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A total of 127 directors from all of Europe opt for Seville for their national premieres and 29 for their international premieres, the festival has welcomed over 400 filmmakers and actors
In 2016 the festival had over 120,000 euros in box office take, 27.5% more than in 2015, with over 70,000 spectators in the cinemas
The Seville European Film Festival has, at the close of the present edition, a positive balance of results. When the average spectator’s interest is centred on seeing cinema, or other entertainment proposals, on digital platforms, or going to see premieres of commercial, highly promoted films in the best of cases, managing to fill cinemas for nine days offering European auteurist cinema is more than a success. It’s true that SEFF’s proposal is not only to see films, it also implies sharing the cinema with other filmmakers, talking about a film with its director, exchanging opinions, learning to look and understand how those around us look, coming out of a screening and going into another one in the next cinema, and sitting next to the protagonists of the previous screening anxious to see the work of another filmmaker, happy to be in Seville and to be experiencing SEFF. Going to the cinema is seeing a film; going to the festival is much more.
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SEFF REAFFIRMS ITSELF
When it comes to supplying audience and box office figures, the festival has the necessary infrastructure to issue certificates of compliance via the Instituto de la Cinematografía y las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), regarding the total or partial inclusion of spectators at festivals and in the overall calculation of spectators at a film.
For the first time the festival has surpassed 70,000 cinema spectators, and confirms an increase of 15% in attendance at screenings with regard to the 2015 edition. Another number that the festival has surpassed is that of 100,000 euros with a take of 120,659 euros, which means an increase of 27.5% on the last edition (94,581 €). Online sales were 56%, as opposed to 16% in 2015 due to the implementation and incorporation of a unique sales system via the internet sales platform of the Instituto de la Cultura y las Artes of Seville City Council which has meant an improvement in the festival’s online sales system, making it more accessible and improving its usability. As for season ticket sales, there has also been an increase, going from 1,617 to 1,816. The senior season ticket, a novelty in this edition’s season ticket system, has been very well received, with a total of 463 sales.
The Official section managed to improve its 2015 numbers, obtaining 16,101 spectators. The New Waves became the third section with most audience (after Europa Junior and the Official Section) and had 40% more audience with regard to the 2015 edition, with 10,163 spectators.
Audience attendance at the Resistances section, dedicated to our country’s new independent cinema and in which Andalusian directors also participate, grew by 18%. Teatro Alameda Calle Crédito, 13 41002 – Sevilla T. +(34) 955 473 190info@festivalcinesevilla.euwww.festivalcinesevilla.eu Es un proyecto de: 2 de 7
EFA established itself as one of SEFF’s most popular sections with 7,703 spectators; and Andalusian Panorama, despite being composed of mainly non-fiction titles, maintained attendance figures similar to 2015, 3,739 spectators, the year when it registered a 38% increase, confirming the solidity of the SEFF audience’s commitment to cinema made in Andalusia and by Andalusian filmmakers.
Europa Junior, now a quality competitive section and with its own entity since 2012, established itself in 2016 as the festival section with greatest attendance. Organised in coordination with the Department of Educational Programs (Area of Education, Citizen Participation and Municipal Buildings) of Seville City Council, as had been announced, it achieved a record figure of 24,528 spectators, as opposed to the 21,182 of last year, which means an increase of over 16% with regard to 2015, and it has managed to triple attendance since 2012.
This increase in Europa Junior’s audience is due to the important increase in participation by schools in the programmer, which has gone from 159 in 2015 to 181 (88 in the capital and 93 in the province), and which included 4,754 school children and young people in the different meetings with the directors of the films presented.
THE MOST SEEEN, THE MOST SHARED
In 2016, various films were shown to full cinemas in their SEFF screenings. In addition to the Opening and Closing Galas, held in the Lope de Vega Theater with the screening, respectively, of Une Vie and the winner of the Gold Giraldillo, Ma Loute, in the Official Section all the seats were sold for titles such Amor y amistad, La muerte de Luis XIV, Personal Shopper, United States of Love, Mimosas, Solo el fin del mundo, American Honey or the above mentioned Ma Loute. Several titles in other sections were also sold out, such as Aunque tú no lo sepas. La poesía de Luis García Montero (Winner of the IMAGENERA 2016 Award), Gurumbé. Canciones de tu memoria negra, La voz en lucha, and NO, un cuento flamenco, all of them included in the Andalusian panorama section (which testifies to the SEFF audience’s commitment to cinema made in Andalusia and by Andalusian directors), and also Toni Erdmann (EFA Selection) and In Bed with Victoria (The New Waves).
