36th Girona Film Festival at the Casa de Cultura

The 36th edition of the Girona Film Festival begins, which this year will be divided into two phases: the Alpha phase, from September 12 to 14, and the Beta phase, from November 6 to 9. The Alpha phase will focus on animation, video creation and video clips, with the screening of 428 short films in three different rooms of the Casa de Cultura de Girona. The Beta phase will be dedicated to fiction cinema, documentary, children's and youth cinema and the LGBTI+ section.

Founded in 1989, this festival has established itself as an essential platform for emerging talent within the film industry. It has stood out for its inclusivity, allowing the participation of filmmakers from all over the world without restrictions of genre, style, theme or format. In addition, it offers an ideal space for the meeting between creators and professionals in the sector, promoting innovation and audiovisual creativity.

This year, the festival will open with the screening of the short film Destino, an emblematic collaboration between Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney. This 7-minute short, nominated for an Oscar in 2004, is the result of the cooperation between the Disney and Dalí Studios. Dalí worked directly at the Disney Studios in Burbank (California), creating the illustrations for the short in 1946.

The inspiration for the project was the Mexican song Destino by Armando Domínguez, which guided both the script and the music of the short. Through animation, Destino explores the importance of time, with a plot revolving around the love between a dancer and the god Cronos, showing the various episodes that must happen before destiny is manifested.

In this work, Dalí uses his personal iconography, combining the Empordà landscape with double images adapted to the language of animation. This fusion ends up creating a world where the distinctive drawings of Disney are mixed with the surrealism of Dalí.

Despite the initial difficulties, the project did not see the light of day until 2003, when Roy Disney, nephew of the founder, rescued the existing material from the Disney studios and the Dalí Foundation to complete the short film as a personal challenge.

The screening of the short film, today 12 September at 7pm at the Casa de Cultura de Girona, will be hosted by Montse Aguer, director of the Dalí Museums, who watched the short film on behalf of the Dalí Foundation before its world premiere.