- Avelina Prat (A Portuguese fifth) and Nestor Lopez (Kivu seedsThey will offer their master classes on December 12th and 13th at Humans Lab
- The Humans Lab has selected a total of six short film projects on human rights for its third edition, out of the nearly 60 that were submitted.
- The Lab finalists will receive personalized mentoring for their projects and exclusive training with professionals such as Mila Luengo and Deborah Micheletti.
VALENCIA, DECEMBER 5, 2025. The Humans Lab, the audiovisual creation laboratory of the International Film and Human Rights Festival of Valencia, Humans Fest, organized by the Foundation for Justice since 2009, celebrates its third edition he Friday 12 and the Saturday, December 13. The first day will offer two masterclasses open to the public: one given by the director Avelina Prat and another, by the director Nestor Lopez.
The two inaugural sessions will be held in the Berlanga room of The IVC Film Library. Prat will meet with participants and the public at 12 noon on Friday, while López will do the same at 4 p.m. Both masterclasses are free and open to the public until capacity is reached. Free tickets can be collected on-site. The sessions will cover aspects of creation, script analysis, and/or production focused on human rights.
TWO DAYS OF INTENSIVE MENTORING FOR 6 PROJECTS
This year, Humans Lab received a total of 59 applications. From these, the following projects were selected. At three o'clock it will be three o'clock, by Luis Noguerón and Eva Marín (Valencia); Cosmo, by Miguel Valle (Madrid); Wakefulness, by Noelia Abellán Tolosa (Valencia); Influence, by Jorge de Paz (Toledo); The protectors of the kingdom, by Josep Pujol (Barcelona); and Miss Wet T-Shirt, by Julu Martínez and Gabi Ochoa (Valencia). Although initially only five places had been announced, the quality of the projects presented has led to raising the number of those chosen to six, three of which are Valencian productions.
They all approach human rights from different angles, addressing perspectives of vital importance to the contemporary world, such as the self-determination of peoples, the power of imagination in the face of child abuse, the silence surrounding situations of abuse, the violation of privacy on social networks, evictions, and discrimination against people. queer. The variety of genres is also noteworthy: from drama to psychological horror, including satirical comedy.
PERSONALIZED TUTORING BY PROFESSIONALS
Likewise, people selected to participate with their short film projects in Humans Lab will have the opportunity to enjoy a tutored session one-to-one Participants can present their ideas to Avelina Prat and Néstor López, and receive suggestions for improvement. The meeting will be held behind closed doors on Friday at 6:00 p.m. at the La Nau Cultural Center of the University of Valencia.
The following day, Saturday, December 13, at 10 a.m., participants will receive exclusive training in sustainability in creative processes and screenwriting with Deborah Micheletti, from Dona i Cinema, already at 11 a.m. personalized tutoring in the subject of pitch and project presentations with Mila Luengo, Executive producer at Aire de Cinema. The day will conclude with a pitch presentation to Valencian production companies. Silence communication (Almudena Verdes y Eva Garcia) and Lof Media (Rafa Piqueras).
FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR ONE OF THE SHORT FILMS
This year, one of the six selected projects will receive, after completing the two intensive days of training, a Financial endowment of 500 euros for the screenwriter, ...as support and accompaniment to the development process. For this purpose, a jury made up of producers and/or professionals from the audiovisual industry who will assess the originality of the script, the presence of the defense of human rights and the production viability of the project.
ABOUT AVELINA PRAT AND NÉSTOR LÓPEZ
An architect by training, the Valencian Avelina Prat (1972) began her career in film as a script supervisor alongside acclaimed directors such as Fernando Trueba, Cesc Gay, David Trueba, and Lucile Hadzihalilovic. She has directed several short films and documentaries and has worked as a programmer for Cinema Jove.
In 2022 he wrote and directed the feature film Vasil, premiered at the Warsaw International Film Festival and awarded at SEMINCI. This year, with A Portuguese fifth (Málaga Film Festival, BAFICI), has become one of the most acclaimed directors and screenwriters in Spanish cinema. She is currently completing her festival run while continuing to captivate critics and audiences alike.
For its part, Nestor Lopez He is a Spanish-Portuguese film director and screenwriter, founder of the production company Filmakers Monkeys, and winner of three Goya Awards. As a director and screenwriter, he won the 2025 Goya Award for Best Documentary Short Film with Kivu seeds, It is currently qualified for the 2026 Academy Awards. In addition, it has been selected for international festivals such as FICG Guadalajara, Millennium Docs, and selected by the French Film Academy for the César Awards screenings.
Kivu seeds, winner of Docs Mexico, It has also become the only Spanish work to be screened at the European Parliament in Brussels and the United Nations in New York. The film focuses on the reintegration of victims of sexual violence following rape by guerrillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and stars Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege.
The names of Prat and López thus join those of other film professionals such as Almudena Carracedo (Emmy Award in 2008 for her documentary Made in LA), Carlos Marqués-Marcet (Goya Award for Best New Director 2015, Silver Spike in 2024 and several Gaudí awards), or Estíbaliz Urresola (Goya Award and Gaudí Award for Best New Director 2024…), among others, who have participated in previous editions of Humans Lab.
ABOUT HUMANS FEST AND HUMANS LAB 2025
Humans Fest is one of the main activities promoted by the Foundation for Justice with the aim of defending human rights and denouncing their violations through film. It is part of the international Human Rights Film Network.
Its 16th edition (2025), within which this third Humans Lab is framed, coincides with a year of special relevance: Humans Fest has been selected by the Spanish Film Academy as a qualifying festival for the Goya Awards in the fiction short film and documentary short film categories..
Fundación por la Justicia and Humans Fest are developing this third edition of the Humans Lab thanks to the collaboration and support of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), Institut Valencià de Cultura (IVC)/ La Filmoteca Valenciana, the Diputació de València, Área de Igualdad del Ajuntament de València, Teika, Caixa Popular, Academia Valenciana del Audiovisual, EDAV (Associació d'Escriptors de l'Audiovisual Valencià), À Punt (Official Media).