Also, 90% occupation was achieved (and in some cases surpassed) by special screenings such as Secuestro (within the Canal Sur Radio y Televisión Gala); the double session of the now classic Grotesque Popcorn Marathon programmed by Paco Campano (with the films Attack of the Lederhosen zombies and Mil gritos tiene la noche); and titles such as Un castillo en Italia (within the tribute to the actress and director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), The Student (The New Waves), Europe, She Loves (EFA Selection), Une Vie (Official Section) and Dogs (The New Waves).
CINEMA FOR EVERYONE: PLAN YOUR SEFF
The Seville European Film Festival has proposed a programme thinking of all audiences and all ages, in which each spectator will design his/her own festival, a SEFF for everyone. Teatro Alameda Calle Crédito, 13 41002 – Sevilla T. +(34) 955 473 190info@festivalcinesevilla.euwww.festivalcinesevilla.eu Es un proyecto de: 3 de 7
Once the programming was defined, the festival worked to promote it among social collectives interested in one or more contents through mediators, talks and meetings. They contacted a total of 219 associations, and also universities and senior citizen centers, along with Seville City Council’s adult education centres, which have participated in the festival.
When transmitting the information to each collective and at the information points where access to SEFF was supplied to the general public, various film itineraries were drawn up by the festival, linking films and activities by themes.
For this, the sale of tickets and season tickets was redesigned, maintaining the General Season Ticket and the Young Season Ticket and creating the Senior Season Ticket for those over 60, and facilitating the sale of group admissions.
GREAT FILMMAKERS IN SEVILLE DURING SEFF
The Seville European Film Festival offered the public the opportunity to meet, converse and share experiences with the almost 400 filmmakers and actors invited this year. Attendances at the festival’s activities and screenings have had 154 occasions to coincide with them at the presentation of their films in the cinemas -10 more than in 2015-, and converse in more than 100 Q&A sessions after the screenings.
Many of the great established names in European cinema visited SEFF in 2016, the most notable included Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Vincent Lindon, Olivier Assayas, Whit Stillman, Philippe Grandieux, Ulrich Seidl, Bertrand Bonello, Nadav Lapid, Eugène Green, Axelle Ropert, Tizza Covi, Szabolcs Hajdu, Jonathan Littell, Claudio Giovannesi, Federica Di Giacomo, Kurdwin Ayub, Vivienne Dick, Anka Sasnal, Wilhelm Sasnal, Judith Chemla, Joao Nicolau, Rita Azevedo, Marie Losier, Ben Rivers or Caroline Deruas.
New Spanish cinema’s great family also held interesting discussions with the audience, with participation by such members as Albert Serra, Oliver Laxe, Hernán Zin, Pablo Llorca, Ado Arrietta, Enrique Baró Ubach, Ramón Lluis Bande, José Luis Tirado, María Cañas, Isaki Lacuesta, Isa Campo or Luis Bermejo.
And some of the best known faces in Spanish cinema also passed through Seville, including Natalia de Molina, Ingrid García Jonsson, Manuela Vellés, Mary Paz Sayago, Nya de la Rubia, Cuca Escribano, Félix Sabroso, Antonio Dechent, Manolo Solo, Antonio Pérez, Antonio Saura, Ruth Gabriel, Ángeles González Sinde, Laia Marull, Carmen Pardo, Mercedes Hoyos or Pilar López de Ayala who was a member of the Official Jury.
