The San Sebastian Festival and the Basque Government, through HAZI, the public company belonging to the Basque Government Department of Food, Rural Development, Agriculture and Fisheries, open the call for submissions for the third edition of the Eusko Label micro-short film competition. The initiative aims to draw attention to local Basque produce through the cinema, while fostering and raising awareness of sustainability in the world of our agriculture, livestock and fishing.
Apart from the films competing for the two awards in the section, coming with 6,000 and 4,000 euros, Eusko Label will include a non-competitive selection of works commissioned by the Festival from prestigious filmmakers from the Basque Country. Last year Mikel Gurrea, Andrea Jaurrieta, Borja Crespo, Iratxe Fresneda and Jaione Camborda took part in the initiative.
The deadline for submitting short films via the Festival website opens today and closes on August 17. The works must have a maximum runtime of three minutes and must be filmed on a mobile phone. The subject matter of the films must be related to the goals of the Eusko Label section, which seeks to send positive messages showing how the rural and coastal areas of the Basque Country and its primary sector contribute to urban society.
The Festival Selection Committee will select six shorts from all those submitted, and an expert jury will decide the winners of the Eusko Label to carry off a first prize of 6,000 euros and a second of 4,000 euros. The winning works will screen at the Festival, and the awards will be presented at the closing gala.
In addition to the six works in competition, the Eusko Label section will once again include short films produced by the San Sebastian Festival, which will commission some filmmakers of the Basque Country to make shorts related to the values promoted by the Basque Government through HAZI. The Festival will hold the rights to these short films to screen in Spain and internationally in the endeavour to make the Eusko Label initiative known to places outside the Basque Country too.
Eusko Label is part of the San Sebastian Festival’s commitment to the Basque primary sector and sustainability, which translates into a number of measures to reduce the impact of its carbon footprint and raise awareness of environmental matters, together with initiatives such as the Euskadi Basque Country 2030 Agenda Award.