On 24 and 25 February 2023, the 1st Ceramics Film Festival (CICEMA) will take place in the Germanías Auditorium in Manises, which will also include the official presentation of the International Ceramics Film Festival, the first edition of which will be held in 2024 and will coincide with the 16th International Ceramics Biennial in our town.
The councillor for the Promotion of Ceramics of our city council, Xavier Morant, affirms that “the city of Manises, cradle of ceramics and UNESCO Creative City since 2021, is the ideal place to host this film event of international projection”. “Furthermore, this activity will create a link between cinema and ceramics that will position the name of Manises through the seventh art,” added Morant.
This exhibition and the future Festival are the initiative of their co-directors, Rafaela Pareja and Carlos García Aranda, and represent the culmination of an itinerary of successive exhibitions and film conferences on ceramics that these organisers have been holding since 2017 under the auspices of the Manises Ceramics Museum. The interest aroused by these previous events now leads to the planning of a more ambitious event that will position itself as the only film festival of its kind in Europe.
The opening gala will take place on 24 February at 7 p.m. in the Germanías Auditorium, where the bases of the future Festival, its graphic image, and the trophy, designed by the artist Enric Mestre, will be presented. An honorary award will also be presented to the filmmaker Javier Díez for his pioneering work in Spain in making documentaries about ceramic artists who promoted the modernisation of ceramics in our country and its integration into the plastic arts. The gala will be followed by a film session, which will be completed the next day with another screening session.
Because of its intrinsic attraction and its great power of dissemination, film art is an extremely valuable means of highlighting all the practices related to the world of ceramics and presenting them to both specialists and the general public. Our city is undoubtedly the ideal place to host this event, which will further enrich our municipality’s relationship with ceramics and strengthen its international projection.
