Interview

Judith Colell

NEW DIRECTOR OF THE CATALAN FILM ACADEMY

“TV3 has to be the hub of our productions again”

Amid times of austerity in the culture sector, the Catalan Film Academy has voted in a new management team headed by film director Judith Colell, who aims to bring a new approach to strengthen the local filmmaking industry

we have to let people know that what we do is fantastic TWO CATALAN PRODUCTIONS ARE AMONG THE THREE PRE-OSCAR NOMINATED FILMS
I think it’s fantastic that a certain percentage of production is protected here IT’S A PITY WE DON’T HAVE MORE FILMS IN CATALAN... THE ONES WE DO HAVE ARE VERY STRONG

On June 14, the can­di­dacy led by Ju­dith Colell won the Cata­lan Film Acad­emy elec­tions. A lit­tle over three months have passed and the new pres­i­dent, born in Sant Cugat del Vallès in 1968 and di­rec­tor of films such as Elisa K, 53 Days of Win­ter and 15 Hours, has gone to work with her team: Vice Pres­i­dent Sergi Moreno (pro­ducer); Carla Simón, Alba Cros and Sílvia Quer (di­rec­tors), Car­los R. Ríos (dis­trib­u­tor and di­rec­tor of the D’A fes­ti­val), ac­tors Maria Molins and David Verda­guer, ed­i­tor Ana Pfaff and screen­writer Ed­uard Sola.

Do you stand by what you said in the elec­tions, that you aren’t one to com­plain about every­thing?

Yes, to­tally. I think if we have to com­plain and ask for things, we have to do it be­hind closed doors. In front of the pub­lic, what we have to do is show our de­sire for cin­ema to rep­re­sent us and help us cre­ate a col­lec­tive imag­i­na­tion, and also to in­sist on the im­por­tance of con­tin­u­ing to make Cata­lan au­dio­vi­sual con­tent and in Cata­lan. And we also have to let peo­ple know that what we do is fan­tas­tic, that we have a lot of tal­ent: we’re con­stantly in­volved in in­ter­na­tional fes­ti­vals, win­ning prizes, the only Span­ish rep­re­sen­ta­tive at the Cannes fes­ti­val is a Cata­lan film [Lib­er­tad], we won an award at the Lo­carno fes­ti­val, we won all the awards in Málaga... two Cata­lan pro­duc­tions are among the three pre-Oscar nom­i­nated films. We have a lot of tal­ent, great pro­duc­ers and great di­rec­tors and tech­ni­cians work­ing all over the world, and we have to let the pub­lic know that so as to draw them in. That’s what the French do, and I’d like us to be a bit more French about it.

Do you think there’s one point in your elec­tion pro­gramme that at­tracted the most votes? Could it be the one about gain­ing “in­dus­trial mus­cle”?

I think that was an im­por­tant issue. Peo­ple were very wor­ried and we saw that maybe we should focus more on that. I don’t know why we won; they trusted us. Also, due to our ex­pe­ri­ence, as I have a lot, both in the Span­ish acad­emy, where I was vice-pres­i­dent for six years, and the Cata­lan one.

What will you do to gain “in­dus­trial mus­cle”?

With the Àgora Gaudí [train­ing pro­gramme], with the res­i­dences, with fi­nan­cial sup­port and hard work, we hope this will help cre­ate new scripts and that these will be de­vel­oped in greater depth. We’ll have mas­ter­classes, in­ter­na­tional cast­ing agents... These are small things that can help. Now, the im­por­tant work in re­cov­er­ing in­dus­trial mus­cle is not some­thing we should or want to do our­selves. First, the pro­duc­ers have to do it, the Proa and PAC as­so­ci­a­tions are fight­ing in that re­gard, and there are all the other as­so­ci­a­tions. Ob­vi­ously we, as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the whole sec­tor, will be there, talk­ing to the in­sti­tu­tions, both here in Cat­alo­nia and in Madrid, putting on pres­sure and in­sist­ing, talk­ing to every­one... We all share the same aims.

What do you think about the new Span­ish au­dio­vi­sual law that will reg­u­late plat­forms?

Like every­one else in Cat­alo­nia, I think it’s fan­tas­tic that a cer­tain per­cent­age of pro­duc­tion is pro­tected here. I think it should be higher, I don’t know why France and Ger­many can ask for a higher per­cent­age of pro­duc­tion in their lan­guage. Also, it’s worth not­ing that we have four of­fi­cial lan­guages here, and there are quo­tas for each of them.

Will you keep the spe­cific prize for films in the orig­i­nal Cata­lan ver­sion, of which there are again very few this year?

At the mo­ment yes. This is a topic that needs to be dis­cussed with aca­d­e­mics. This year, we have not made any changes to the rules of the Gaudí Awards be­cause we didn’t have time to con­sult the as­sem­bly. But ob­vi­ously, for next year, this and many other things will be dis­cussed: the act­ing awards [whether we con­tinue to dis­tin­guish be­tween ac­tors and ac­tresses], new awards we might want to in­clude...

Do you have a po­si­tion on the spe­cific award for films in Cata­lan or do you just want to open a de­bate on the sub­ject?

We want to open the de­bate. The idea I have is per­sonal to me, it’s mty point of viewn. I hope there’ll be more films in Cata­lan next year, what we can’t have is that there are so few. In­ter­est­ingly, the ones that are there are very strong, they’ve been to fes­ti­vals and won many awards, but it’s a pity that we don’t have more.

Are you mak­ing plans for four years or look­ing fur­ther ahead?

Four years! I can only be there for four years, I was on the pre­vi­ous board for four more years, I was the sec­re­tary, and that will add up to eight years. I think there are a lot of things that can be done in four years and we’ll get them ready so the next board can im­ple­ment them.

The pre­vi­ous pres­i­dent com­plained about TV3 a lot. Do you feel the same?

Our po­si­tion is ba­si­cally to lis­ten to the in­dus­try. Ob­vi­ously, TV3 needs more fi­nan­cial sup­port. We al­ways give the ex­am­ple of 10 years ago, when TV3 was the main­stay of our pro­duc­tions. It was the year of Pa negre, a film of mine, Elisa K, and other pro­duc­tions... We need to go back to that TV3, which not only had the big pro­duc­tions, but also the most au­teur films like Caracre­mada or Aíta. TV3 has far less fi­nan­cial sup­port now and this means that they can­not be the main sup­port for Cata­lan cin­ema. How can we sup­port it? We don’t know. This is an issue that needs to be ad­dressed as well.

Is giv­ing the Pepón Coromina Award to Cin­ema en Curs an ex­am­ple of the im­por­tance the new board wants to give to ed­u­ca­tion?

It was a co­in­ci­dence [laughs], a jury de­cides, but when they told me I was very happy about it, be­cause we’re very com­mit­ted to this type of ed­u­ca­tional pro­ject. Drac Màgic are hon­orary mem­bers and now this award for Cin­ema en Curs. One of the im­por­tant pro­jects of our can­di­dacy for which we al­ready have a com­mis­sion, and we are work­ing on it, is ed­u­ca­tion and film. We hope to have the sup­port of the Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion and Cul­ture. Cin­ema en Curs works, and won­der­fully well: they ed­u­cate new au­di­ences, they teach them to see an­other type of film... They teach them to watch. We’re very happy with the award, it feels like a state­ment of in­tent.

in­ter­view FILM

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