The culture sector is suspicious of the change of model in Seville: "They want another Malaga"
Intense week for the world of culture in Seville. The decision to cancel the 2023 edition of the European Film Festival due to its incompatibility with the Latin Grammy Awards has provoked a lot of criticism in the sector, which has been noting a change in the model with the PP ruling the city council and the Junta de Andalucía. In the background, the rivalry with Málaga underlies, although the pulse goes beyond localisms and the debate on the capital: we are talking about two ways of managing culture even within the same party.
“From what we have seen, I would prefer that it not even be held in 2024, let it go,” says Manuel Grosso, the first director and ideologue of the Seville Film Festival, when asked about the idea of moving the event to spring. 20 years ago, when he promoted what is today the main European film festival of the moment, he set November as the only possible date. “It allowed us to find a gap in the calendar to catch trending films and grow little by little”. The city council has now announced that it will postpone its celebration to April, a month in which the city is overturned with the Fair and Easter, and at the gates of the Cannes Film Festival. “It is an unfeasible date. The Cannes festival is held a week later and it will take everything”, summarizes.
Why experiment with a change of date in a reference appointment and that came to gather 75,000 attendees last year? According to the city council, because all the “stage spaces” of the city will be occupied by the celebration of the Latin Grammys, an international event that will put Seville in the spotlight, as it will be held for the first time outside the United States. However, Grosso, like other sources consulted in the sector, associates it with a move to gain time and promote the change in model desired by the new mayor, José Luis Sanz..
“I perfectly understand Sanz. He has said that he wanted a change and as a good boy from his party what he wants is a second Malaga: a film festival more similar to the one there, more popular, with red carpets and more well-known characters.. But here what we have is something else”, assesses Grosso, who introduces the Malaga issue for the first time, repeated over and over again these days in the gossip of the sector. The new mayor of Seville has acknowledged that he does not intend to “make the same cultural policy” as Antonio Muñoz (PSOE), his predecessor: “Many Sevillians have voted for me thinking that Seville deserved a much higher quality film festival and I am going to work for it”.
A model change
The postponement of the festival comes a few days after the resignation of the manager of the Institute of Culture and the Arts of Seville. José Lucas Chaves, who was already in charge in the last term of the popular, resigned a month after his appointment. He alleged “personal reasons”, although some voices point to the little room for maneuver that this cultural manager had in a council where the General Directorate of Culture had been eliminated, shared with Sports and led by Minerva Salas, whose professional career has focused on the representation of soccer players.
The controversy over the festival is added to that caused by the idea of creating a large contemporary art museum in Las Atarazanas, the medieval shipyards promoted in the 13th century by Alfonso X the Wise. According to Diario de Sevilla last week, the Junta de Andalucía intends to transfer part of the collection of the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art (CAAC), located on the Isla de la Cartuja, to this abandoned space, which would aspire to receive a multitude of visitors and reinforce the offer of the historic center.
As has happened with the controversy over the festival, numerous representatives of the cultural sector expressed their misgivings on social networks.. The most critical point to the blow to the CAAC, a space for local alternative culture, to create a museum in the most touristic area of the city. The management of the cultural contents of this 13th century building is the responsibility of the Cajasol Foundation. With the absolute majority of Juanma Moreno, Culture and Tourism were assumed by Arturo Bernal, former CEO of Extenda and former general director of Tourism and Planning Costa del Sol, an entity dependent on the Diputación de Málaga. Since then, little by little professionals trusted by Malaga have been incorporated, consolidating the relay and a new vision.
“They bring the Malaga model”, points out this source, who defines this way of understanding culture as “more of a franchise”, “of photos, of the masses and with a lot of investment behind it”. A vision that some resemble the first movements of the new mayor of Seville, who wants to apply changes in the cultural management of the city. It is another way of understanding it, but it also needs much more investment”, sums up the first director of the Seville Film Festival, Manuel Grosso. The film sector has shown its frontal rejection of the decision. In addition, they accuse the city council of making the decision without consulting the sector.
For his part, the new mayor, José Luis Sanz, accused his predecessor, Antonio Muñoz, of “letting the contest die” by losing the qualification of the European Film Academy, “which no longer announced its nominations taking advantage of the Seville event “. “It lacks a leap in quality,” he told the media.