Ventana Cinéfila reaches 365,906 young viewers

This initiative brings together the festivals of Valladolid, Sevilla, Málaga, Huelva, and Sitges through ProFestivales21.

Ventana Cinéfila, the unique educational project that unites five of the most important film festivals in our country, has reached 365,906 young viewers in its fifth edition.

This activity, promoted by the Valladolid International Film Week, the Seville European Film Festival, the Málaga Film Festival, the Huelva Film Festival, and the Sitges - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, aims to foster cinematic education among young people and collaborates with the FILMIN film platform. In 2024, 1,000 primary and secondary schools registered, with almost 2,000 teachers participating from Castile and León, Andalusia, and Catalonia.

The Ventana Cinéfila programming, curated and agreed upon by programmers from each festival, offered, via the free online film channel FILMIN, seven feature films and two short film programs available from mid-October to the end of November 2024.

As a novelty this year, the festival programmers responsible for the selection recorded video presentations for each feature film and short film session, offering key thematic and stylistic insights as well as historical and cinematic context prior to classroom viewing.

Additionally, nine comprehensive educational guides, available in both Spanish and Catalan, were created for teachers to work with students, enhancing classroom discussions before and after screenings. These didactic materials were developed by Drac Màgic, a social initiative cooperative dedicated to the study and dissemination of audiovisual culture, recipient of the 2021 Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts. Among its standout projects are ‘Construir Mirades,’ an educational initiative on audiovisual languages; the Barcelona International Women’s Film Festival, featuring films directed by women; and Pack Màgic, a children’s film distributor.

In terms of programming, this fifth edition of Ventana Cinéfila saw, unlike previous years, the short film programs being the most in-demand, featuring animated and live-action titles. Nature and the environment were key themes, alongside topics like the animal world, friendship and empathy, or female empowerment. Meanwhile, the short films selected for secondary schools tackled gender identity, sexual diversity, climate change awareness, and the influence of social media on teenagers.