HISTORY
Elche International Fantastic Film Festival – FANTAELX was born in 2013 with the aim of creating a meeting point where audiences and creators share experiences around the fantastic genre. Its first edition was called Muestra de Cine Fantástico de Elche – FANTAELX, and after the great reception, its second edition became an international competitive event, receiving short films from all over the world.
Since then, the festival also began to pay tribute to emblematic works of the fantastic genre in its various forms of expression; and progressively added new activities to its program, such as book presentations, projects, etc. The “Transversal Section”, where gender, queer and LGTBI+ issues are addressed in the fantastic genre; the orbital actions, divided into “Fantastic Days”, “Roots of Valencian Fantastic Cycle” and “Activities in schools and educational centres for children and young people”; or the screenings of feature films in competition from its twelfth edition, among other actions.
As an added value, from its sixth edition, the International Congress of Fantastic Genre, Audiovisuals and New Technologies was incorporated, framed within the festival, with the support of the Miguel Hernández University of Elche and the Vice-Rectorate for Culture, with the participation of the Arts Research Center (CíA), the Art Department and the Massiva Research Group, thus achieving a dissemination and academic research of the fantastic genre.
Over the years, and having already exceeded ten editions, the festival has consolidated a network of synergies between different organizations. On the one hand, through more institutional entities, such as the Department of Culture of the City Council of Elche, Visit Elche, the Valencian Institute of Culture (IVC) or Alicante Deputation; but also thanks to other organizations of different kinds that participate with the festival, such as the shopping center l’Aljub, the Paleontological Museum of Elche (MUPE), the cinema merchandising store Cinema Paradiso or the bookstore Ali i Truc, among others.
Likewise, the festival also collaborates with other national and international film festivals, such as the Festival de Cortometrajes de Terror y Fantástico 1000 Gritos from Buenos Aires (Argentina), the Cortesina Fest, the Sant Joan d’Alacant Film Festival or the Skyline Benidorm Film Festival, the latter two being qualifiers for the Goya Awards. Similarly, from 2023 the festival also extended its activities to other municipalities, as is the case of Catral, in collaboration with the Catral Cineclub Association, whose usual facilities also serve as the venue for the event.
