Since its debut in 1997, the “International Meetings in Cinema, Television, Vídeo and Multimédia – AVANCA ’11″ festival has steadily grown in audience attendance and number of film submissions. Avanca has also succeeded in becoming the largest audiovisuals workshop space in Europe in the past 15 years. Every year, cinema enthusiasts and professionals from all over the world come to the small town of Avanca, Portugal, because the festival summons them to share their work and their talent during several days of intense discovery. The festival seeks to promote new innovative audiovisual experiences and narrative techniques, ultimately leading to technological development in the film industry. Avanca promotes several workshops lead by various cinema professionals from different countries, all the while hosting a film competition featuring quality works that are screened in different sessions over the course of the festival, and evaluated by an international jury. The aim is to assemble professionals, students and any general public interested in this form or art to bring quality cinema works to Portugal from around the world. The majority of the submissions come from Europe, yet each year the festival’s commitment to diversity presents itself through different areas of the works exhibited, ranging from the ideas, to the narrative and the design of each of the films screened. Avanca has submitted many of their award winning films to ÉCU in the past, including Conto Do Vento, A Ria, A Ana, O Honen, and Desta Agua. And this year, the festival, which will run from July 20th until July 24th, even extended an invitation to ÉCU’s Festival Manager Kädi Lokk to serve on the festival’s jury board! Kädi will be bringing you updates from the festival, so stay tuned ! You can find more information about the festival at their website: www.avanca.com/