The competition section of the Film Festival closed last night with the final entry, Tears For Sale from Serbia. We’ll be reviewing the competition for next month’s magazine, so we’ll save the indepth comments on this and the other five competition films till then. I will say that the two competition films which have left the biggest impression on several of the attendees (myself included) were both first features; Humboldt County by the American writer/director team Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs, and Li Tong by Chinese director Nian Liu. It’s extremely rare to see such a level of confidence and commitment in a first project as the directors of both films have shown here, so that quality in itself (as well as many other fine qualities in both features) tipped my scales.

Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky

We’ll also be reviewing Jimi Mistry’s wonderful love song to the island, And The Beat Goes On, and we have exclusive video interviews with some of the key players at the festival including Terry Gilliam, Bill Forsyth, Cuba Gooding Jr., Danny Jacobs, Darren Grodsky, Jimi Mistry and Amy Gilliam.

Cushan Thomas (right) with old friend Pablo.

But first, in preparation for tomorrow’s grand finale (being the awards ceremony and party at Atzaro), we were all invited up into the hills of Sant Carles this afternoon, to actor Terry Thomas’s former home, Can Talaias. Cushan (Thomas’s son) and Laetitia, who now run this beautiful house and gardens welcomed us all with a free bar, delicious snacks and a much-needed chance to just kick back for the day and have informal chats with festival participants in lovely surroundings.

After a few hours in hazy sunshine, made hazier thanks to the wonderful wines Cushan and Laetitia laid on, Terry Gilliam was awarded a special creative prize for his role as a festival patron; a log, a chisel and a can of spray paint from which he is expected to carve his own DIY Falco d’Oro.

The DIY Falco d’Oro presented by Gail Fear and Xavi Benlloch to Terry Gilliam.

Well off the beaten track, and through at least one obligatory forest camino, Can Talaias (the lookout tower in Catalan) was the first film meeting out of town. Cuba Gooding Jr. told me he has loved being here in Ibiza because of the hours we keep. He mentioned having dinner at 5am sometime during the screening days of this last week, and moreover the freedom to lie in and not have to rush out to morning screenings. All in all he highly approved of the lifestyle he’s been experiencing here.

Time out for the jury; Cuba Gooding Jr.

The huge terrace at Can Talaias overlooking the Mediterranean above Aiguas Blancas was full for most of the day, and lots of familiar faces from the Ibiza arts community showed up to enjoy the afternoon in the company of the recessing film festival group. We spent some time chatting with old friend Sandy Pratt, godfather to Cushan, our host, and also the man behind the legendary Sandy’s bar in Santa Eularia, which was at one time the location of the only telephone in the entire area. Back in those days it was Terry Thomas and his crowd who would congregate there and drink while waiting for phone calls from agents. Sandy recalled today how he once had to accept a part on behalf of Nigel Davenport when Davenport’s agent rang the bar, and Sandy couldn’t risk waiting for the actor’s consent.

The youngest paparazza in our press group; Bella Tilbury.

Amy Gilliam, who is the producer of father Terry’s latest film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, had just flown in for a couple of nights and gave us a wonderful spontaneous on-camera interview, after which we ended our day with a magnificent on -camera session with a playful Terry Gilliam.

Meanwhile, the festival is now closing out for the year with a retrospective of Gilliam’s work.

The Falco d’Oro and other awards will be presented tomorrow, Monday 1st June at Agroturismo Atzaro in Sant Llorenc.

Helen Donlon

The grand finale of the International Music Summit saw basement Jaxx play the first ever contemporary gig in the hallowed halls of Ibiza’s old town of Dalt Vila. More photos of the IMS and reviews of the IMS and gig to follow.

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In between Rob da Bank, Pete Tong and Basement Jaxx, Filthy Dukes played a really good set on top of dalt Vila in Ibiza.

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It was a stunning venue to host the closing of the International Music Summit with Basement Jaxx at Dalt Vila in Ibiza town.