PROGRAMMING: SUPPORT FOR EUROPEAN, SPANISH AND ANDALUSIAN AUTEURIST CINEMA
In 2016 the Seville European Film Festival screened 212 titles: 113 feature films, 8 medium length films and 91 short films. In the main competitive sections there were up to 42 first or second films, which shows the festival’s commitments to the new talents in European and Spanish cinema. Teatro Alameda Calle Crédito, 13 41002 – Sevilla T. +(34) 955 473 190info@festivalcinesevilla.euwww.festivalcinesevilla.eu Es un proyecto de: 4 de 7
Outstanding filmmakers in European cinema decided to premiere their works within the framework of SEFF. This year there were 27 world premieres (a record figure in the last 5 years), 2 international premieres and 127 Spanish premieres. In addition, the festival showed films from 44 countries (25 of them belonging to the Creative Europe programme, of which 20 belong to peripheral film industries considered as being of “low audiovisual capacity”).
In addition, this year the Resistances section has the backing of filmmakers in programming 9 world premieres and one international premiere even though the festival rules require only one Spanish premiere, which shows the filmmakers’ preference for presenting their films at SEFF rather than at other festivals.
In 2016 SEFF offered a total of 460 screenings (a record figure in the festival’s history –compared to the 450 in 2015 and the 410 in 2014-) on a total of 22 screens (in 4 venues: Lope de Vega Theatre, Alameda Theatre, Nervión Cinemas and CineZona, which presents the Europa Junior screenings and this year had to use three more cinemas than in 2015 in order to cover the increase in demand). In addition to these venues, there were screenings programmed at the Pablo de Olavide University and also one in the Seville Penitentiary Centre 1, with the collaboration of the NGO Solidarios.
In this regard, it should be mentioned that the quality of the screenings is one of the festival’s strong points, thanks to the optimum level of equipment available in the festival’s various venues. The excellence of the films’ image and sound were explicitly recognised by participating filmmakers such as Ulrich Seidl, Ado Arrietta, Whit Stillman, Oliver Laxe, Tizza Covi, Olivier Assayas or Eugène Green, among others.
INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS MEET AT SEFF
In 2016 attendance by film industry professionals from around the world at the Seville European Film Festival doubled, going from 219 guests in 2015 to 475 in 2016, which means an increase of 117%.
Accredited professionals at IndustriaSEFF saw that the offer aimed at their profiles had grown exponentially, and they could participate in the Europa Cinemas biennial workshop with the participation of over 40 exhibitors from all of Europe; in the conference for AEDAVA exhibitors with the participation of 29 exhibitors from all of Spain; in the speeches for the sale of audiovisual projects; in the conferences organized by Extenda, in the ‘XIV Conference on Animation Cinema and Videogames’ organized by the Fundación AVA, in the session of ‘Women in Focus’ organized by AAMMA or in the screenings of the official programme.
The notable activity in IndustriaSEFF 2016 was the first edition of ‘Spanish Screenings Sevilla TV’. Over 300 professionals and 70 buyers from more than 20 countries from around the world participated in this audiovisual market organized by FAPAE, in collaboration with the Agencia Andaluza de Instituciones Culturales (Department of Culture of the Andalusian Regional Government), and with the support of the Agencia Andaluza de Promoción Exterior, EXTENDA (Economic and Promotional Department of the Andalusian regional Government), of the Teatro Alameda Calle Crédito, 13 41002 – Sevilla T. +(34) 955 473 190info@festivalcinesevilla.euwww.festivalcinesevilla.eu Es un proyecto de: 5 de 7
Creative Europe MEDIA Andalucía Office, of PATE (Federación de productores españoles de televisión), EGEDA, Canal Sur Radio y Televisión, Aepaa-Apria and the Clúster Audiovisual, tecnológico, Industria creativa de Andalucía.
As a result of the activities in IndustriaSEFF there were sales of Spanish television programmes to France, Italy, Eastern Europe, Latin American and Asia. There were over 500 sales meetings between producers and holders of Spanish rights and international buyers.
Year by year the festival is becoming a source of interest for programmers at a national and international level. At a national level, because it is attended by programmers from other Spanish festivals and from Spain’s independent exhibition circuit in search of the year’s treasures in European and national cinema. At an international level, because the quality of the world and international premieres at SEFF attracts the attention of programmers from other festivals around the world.
