The 12th Lanzarote Film Festival begins next week on Monday 9th April, with 95 short movies to be judged in numerous competitive categories, including a British entry in the International Short Film section. This selection of just under a hundred pictures is the result of the jury whittling down over 800 entries.

The entries will be screened between 9th and 13th April and can be seen at the Island Theatre in Arrecife, with categories such as Canarian Shorts shown at 19.00 each day, National Shorts shown at 20.30 and International Shorts at 22.00. The judges include local photographer Rubén Acosta, journalists Saúl Garcia and Georgina Cisquella and BisiQuevedo from the César Manrique Foundation. Up for grabs is a purse prize of €1,500 for the winning film in each category.

British film-maker Oscar Plewes directorial debut, ‘Gin and Dry’ is amongst the International Shorts that have been selected for the competition. The humorous film tackles the pressing subject of a booze shortage at a retirement home over Christmas! Plewes previously worked as a screenwriter on movies such as the ‘Green Zone’, the 2010 film set in Iraq and featuring Matt Damon.

A number of other English language short movies will also be screened, including ‘Dirty Laundry’ by South African film-maker Stephen Abbott and ‘Covariance’, a sci-fi romance produced by American film-maker Dawn Westlake. Also of especial interest for local residents is the free screening on 14th April featuring the ‘Made in Lanzarote´ category of short films, which will be showing alongside several short African movies.

Following the initial competition, there will be screenings of new Spanish feature length films at the Multicine Atlantida in El Charco, which will be attended by several leading Spanish actors and actresses such as TristánUlloa and Verónica Sánchez. Also anticipated to be in attendance is the Lanzaroteño director Roberto Pérez Toledo.

Amongst the movies to be screened at the Multicine Atlantida are La Vozdormida (The voice sleeps), Cinco metros cuadrados (Five square metres), De tuventana a la mia (From your window to mine) and La chispa de la vida (The spark of life). These will be showing between the 16th and 19th of April at 18.00 and 20.00.

A grand gala and closing ceremony takes place on 20th April at the Island Theatre in Arrecife, which is when the prizes will be awarded to the winning entries at the festival.