MADRID – Twenty-one shorts – five of which are up for a Goya, the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar – are being screened at the 11th Festival Curt Ficcions, a festival that’s being held simultaneously in Barcelona and Madrid from 29 January to 6 March.

The slogan this year is "Time is Relative," and its programme has been carefully selected to feature only the best work of the season – or so says Juan Antonio Bayona, director of The Orphanage, the highest-grossing Spanish movie in a long time.

Besides the competing films, there is a special section devoted to the world’s best-known African director, Idrissa Ouédraogo, who has won several awards at Cannes and also holds a Silver Bear from the Berlinale.

The winning films will be screened in 21 Spanish cities.

[Copyright EL PAÍS 2008]

Subject: Spanish news