This year Seville was visited by the programmers for festivals such as Locarno, Rotterdam, Toulouse, Belfort, DocLisboa, Lodz, Pula (Croatia), Essay Film Festival (London), Nederlands FF, London Short FF, Festibérico (Holland), Distrital (Mexico), Cineglobal (Dominican Republic), Lima Independiente, San Sebastian, Sitges, Festival de Cine de Autor de Barcelona -D'A, FilMadrid, Tabakalera-San Sebastian, Festival de Las Palmas, Albacete, Córdoba, Málaga, S8-A Coruña, ZineBi, Punto de Vista, Curtocircuito, Aguilar de Campóo, Novos Cinemas, Play-Doc, Alcances, Centro Pompidou, CGAI, IVAC or Filmoteca de Andalucía, among others.
The festival supports (and is supported by) the main Spanish film distributors. Up to 15 Spanish distributors have participated in SEFF 2016: Universal España, Surtsey, Avalon, La Aventura Audiovisual, Paco Poch, Noucinemart, Golem, Capricci Cine, PackMàgic, Compacto, Barton, Paycom, Film Buró, Abordar and A Contracorriente. Nevertheless The New Waves + Non Fiction + Resistances premiered 38 feature films without commercial distribution in Spain, showing that the festival also supports independent film without distribution or self-distributed.
PARALLEL ACTIVITIES: SEMINARS, MASTER CLASSES, SEFF DAY/SEFF NIGHT
A total of 1,289 people have participated in the 25 parallel activities which SEFF organised in 2016, to which must be added the 4,500 people who attended the 9 concerts included in the programming of SEFF Noche which increases its audience edition by edition, and the 3,960 visits received by the Exhibition ‘War on the screen. Spain 1936-2016’ which was installed in the Antiquarium, with the collaboration of the Centro de Estudios Andaluces and the Filmoteca de Andalucía.
Special mention must be made of the second edition of the Seminar ‘The resistant image: Stories and aesthetics from the “other” Spanish cinema”, hosted by CICUS for which the enrollment quota was sold out and seating had to be increased due to demand.
Literature has been one of the theme blocks at this edition of the Seville European Film Festival. SEFF made reading recommendations with the activity Read before seeing, an initiative which began this year, with participation from bookshops such as Casa Tomada, Un Gato en Teatro Alameda Calle Crédito, 13 41002 – Sevilla T. +(34) 955 473 190info@festivalcinesevilla.euwww.festivalcinesevilla.eu Es un proyecto de: 6 de 7
Bicicleta, La Fuga Librerías, Yerma Librería, La Jerónima, La Isla de Siltolá and La Extravagante Libros: they gave free tickets to the festival against the purchase of any of the books that inspired the films programmed by the festival.
CONVERSATION ABOUT EUROPEAN CINEMA, ALSO ON THE NETWORKS
The greatest change and evolution with regard to previous years has been the conversation generated about the festival on its online channels, that is, not only has the total reach increased, the hits and impressions or the number of fans and followers, but also interactions and dialogue. In this thirteenth edition we have continued working on the organic diffusion of the festival’s contents but what is important is that we have achieved “that engagement” with the public.
So, on Facebook, the relevant information is not only that it has surpassed 20,000 fans but, above all, that the reach of publications on Facebook since 20th September and up to the end of SEFF on 12th November, is close to half a million hits (483,157) and 154,290 interactions. Mention should also be made of the SEFFZILLA spot, which was reproduced 49,349 times if we add the different ways in which it was diffused or the summary videos which were made each day during the festival, with almost 16,500 views on SEFF’s various diffusion channels, doubling those in last year’s edition. On Twitter, there were 120,000 daily impressions with a total of 728,000 hits in the month of November. On Instagram, positive reactions multiplied by 10 with regard to the previous edition. Another of the achievements was the retransmission from Periscope of the announcement of the Prize Winners which reached 5,300 spectators and 37,125 impressions.
Also, for the first time, after its thirteenth edition, the Seville European Film Festival, using the SurveyMonkey tool, will carry out a satisfaction survey to get the impressions of the audience and festival guests.
