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The Lanzarote Film Festival is a date marked in red on the cultural calendar, not only of the island but of the entire Canary archipelago. Find out why it is a perfect excuse to visit Lanzarote in 2025.
History of the Lanzarote International Film Festival
The Lanzarote International Film Festival – focused on the world of short films – has its origins in 1998, in what was then called the Spring Film Festival. For a time, this small film festival, which screened films outside the commercial circuit and introduced new filmmakers, took the name of the Conejero filmmaker Pedro Paz, assistant to Pedro Almodóvar himself and head of production at Blanca Lí.
Its rapid growth led to the event being transformed in 2007 into the Lanzarote International Film Festival and, in 2016, it became a qualifying festival for the Goya Awards. The latter means that the winners in Lanzarote for Best Spanish Fiction Short Film and Best Documentary Short Film at the FICL are guaranteed a place in the pre-selection for the main Spanish film awards.
In 2024, the Lanzarote Film Festival also became a partner festival of the Fugaz Awards, the most prestigious Spanish short film awards.
Programme and featured films of the Film Festival in 2025
The Lanzarote Film Festival reaches its 25th edition in 2025, an event that will be held between the 15th and 24th of May. El Almacén, in Arrecife, will once again be the epicentre of this cultural event that seeks to position the island as a creative space, as well as to promote new talents.
The closing ceremony will take place at the Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar ‘El Sardinero’, with the screening of the list of winners of the official section and the prize-giving ceremony as the grand finale.
The pre-selection committee chooses a maximum of 30 works per category, which will make up the official section of the festival and will compete for the prize of 1,500 euros. There will only be one winner per category (children’s short films do not have a prize), although the jury may award one or more special mentions in each category.
Awards and acknowledgements of the Lanzarote International Film Festival
There are six different categories at the Lanzarote Film Festival:
- National Fiction Short Film Section
- International Fiction Short Film Section
- Animation Short Film Section
- Documentary Shorts Section
- Canarian Short Films Section
- Children’s Short Film Section
Depending on the category, works must be between 15 and 30 minutes long (including credits), and there are two categories with special conditions.
On the one hand, the Canarian short film section, in which one of the following requirements must be met:
- Be directed by a person or persons resident in the Canary Islands.
- Be born in the Canary Islands.
- At least 50% of the short film must have been shot in the Canary Islands.
- It must be produced by persons or companies with fiscal headquarters in the Canary Islands.
- At least 50% of the filming and production team must reside in the Canary Islands.
On the other hand, the children’s short film section, aimed at children and young people between the ages of 3 and 17. The winner will not receive a financial prize, but it will be the children attending the screenings who will choose the winning short film, which is why it has a distinctive character within the Lanzarote Film Festival.
In recent years, the Lanzarote Film Festival has consolidated its position on a national level, as the winners have the opportunity to compete directly in other prestigious competitions.