An old 16mm camera and a freezer feature in the Simon Ellis trailer for the Punto de Vista Seminar 2014

The crushing of ice. An old 16mm camera found in a market in the United Kingdom. A freezer and the patience of the filmmaker. “La imagen congelada / The Frozen Image”. A slogan in the hands of filmmaker, Simon Ellis. The film industry embraces the cold. Without leaving home. The header for the next seminar is ready. Visit, shiver and watch.

Simon's short films have received many awards and been presented collectively in retrospective programmes at film festivals worldwide. His BAFTA and European Academy Award nominated short film Soft won thirty-eight prizes including the jury prize for Best International Short at the Sundance Film Festival and Best Short Film at the BIFAs. He is the only director to feature twice in the prestigious Cinema 16 DVD series alongside directors such as Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan,  Tim Burton and Mike Leigh. His multi-narrative, interactive anti-knife crime films won over sixty international awards at the Clios, British Arrows, Campaign Big Awards, London International Awards, and the Cannes Lions, where he won the inaugural Grand Prix for Good, three Gold Lions and Best European Web Film. He was voted Best New Director for 2009 by the BTAA at the Craft Awards and also won Best Young Director at the CPE Shots Awards in Cannes 2010.

With this new header, Punto de Vista continues with its bid to give young filmmakers a voice and an opportunity at the beginning of all our sessions. Since 2010, the introduction to the festival has been passed over to an emerging figure from the film industry. This is the first time that a foreigner has been entrusted with doing so. We welcome the trailer by the British filmmaker, Simon Ellis, into our collection of visual aperitifs. Víctor Iriarte with a rewinding image of the snow; Fernando Franco and his frame man rescued from the prehistory of film; Daniel Cuberta and the impossibility of catching clouds and Kikol Grau, who took us to Tasmania and its mutant and strange beasts have gone before him.