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Raúl García Hémonnet/Editor
On November 30, the award ceremony of the 'I FlixOlé-URJC Awards for Spanish Film Research' will take place. It will be held at the Film Academy at 11:30.
The FlixOlé-URJC Awards were born to encourage the already growing scientific research on Spanish cinema and generate a breeding ground that allows the enhancement of the country's film heritage while promoting the cinematographic knowledge of the people who will integrate the industry in the future. Along these lines, these awards also serve to highlight those cultural initiatives by the media and professionals who are committed to disseminating Spanish cinema.
For Mario Rajas, director of the chair, "these awards serve to give visibility to the large number of excellent end-of-degree projects, doctoral theses or scientific articles that are produced each year at universities. We want to reward and encourage the analysis, dissemination, and appreciation of our cinema. That is why we also hand out awards for the best article in a film magazine, best TV program, best emerging medium, best book or best professional career in the field of Spanish cinema”.
The best TFM, from the URJC
Among the various academic awards, the best Final Master's Project goes to Laura Lezama, a graduate of the 'Cultural Journalism and New Trends' master's degree. Laura has analyzed the evolution of the 'quinqui' genre in Spain.
Laura Lezama will receive the award along with the rest of the authors of the finalist academic projects in this first edition, which have been evaluated by a committee of experts made up of professors and researchers. Among the dozens of works, theses and articles presented on Spanish cinema, the jury has selected the following titles for each of the categories:
- Best Final Degree Project (TFG): José Luis Garci as film critic: The theory of undervalued cinema, a project signed by Javier Navarro (University of Murcia).
- Best Final Master's Project (TFM): The “quinqui”: an analysis of the evolution of the genre in Spain, presented by Laura Lezama (Rey Juan Carlos University).
- Best Doctoral Thesis: The restless gaze: the narrative structures of the western and thriller in the cinema of Gonzalo Suárez, by Rafael Cherta (Universitat Jaume I).
- Best Academic Article published in a scientific journal: Neither nominated nor winners: the women at the Goya Awards (1987-2021), by Nadia McGowan and Begoña Yáñez-Martínez (Ediciones Complutense).
As Professor Rajas points out, “the awarded works stand out for their quality, not only as great research or dissemination works, but also for the original, fresh and critical perspective that they contribute to the study and dissemination of our cinema. The winners contribute with their texts to get to know, to enjoy more of our great films and authors”.
Special prizes for the dissemination of Spanish cinema
In addition to the academic awards, the contest will also honor those journalistic, audiovisual and multimedia proposals that promote national cinematography through specialized magazines, editorials, radio and TV programs, digital media and profiles on social networks. Thus, the evaluation committee has ruled in favor of granting a special prize to different personalities and cultural spaces that have contributed to promoting Spanish cinema. More information, here
The event, in which the awards of the nine categories that make up the contest will be presented, will be led by the director of the RTVE program 'Días de Cine', Gerardo Sánchez. Likewise, the act will have the participation of the promoter of FlixOlé, Enrique Cerezo; the rector of the URJC, Javier Ramos; the president of the Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite; the dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Rafael Gómez; the critic, Carlos Boyero and the producer, Manuel Cristóbal. The act will have the collaboration of DO La Mancha.
Many activities in a short time of life
Despite being almost a newborn, the FlixOlé-URJC Chair of Spanish Cinema has been characterized by proposing a large number of initiatives in the short time that it has been running, its director recalls them, "in this half year that we have been carrying out cineforums on different themes, conferences on José Luis López Vázquez and Juan Antonio Bardem, tributes from great films, workshops and 'masterclasses'. We are very satisfied, and looking forward to undertaking many other activities that we have planned for 2023”.
For 2023, among other actions, the chair plans to hold a conference on Fantaterror, a congress on film editing, meetings on aspects such as the production of videos and podcasts on audiovisual language and music from Spanish film heritage. In addition, the cinefórum and the monthly 'masterclasses' will continue.