 double tickets for the Star Wars marathon on December 14, 2017 in ABC theaters, with the participation of the shopping center L’Aljub. More information here (in Spanish).

 

You can download the hand program in PDF from this link (in Spanish).

You can access the photo gallery from this link.