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Cinema Critics Take Truffaut Award to Court Over Irregularities

The Girona Cinema Critics Collective challenges the municipal decision on Truffaut's management due to alleged irregularities.

Facade of the Truffaut cinema in Girona illuminated at dusk.
IA

Facade of the Truffaut cinema in Girona illuminated at dusk.

The Girona Cinema Critics Collective has announced it will take the management award for the Truffaut Cinema to the Catalan Public Sector Contracts Tribunal.

The Cinema Critics Collective of Girona will take the management award for the Truffaut Cinema to the Catalan Public Sector Contracts Tribunal, citing "flagrant irregularities" in the tender process. Key criticisms include awarding a "non-profit cultural public service" to a private company and the bases of the tender not explicitly requiring original version programming, which is the cinema's "main singularity".
The collective accuses the municipal government of having "killed the project" and criticizes the "arbitrary" valuation of their own proposal. They also suspect that the project submitted by Rambla de l’Art may have been identical to theirs. Currently, they are keeping the cinema open out of "responsibility towards the employees".
By filing an administrative appeal, the collective aims to suspend the award and create uncertainty about the equipment's immediate future. The governing board of Girona awarded the management to Rambla de l’Art-Cambrils IAE last Friday in a fragmented vote.
The critics reproach the governing parties (Guanyem, Junts, and ERC) for "false promises" and "delaying tactics," accusing them of prioritizing "political expediency and cowardice" over "the general interest, public culture, and a unique citizen project in the country." They believe the election campaign has already begun and that Truffaut has been "used".
They denounce that the Girona City Council has "abandoned the original model" of Truffaut, founded 25 years ago as a public cinema in the original version, opting for "commercialization and privatization." They hold the three governing parties responsible for their "negligence" in supervising and approving the tender's terms.
They also criticize the "indifference and absolute passivity" of the Culture department (led by ERC). They explain they were informed that the only legal way to propose the tender was to establish a 51% weighting for the cultural proposal and 49% for the economic one. With a 70-30 weighting, the law would require an expert committee, but under Girona's proposal, "all cultural evaluation has been left in the hands of a single technician".
The collective describes the cultural evaluation of their project as "arbitrary, biased, and profoundly unfair," arguing that their 25 years of experience and Truffaut's recognized success were not taken into account. Furthermore, they suspect possible "leaks" given that Rambla de l’Art's project was "identical to theirs".
The appeal to the Contracts Tribunal will "automatically halt the award," with a resolution period of four to five months, during which Girona could be left "without original version cinema".
The Critics Collective has registered the name "Cinema Truffaut," which would prevent Rambla de l’Art from using it if they assume management. Additionally, European subsidies obtained over the years and the cinema's status as a Filmoteca venue are now uncertain.

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