The province of Almería has today known a new milestone in its broad and intense relationship with the seventh art. This afternoon, the President of the Provincial Council, Javier A. García, announced that Almería will host the 2nd edition of the Carmen Awards of the Andalusian Film Academy in a spectacular gala to be held at the Auditorium Maestro Padilla on February 4, 2023.
This was announced by the president in a ceremony held in the Patio de Luces of the Provincial Institution in which he was accompanied by the mayor of Almería, María del Mar Vázquez; the delegate of the Government of the Council of Almería, Aránzazu Martín; the director of Canal Sur in Almería, Salva Moya and the president of the Andalusian Film Academy, Marta Velasco.
Activities in the province of Almería
The Andalus Film Awards ceremony will become the epicenter of a series of previous film-related activities to be held in the province of Almería and which will impact the close link between Almeria residents and their natural environments with this art. The Carmen Awards will include a novelty, the Award for the best national film without Andalusian production. The basics of the awards will be announced tomorrow, 11 October, thus opening the application process.
The president of the Diputación de Almería explained that “more than 300 professionals from our audiovisual sector will gather in Almería to award the best Andalusian films of the year, taking over from Malaga, which held the first edition with Antonio Banderas as an Honorary Award. . Since its inception, the awards have had a marked Almeric flavor, we have over 70 years of experience with the best shots in history and an established film festival, FICAL, which gives us the experience needed to host this event ”.
Likewise, he thanked the Andalusian Film Academy, the Municipality, the Andalusian Government and Canal Sur for their joint support and collaboration in making this important event a reality in the province. Javier A. García concluded that “due to our history and Almeria’s professionals in the sector, the Provincial Council of Almería could not let this magnificent opportunity pass. It is a great showcase for the world, with enormous repercussions, which will make us the epicenter of Spanish and Andalusian cinema ”.
For his part, the mayor of Almería, María del Mar Vázquez, said that holding these awards “will not only be an excellent opportunity for us to continue making cinema an element of cultural, tourist and social revitalization, but also as a reminder of everything that cinema brings to Almería. “For him, cinema” is an industry capable of generating jobs and wealth for many people, and not only fills theaters and adds customers to platforms, but also helps fill bars, hotels, restaurants, shops …, and has the effects of a rapid translation into another of our basic industries: tourism ”.
Industry support from Almería
For all these reasons, Vázquez stressed that the Municipality of Almería “collaborates and will continue to collaborate with the development and growth of the film industry in Almería. We will continue to provide facilities so that more and more production companies want to come and shoot here, to take advantage of our natural settings and, in a very special way, our light in films, shorts, commercials or video clips ”.
The delegate of the Council of Almería, Aránzazu Martín, intervened along the same lines, underlining “” the common commitment that exists in the province for the cinema and the audiovisual sector thanks to all the possibilities that Almería offers ”. In this way he referred to the “Fical International Festival or Almería Western Film Festival which, together with others held in the province, project the best of the film industry and the many possibilities offered by our province, which is why the administrations We must stay on the side of the sector and of all the people who make it up, just like the Andalusian government is doing ”.
“A great honor”
The director of Canal Sur in Almería, Salva Moya, called this event in Almería “a great honor” and underlined the firm commitment of RTVA to cinema, which “was greatly strengthened by the creation of a specific department, but also by strengthening the programming of films on the grid and in prime time, as well as extensive news coverage, the investment of over 18 million euros in recent years to promote more than 200 productions and our presence in more than 20 film festivals “.
Finally, the president of the Andalusian Film Academy, Marta Velasco, thanked the Provincial Council of Almería for hosting the Carmen Awards and assured that “Almería, the traditional land of universal cinema, is an ideal place to highlight the best of the Andalusian film production of 2022. For this Academy it is an honor and a pride to have the support of a Provincial Council which for decades has been involved in the production and dissemination of cinema inside and outside our borders ”.
