The Galernak festival awards students from the UPV/EHU's School of Architecture for their short films

2021 November 26

• The Atlantic Architecture Film Festival, which took place from 23 to 26 November as part of the Mugak/ Biennial, has celebrated its awards ceremony this Friday.
  
• The Galernak Award for Best Short Film was for ' Goraintziak aitonari', by Malen Jauregialtzo and Lierni Armentia, and the Mirada Galernak Award for the most architectural piece was for 'Bekerekak', by Martin Lasa, Iker Crespo and Simon Carranza, which also won the Galernak Audience Award.
• This first edition of Galernak received a total of 20 audiovisual pieces from countries such as Spain, Greece, Ireland and Bulgaria
  

Short films made by students at the UPV/EHU's School of Architecture won the three prizes at the Galernak Atlantic Architecture Film Festival today, Friday. The event, which held its first edition from 23 to 26 November as part of the Mugak/ Biennial, today awarded the prizes to a total of eight short films selected from various European countries.

The Galernak Award for Best Short Film, with a prize of €2,500, went to 'Goraintziak aitonari', a work by students Malen Jauregialtzo and Lierni Armentia, for its reflection on space and ways of inhabiting it, its friendly relationship with the past and its active commitment to the present. And, in short, "for demonstrating that film and architecture can go hand in hand to tell simple family stories", announced the jury. 

The second Galernak prize, awarded to the most architectural piece, went to 'Bekerekak', by Martin Lasa, Iker Crespo and Simón Carranza, for its technique and subtlety, for rescuing a little-known and almost forgotten history. "For talking about tradition, nature and the human in a very fresh and modern way. In short, for knowing how to apply the festival's slogan and at the same time paying homage to all those people who perished in this tragic passage of Bermeo's history", the jury emphasised. In addition to the corresponding prize of €1,000, the audience awarded it the Galernak Audience Award, worth a further €500.

This first edition of Galernak, organised by the School of Architecture of the UPV/EHU (ETSA) in collaboration with the Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE), has received since its opening in September a total of 20 short films from students from countries such as Spain, Greece, Bulgaria and Ireland.

A total of eight were selected for the competition, works that have been screened during these days of the festival at the Euskadi Institute of Architecture: in addition to 'Goraintziak aitornari' and 'Bekerekak', they are 'Et vigilo est nobis', by Maria Konstantinidou; 'Atormenta', by Juan Domingo Torres Trueba; 'The inhabitable island', by Keeva O'Sullivan; 'Nuestro campo de juego', by Eduardo Espinosa; 'El mar', by Ylenia Alonso; and 'Lost landscapes', by Calum Gallogrey.    

The proposals could be seen on 24 and 25 November, with four pieces per session, which were complemented by conferences with professionals on film and architecture organised by EQZE and the San Sebastian Festival. Around 120 people attended each day. "We value this first edition very positively, both for the quality of the winning works and for the public's response. For the next edition, we have already thought of adjustments to reinforce the idea of it being a meeting point between architecture and cinema, between architects and filmmakers", said the curator, Ekain Olaizola.

The jury

The first two prizes were awarded by a jury made up of an architect, an architect-filmmaker and a filmmaker. The first is the director of the ETSA of the UPV/EHU, Juan José Arrizabalaga, born in Donostia-San Sebastián. The second is Jesús Lacorte from Tenerife, an architect from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and currently studying for a master's degree in film at Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola. Lastly, Alejandra Frechero, from Montevideo (Uruguay), who is studying for a master's degree in curating at the EQZE and is a member of the programming team at Cinemateca Uruguaya and the International Film Festival of Uruguay. 

The Atlantic, a common link

Under the theme 'The Atlantic', Galernak was launched in September with the aim of establishing a dialogue between architecture and cinema based on short films made by architecture students in Europe. Thus, they were looking for fiction pieces or any other genre that offered an architectural view of the Atlantic Arc, a specific territory with common roots. Adopting the name of the meteorological phenomenon, the Atlantic Architecture Film Festival Galernak was born with the intention of being a meeting point for reflection on the Atlantic from the point of view of architecture, territory and landscape.