SEFF: A PROJECT ON THE NET
The Seville European Film Festival is a project by Seville City Council’s Instituto de la Cultura y las Artes, and has the support of the Instituto de la Cinematografía y las Artes Visuales of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, and of the EU Creative Europe Programme. Its sponsors are Fundación Cajasol and Deluxe; Renault is its official vehicle and Hesperia Sevilla its official hotel, with the participation of Radio 3. SEFF receives the collaboration of Cinesur Nervión Plaza, Cine Zona, European Film Academy, Europa Cinemas, Acción Cultural Española, French Institute, Unifrance, Polish Institute of Culture, Austrian Cultural Forum, Austrian Film Commision, Eurimages, Fundación Tres Culturas, Tussam, Centro de Estudios Andaluces, Extenda, Agencia Andaluza de Instituciones Culturales, Canal Sur Radio y Televisión, Metro de Sevilla, Fundación SGAE, Centro de iniciativas culturales de Universidad de Sevilla CICUS, Pablo de Olavide University, Centro Cultural Italiano, Sociedad Francesa en Sevilla, Kónica Minolta, DëLonghi, Lanjarón,Apit Sevilla, Ines Rosales, La Abuela Produce, Puerto de Indias, Prodetur Diputación de Sevilla, Dispublis, Santa Teresa 1881 Aceite de Oliva, Artent, Starit, Eventival, Abades Triana. Teatro Alameda Calle Crédito, 13 41002 – Sevilla T. +(34) 955 473 190info@festivalcinesevilla.euwww.festivalcinesevilla.eu Es un proyecto de: 7 de 7
In addition the festival had a team of collaborators for configuring its programme of parallel activities. This consisted of the Faculty of Geography and HIstory, the Faculty of Fine Arts, the Faculty of Communication, AAMMA - Asociación Andaluza de Mujeres de los Medios Audiovisuales, FAPAE , AEPA-APRIA, FundaciónAVA, AEDAVA, the IES Néstor Almendros, the Unión de actores y actrices de Andalucía, the Escuela de Arte Dramático de Sevilla, Antiquarium de Sevilla, Casa de los Poetas y las Letras, Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, Dance Month, NGO Solidarios: Seville Penitentiary Centre ¡, Asociación A Bau A Qu, FILMIN, Instituto superior de estudios linguísticos y traducción ISTRAD, Aptent y Startit, Casa Tomada, Un gato en bicicleta, La fuga Librerías, Yerma Librería, La Jerónima, La isla de Siltolá, La extravagante libros, Sala Holiday, Sala X, Café Casino.
Media collaboration was provided by Cadena Ser, Grupo Joly, ABC, eldiario.es, el Correo de Andalucía and Cineuropa.
"Benchiha provides the viewer a touching view in the personal stories of the veterans and the Polynesian inhabitants who lived there during those tests. Through their perception we learn what really happened there and the immense consequences it brought them today and also in a broader sense; the entire world. How a beautiful spot in the southern Pacific Ocean irreversible changed into a horrid nightmare because of nuclear technology and its devastating power", explains filmmaker and visual artists Tineke van Veen(link is external) who attended the Uranium Film Festival in Berlin and presented her also impressive work about Fukushima. 
Uranium Film Festival director Norbert Suchanek is confident that "Greetings from Mururoa" (Bons baisers de Moruroa) has a good chance to win the festival´s Yellow Einstein award next year, 2017. 
Another nuclear film highlight was DEVIL’S WORK(link is external) by Director Miguel Silveira deals with the use depleted uranium weapons: A troubled 14-years-old boy grows increasingly isolated as he obsesses over the circumstances surrounding his father death his descent puts him on a dismal and potentially violent course that will lead to major truths and even greater questions. His father was a Soldier at the Golf War. He died because he was contaminated with Depleted Uranium. The film was Influenced by Professor Siegwart Horst Günther the "father" of the anti-uranium-weapons movement and who received the Nuclear-Free Future Award 2007. "It is the best movie about Depleted Uranium Weapons I have seen in my 20 years as activist against these weapons. I saw myself in that boy", says DU-expert Damacio A. Lopez, director of the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST) from New Mexico who watched the film Berlin.
Highlight number five in Berlin was of course the screening of "Fukushima. A Nuclear Story"(link is external) and the following award ceremony at the last festival day. Italian film director Matteo Gagliardi received the festival's Yellow Einstein Award for his exceptional feature documentary. It is the story of an Italian journalist, Pio d’Emilia, who refused to abandon his job even when the nuclear danger was at its greatest; the doubts and fears of man in the days following the threefold tragedy; the search for the truth regarding what really happened inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant... 
