Couplets for an Everlasting Eve

St. Agatha’s Eve is a deep-rooted Basque tradition in which people walk from house to house, accompanied by improvised verse-makers (bertsolaris), singing verses to the beating of long sticks. Building on this celebration, bertsolari Maialen Lujanbio composes a stark denunciation of gender violence. In verse after verse, she condemns the different manifestations of sexist violence and our inability to combat it. Based on these couplets, twenty young artists direct a collective-created piece, using different animation techniques.

Directores. The short film is a collectively-created work directed by twenty young Basque artists, coordinated by Bego Vicario. The stanzas and the transitions between them were distributed among the different artists, with the result that the film combines works made with a great variety of techniques. Thanks to the music and the rhythm of the songs, however, they create a highly suggestive formal and narrative unity, which brings new force and depth to the verses.

Preseleccionado Premios Goya 2018 (Spain)

Best Screenplay Euskal Zine Bilera (Spain)

Best Genre equality Award Euskal Zine Bilera (Spain)

Best Short film in Basque Asier Errasti Laburren Jaialdia (Spain)

Best Sound ALCINE Festival de Cine de Alcalá de Henares (Spain)

Best Short Film Leioako Film Laburren Lehiaketa (Spain)

Best Animation Short Film Cortada Festival de cortometrajes de Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)

Critics Award FICA Festival Internacional del cortometrajes Aguilar de Campoo (Spain)

Mind´s eye Award Short Short Story Film Festival (USA)

Best Short Film Festival Internacional Dona i Cinema (Spain)

Best Short Film Muestra de Cine Internacional de Palencia (Spain)

Best Animation Short Film Semana del Cine de Medina del Campo (Spain)

Best Short Film Barcelona Visual Sound (Spain)

Best Film Ville de Clermont-Ferrand Prize VIDEOFORMES. Clermont-Ferrand (France)

Best Price HUHEZINEMA (Spain)

Best Animation Short Film FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CORTOMETRAJES RADIOCITY (Spain)

Best Short Film FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DE DERECHOS HUMANOS (Argentina)

Best Animation Short Film CORTOSPLASH FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE DI CORTOMETRAGGI (Italia)

Best Foreign Experimental Short Film FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CORTOMETRAJES LIBÉLULA DORADA (República Dominicana)

Best Experimental Short Film FERFILM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Kosovo)

Best Video VIDEOMEDEJA INTERNATIONAL VIDEO FESTIVAL (Serbia)

Special Mention. Animation section FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CORTOMETRAJES FLOR AZUL (Argentina)

Best Short Film in basque BEGIBISTAN (Spain)