MUBOX DISTRIBUTION
Smells
Available in
Olores
Director: ALBA ESQUINAS
Year: 2022
Duration: 10 minutes
A MUBOX STUDIO production
Screenplay: ALBA ESQUINAS
Editing: ALBA ESQUINAS AND LAURA GANTES
Sound editing: LAURA GANTES
SYNOPSIS
A photograph appears at the bottom of a drawer and triggers the memories of an entire childhood. A childhood not only marked by the absence of his father who died in the war, but also by the slaughter of pigs and the blood-stained rags from his mother's butcher shop.
AWARDS
- GRAND AWARD OF SPANISH CINEMA in ZINEBI - International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao (Spain)
- FIRST AWARD in FIDBA - International Documentary Film Festival of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
- SPECIAL JURY AWARD - La Mirada Tabú - International Film Festival. Zaragoza (Spain)
- SPECIAL MENTION / BEST NATIONAL DOCUMENTARY - IBIZACINEFEST (Spain)
- DANZANTE IBEROAMERICANO ÓPERA PRIMA “ALBERTO SÁNCHEZ” & DANZANTE DOCUMENTAL IBEROAMERICANO “JOSÉ MANUEL PORQUET”. - 51th Huesca International Film Fest (Spain)
- DOCMA AWARD BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM / SPECIAL MENTION BEST SOUND MIXING. - Madrid FIlm Festival PNR (Spain)
- BEST SHORT FILM FRONTDOC - Valle d'Aosta International Documentary Film (Italy)
- EX-AEQUO "PREMI ULLASTRE" SECTION AWARD - V Menorca Documentary and photography of Auteur cinema (Spain)
FESTIVALS
- Visions du Réel - Nyon International Film Festival (Switzerland) 2022 WORLD PREMIERE
- Frameout. Vienna (Austria) 2022
- CINEMANCIA -Festival de cine metropolitano. Medellín (Colombia) 2022
- Uppsala International Short Film Festival (Sweden) 2022
- FESTIFREAK - International Independent Film Festival of La Plata - Buenos Aires (Argentina) 2022
- ZINEBI - International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao (Spain) NATIONAL PREMIERE
- FICC - International Film Festival of Cartagena (Spain) 2022
- L´ALTERNATIVA- Barcelona Independent Film Festival (Spain) 2022
- FIDBA - International Documentary Film Festival of Buenos Aires (Argentina) 2022
- La Mirada Tabú - International Film Festival. Zaragoza (Spain) 2022
- IBIZACINEFEST - 7 Independent International Film Festival of Eivissa (Spain) 2023
- IBAFF - International Film Festival of Murcia (Spain) 2023
- Malaga Spanish Film Festival (Spain) 2023
- 7ème Lune, Festival International des jeunes cinéastes (France) 2023
- XXIII Lanzarote International Film Festival (Spain) 2023
- CortoGijón - Gijón Shortfilm Festival (Spain) 2023
- 51th Huesca International Film Fest (Spain) 2023
- FICVIAXIV. Verín Shortfilm Festival (Spain) 2023
- PNR Madrid Film Festival (Spain) 2023
- CINESPAÑA - Festival de cinéma espagnol et portugais (France) 2023
- FESTCURTASBH - Curtas de Belo Horizonte Film Festival (Brazil) 2023
- MENORCADOCFEST - Premi Ullastre selection for best documentary short film. (Spain) 2023
- XXIII Santa Cruz International Cinema Festival (Bolivia) 2023
- International Cinema Festival of Human Rights "Under our skinl (Bolivia) 2023
- Oficial Selection Caracas Cinematografic Critic Festival (Venezuela) 2023
- LOS TRABAJOS Y LAS NOCHES Logroño Process art and cinema festival (Spain) 2023
- Janela International Cinema do Recife (Brazil) 2023
- Ciclo CIMA EN CORTO en la Cineteca de Madrid (España) 2024
- FRONTERA SUR International Non-Fiction Cinema Festival (Chile) 2024
BIO-FILMOGRAPHY
ALBA ESQUINAS
Murcia, 1999. A filmmaker residing in Madrid, specializing in screenwriting and taking her first steps in directing through documentary cinema.
She completed her Bachelor's degree in Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts at TAI School and then deepened her knowledge in screenwriting through the Master's Program in Film and TV Scriptwriting at Carlos III University and the Writers' Guild-ALMA in Madrid, where she won the Best Feature Film Script Award for her class of 2021-2022.
Her debut short film is Smells (Olores, 2022), which had its world premiere at one of the most prestigious documentary film festivals, Visions du Réel. For this work, she won the Grand Prize for Spanish Cinema at ZINEBI (a Goya, Oscars, BAFTA, and European Film Awards qualifying festival) in its latest edition. Additionally, she received the First Prize in the International Short Film Competition at FIDBA, a Special Mention for Best Documentary Short Film at IBIZACINEFEST (Goya qualifier), and the Special Jury Prize at La Mirada Tabú. Furthermore, at the Huesca International Film Festival (Goya and Oscars qualifier), she won two awards: Best Ibero-American Documentary and Best Opera Prima.
The short film also competed in the official documentary section at the Málaga Festival, L'Alternativa, and the Lanzarote International Film Festival, among other festivals and art centers such as Mumok (Vienna), CCCB (Barcelona), and the Recoleta Cultural Center (Buenos Aires).
The widowers (Los viudos 2024), her next documentary short film, was one of the selected projects at the Meet the Talents of the San Sebastián Film Festival in September 2022. It is a production of Mubox Studio, an independent production company that has supported her since her early works like her short film Smells and will continue to do so in her upcoming projects.
She has also been selected for the script of her first fiction feature film, BAI, BAI, in the 3rd edition of COOFILM, a residency program for women filmmakers, and in the 4th edition of CIMA IMPULSA, a development lab supported by the ICAA and Netflix.
