Following the line of recent years of lightening fixed budgetary charges, the Government of Spain, through the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), decided to withdraw nominative grants to the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival alleging that “there are no reasons for a differentiated treatment” with other contests of similar characteristics. Said aid, which had been paid since 2005, will be compensated by an increase in the contributions of the patrons who remain in the festival: the Huelva City Council, the Provincial Council and the Junta de Andalucía.
The Huelva Festival ends this Friday with the closing ceremony at the Gran Teatro and honorary award to Fernando Trueba
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The appointment, which will celebrate its 48th edition next November, not only does not seem to suffer from this loss, but has managed to increase its budget above 600,000 euros. This has been possible, mainly, due to the determination of the mayor of the city and president of the Foundation, the socialist Gabriel Cruz, who responded quickly to what could have been a crisis for the finances of the event. Specifically, Cruz decided to almost quadruple his contribution, from 96,000 to 350,000 euros, while the Provincial Council doubled the amount contributed in recent years: from 60,000 to 120,000 euros.
For its part, the Ministry of Culture and Historical Heritage of the Junta de Andalucía, which last year put 84.00 euros, has not yet made a firm commitment because it still has to approve its accounts for 2022 and there are elections around the corner. corner, but his commitment is also to double his contribution, up to 170,000 euros. In total, this year there would be 554,000 euros contributed by the employers, that is, 230,000 euros more than the last edition.
Competitive competitive aid option
According to the local newspaper Huelva Information, if we add to the amount indicated the contribution of private sponsors, which are estimated at over 70,000 euros, a budget of between 600,000 and 700,000 euros could be reached, that is, between 200,000 and 300,000 euros more than in the last editions. And they continue to opt for organizational aid in competitive competition, which could be an additional source of income.
The news, which had been announced last April, has become topical again through a response from the Executive to the far-right deputy Tomás Fernández, who criticized the withdrawal of aid to “one of the most important cultural events” . The Government has responded that the Huelva Festival has only lost nominative aid, but has the possibility of accessing competitive competition open, “which is the usual way to grant its aid.” Likewise, he explained that the aforementioned direct contribution that was granted to the Huelva festival in the General State Budgets has been used this year to increase the line of competitive aid for the organization of film competitions, which this year has a total amount of €1.3 million.
This decision had already been criticized previously by other political groups such as Ciudadanos or Partido Popular, who spoke of “scared” and “jug of cold water”, and accused the Government of “once again turning its back on the province”. Specifically, the spokesman for the popular in the Huelva Town Hall, Jaime Pérez, promised to restore nominative aid in the event that his party returns to Moncloa, and branded the current mayor’s decision a desperate attempt to “cover up the embarrassments ” of the government of Pedro Sánchez.
looking at 50
Even tougher was the deputy spokesperson for Citizens in the Huelva City Council and member of the Festival’s Board of Trustees, Noelia Álvarez, who called for the creation of “a common front” to demand that the central government return to the board of trustees and face to something that, according to his words, “is not a question of colors or parties, it is a question of Huelva, of not remaining impassive in the face of a new grievance by the Central Government, do we just stand by and do nothing? Unless it is reflected in the history of our festival and our city that the City Council fought for it”.
Calm
The director of the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, Manuel H. Martín, remains faithful to his habit of not making statements on matters of this kind, but sources close to him assure that the organizing team has remained calm at all times after the withdrawal of Culture, celebrates the increase in the budget and, above all, the positioning of its brand after some years of anxiety. The mayor himself admitted that there had been a situation close to abandonment that could be redirected “betting on restoring it to the position it should have.”
It should be remembered that only Malaga, Sitges and San Sebastián, among the Spanish film festivals, continue to receive nominative aid from the Executive. At least, the 2022 edition of the Ibero-American is guaranteed, and the sight is already set on the 2024 edition, which will be number 50. For the most optimistic, it will be the million-euro edition.
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