Editor

The eighteenth edition of the festival is to be held in Pamplona from 11th to 16th March 2024

Punto de Vista, the international documentary film festival of Navarra, backed by the government of Navarra and organised by the public company NICDO, held its seventeenth edition from 27th March to 1st April. Six days packed with offerings that drew 5,300 viewers and included the latest trends in documentary film around the world, with pieces by both established and less well-known directors whose work is worth discovering.

Film-makers like Peter Nestler, Ana Poliak, Fukuda Katsuhiko and Pascale Bodet rubbed shoulders with other important names in the Official Selection – Lydie Wisshaupt-Claudel, Sharon Lockhart, Alassane Diago, Rainer Komers, Comes Chahbazian, Malena Zambrani and Peru Galbete, among others – as well as other more local figures like Deneb Martos, Oier Fuentes, Patxi Burillo, Mikele Landa and José Otero. There was also time to discover a lost film by Jean Epstein, listen to the musician from Gipuzkoa Ibon RG and consider the figure of a pioneer of scientific film, Guillermo Zúñiga.

Some of the most relevant details and aspects of this year's edition are listed below. It has just been announced that next year's edition, the eighteenth, is to take place in Pamplona from 11th to 16th March 2024.

Key figures  at  Punto  de  Vista  2023

• 5,300 people attended the screenings and other activities at Punto de Vista 2023.

• The official section was made up of 18 films from 13 different countries, from over 830 films entered this year. A highlight is the large number of premières: six world premières, one international première, two European premières and eight Spanish premières.

• This year a total of 438 people had festival passes, including professionals (233 people, 58%), students (120, 27%), journalists (55, 13%), the Youth Jury (19, 4%) and Young Programmers (11, 3%). Among these pass-holders, 47% were women, 39% men and 8% people who did not specify a gender.

• Punto de Vista had a total of 75 guests taking part in the screenings and other activities, with a high percentage of international profiles: film-makers, programmers, researchers and so on.

• Over the week more than 100 films were shown and more than 65 sessions were organised, including screenings and other activities.

• The full festival programme featured films from more than 20 countries around the world, including Argentina, Sweden, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Sudan, German, Spain, the United States, Peru, Senegal, Japan, France, Austria, Iran, Italy, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Portugal, Canada, Brazil and Ecuador, among others.

• The prizes awarded by the international jury, the X Films jury and the youth jury went to three women film-makers, three men and a collective made up of women and men. The Grand Prize for Best Film went to El polvo ya no nubla nuestros ojos by the Colectivo Silencio. Two women directors won prizes, for Best Short Film (Eventide by Sharon Lockhart) and Youth Prize for Best Film (Éclaireuses by Lydie Wisshaupt-Claudel). In turn, Notre Village by Comes Chahbazian won the Jean Vigo prize for Best Director, Maayo Wonaa Keerol by Alassane Diago the Special Audience Prize for Best Film and Apocalipsis 20 21 22 by Julius Richard Tamayo earned a Special Jury Commendation (Best Film category).

• Punto de Vista spread its programme across 8 different venues: Baluarte, Cines Golem, Museo Oteiza, Planetario de Pamplona, Filmoteca de Navarra, Centro Huarte, Civivox Condestable and Civican.

Festival partners and synergies

Year after year, Punto de Vista continues to expand its network of institutions and players in the arts industry both nationally and internationally. This year, the festival once again enjoyed the support of ICAA, Acción Cultural Española, Centro Huarte, Pamplona city council through the Civivox network, Fundación Caja Navarra, Radio 3, Filmoteca y Biblioteca de Navarra, Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza, Goethe-Institut, Golem, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Filmoteca Española, NAPAR, Cineteca, Institut Français, the Portuguese embassy, Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola and the Festival Scope platform.

Moreover, this year new partners joined or collaborated again with the festival, including Instituto Navarro de la Juventud, Carné Joven, Filmoteca de Catalunya, Filmoteca Valenciana CGAI, CCCB, Deutsche Kinemathek, the Argentinian embassy, Courtisane Festival, EiTB, Navarra Music Commission and DokLab Navarra.

Following the festival two of its programmes are to tour different arts venues around the country. After featuring in Punto de Vista, the Peter Nestler retrospective is also being shown in Barcelona (Filmoteca de Catalunya), Madrid (Cineteca), Coruña (CGAI) and Valencia (Filmoteca de Valencia). In the case of the focus on Ana Poliak, it has visited Madrid (Filmoteca Española) and Barcelona (Filmoteca de Catalunya).

Finally, it should be pointed out that the festival continued its efforts to foster professional networks, with activities organised by the bodies of which it is a member, including Federación Pantalla, La Mesta, Red IberoFest and Navarra Film Industry; and set up meetings and working sessions through projects like Doklab, and associations like NAPAR, CIMA and (H)emen.

Punto de Vista: a responsible festival

Punto de Vista sets out to be a socially responsible cultural event. This is why, gradually and year after year, it seeks to improve the impact it has in different areas.

On the one hand, the festival is aware of the need for all individuals, institutions and organisations to commit to environmental sustainability. This year audiences and guests at the festival were encouraged to try to be more sustainable, through specific measures in which they could take part. In 2022 we started to identify our biggest impacts, working hand in hand with environmental experts, with a view to reducing them. We also support the local economy through cooperation agreements with local suppliers and establishments in different areas.

Moreover, Punto de Vista has been a festival attentive to the need to ensure real gender equality in its field of action. The need to programme films made by both male and female directors, use inclusive language and highlight women film-makers whose work has not been sufficiently recognised forms part of Punto de Vista's everyday work.

Finally, the festival worked for the second year to be a family-friendly event with the Punto de Vista Playscheme: The Red Balloon. This gave the 2023 event a place for children between six months and twelve years old, open to staff, festival pass holders and the general public over several days of the festival. This initiative, set up jointly with CIMA, the association of women film-makers and audiovisual media, together with the Parenting at Film Festivals group, was run by Ludoteka Zorionak Kids & Party.