The festival, which this year addresses armed conflicts and the culture of peace, will be held from May 29 to June 7.
This year, Humans Fest will host a guest festival for the first time: the Valladolid International Film Week (Seminci).
The Valencia International Film and Human Rights Festival, Humans Fest, organized by Fundación por la Justicia, has presented the official poster This year, which was created by the graphic designer and editorial illustrator Patricia Bolinches, who has reinterpreted symbolic elements such as a war helmet and an olive branch to represent armed conflicts and the culture of peace, the thematic axis of the XVI edition.
“I was inspired by the dove with the olive branch. That's why I show the war helmet as a nest. This would be the human part of the poster. That which is above our thinking heads. Meanwhile, the camera lens emerging from the helmet evokes the cinematic and documentary aspect. At the same time, I tried to capture in this way that everything we see is stored in our heads,” Bolinches explains. “Regarding the colors, I didn't want to make an aggressive poster, but rather a very visually powerful one. I think the red and green symbolize, precisely, the festival's motto: red for war and green for hope,” he clarifies.
Patricia Bolinches strives, as much as possible, for her artistic expression to be “conceptual, ingenious, provocative, and, at times, romantic.” She admits that she feels “very happy” about the Humans Fest assignment because it means “being part of a team that loves their work as much as I love mine. Therefore, the atmosphere is perfect.” She also affirms that social themes always move her and require “a greater level of commitment to who she is and what she stands for.”
Bolinches has a long professional career. Some of his illustrations can be seen in the newspapers El Mundo, eldiario.es, and The Guardian; in publishing houses such as Planeta, Libros del KO, Lunwerg, Tusquets, Empuries, and Debate; in magazines such as Salvaje, Calicata, Archiletras, and Vogue Business; and on television programs such as Zero in History and in video clips, such as those of Antonio Orozco, Dani Martín, La Pegatina or Los Nikis.
FILM SERIES AT THE IVC FILM LIBRARY WITH SEMINCI AS THE GUEST FESTIVAL
The IVC Film Library Valencia will host the cycle “Conflicts armats i cultura de pau” The Humans Fest dedicates each year to a specific issue, featuring a film selection. This time, armed conflict and the culture of peace will not only be the central themes of the 2025 festival, but also of this screening series, which will include seven feature films in total: five documentaries, one fiction film, and one animated film.
This year, the cycle “Conflicts armats i cultura de pau” presents an important novelty, since it will have the collaboration of Valladolid International Film Week (Seminci) in one of its sessions, so its director José Luis Cienfuegos will also participate in the subsequent colloquium. “This will be the First time that Humans Fest hosts a guest festival And we think it's important that it be Seminci because human rights are always at the heart of its programming, which for years has shown a firm commitment to cinema with social and ethical content," says Pilar Almenar, director of the Humans Fest.
This cycle will run in parallel with the Official Section of the Humans Fest, which in this edition will have five feature films and seven short films in the category Humans Fic, another five long and eight short ones in Humans Doc, five Valencian short films in Curt i Barrejat, as well as a dozen microfilms in Building peace in a minute, the open competition for creations by students from schools, institutes, universities and training centers.
THE PARTICIPATORY DOCUMENTARY, STARRING AT HUMANS FEST
Once again, the festival has held a participatory documentary workshop, a three-day event, accompanied by the team from La Cosecha, a Valencian production company specializing in communication with social impact. Thus, activists belonging to different fields (LGTBIQ+ or anti-racism, among others) and countries (Iran, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador...) have collectively created several short films that will premiere during the festival In a meeting that will include a screening and discussion with the workshop participants, who will open the discussion they have initiated with their audiovisual proposals to the rest of the public so they can also be part of the change.
Humans Fest is part of the international Human Rights Film Network, along with 52 other film and human rights festivals from around the world. Its 15th edition, the last to be held, was thanks to the collaboration of the Vice-Presidency and Department of Social Services, Equality and Housing of the Generalitat Valenciana; the Valencian Institute of Culture; the Valencian City Council; the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA); the Valencian Provincial Council; Caixa Popular and Teika. For its part, the Valencian regional radio and television channel, À Punt, is the official channel of the festival.