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Friday nights post IMS gig by Basement Jaxx on top of Dalt Vila in Ibiza Town was stunning. We met probably everyone we know on Ibiza there that night and everyone bar none thought the location was perfect – we hope the Consell takes note and allows future gigs there…

We’re going through the photos of everything but a couple stand out: The old meets the new:

Last night was the “Grand Opening” of Pacha’s Sa Punta restaurant and the new terrace. It’s a fantastic location with views of Ibiza marina towards Dalt Vila and the castle. It was also a completely free bar all night – whatever you wanted, cava, spirits, cocktails, beer etc. Then I found out they had free wifi downstairs… we’re definitely going back….

First off, the wifi in the conference room actually worked with the iphone, the macbook and the sony viao – which was pleasant. We managed to do loads more than yesterday because of the consistent wifi.

There has been mixed feelings about the panels – the one i think most people have talked about so far was Ben Turner’s interview with Callum Negus-Fancey yesterday about the teen market and how it fits in with the dance industry.

Hope we’re not talking out of turn but overheard was a conversation with Callum and a “print and press” person afterwards – Callum said “youre f**ked” – we’re not sure how an industry veteran likes being told the facts of life by an 18 year old dance promoter…. but it was fun

The most obvious FAIL of the day had to be the consells presentation to the IMS – we and 90% of the audience aren’t entirely sure what they said for 2 hours as the whole thing seemed to be in catalan – suffice to say that the only people left in the conference room after about 20 minutes were the people the consell had invited down especially – everyone else had left – oh and the little matter of 80,000 euros spent on a pixar, animated type 10 minute video in spanish that actually said nothing and “we hope to have an english language translation on the website in 2 weeks…”

I heard someone argue that since were in spain it should all be in spanish – thats like having a worldwide attending conference in wales and making every speak in welsh… FAIL

They all had pre-prepared their speeches – instead of spending 80 grand on a video that says nothing and then talking in catalan – how about spending say 500 euros and having your speeches translated into english and german and then photo-copied to all delegates when they went in the room ?

Talking to a spanish press guy outside he said – “its in catalan – not even the mainstream spanish press are going to understand”

Giving up on the Consell’s thing around 7.30pm we went to Atzaro for another island tourism promoting thing. This was actually rather fun. Not entirely sure what it achieved – its probably best left said by Octavia and the others – but we agree with whatever they say – but thanks, we had a great time with supermodels, musicians, the kurru kurru models, island businessmen, paco fernandez, a great flamenco dancing duo, good music and a free bar – can’t complain….

ps. the poolside bar at the gran hotel was charging 7 euros for a canya (half a beer) – 30 feet away the other bar was charging 5 euros – but you could take your 5 euro beer and go and sit by the pool – how does that work ???

We still have the final day of IMS tomorrow, we have to go see a film about Ibiza at the Film festival tomorrow around 3pm, then probably back to IMS and then the Basement Jaxx gig in Dalt Vila. Panorama at Sa Punta opens Saturday.

At some point next week we’ll try and do a synopsis of VITAL - Video, Images, Text, Audio and Links that we’ve done.

pps Halfway through the day there was a “vote” thing. There were 250 handsets where you could press 1 or 2 to signify yes or no – Pete Tong introduced the 20 questions about the of future dance music and also some more industry specific questions. Sorry Ben but I have to say this….. We were just ready to twitter and blog the questions and results as the audience made the decisions but when we went up to take a quick iphone photo and 30 sec video we were told that we and beatport cant say anything about the results – we’d get a press release on monday morning – i look around and theres at least 20 people on laptops on the net… I shouldve created a fake twitter account there and then and just did it

IMS will send out the results on monday morning – I’m not sure how much I can say about the results : they are either 1 of these 3:
1. predictable
2. not predictable
3. bit of both but dont say much

There was one question which seemed to us an obvious plant by we guess radio1 or pete tong (though we like to believe it wasn’t his instigation) as well as some other questions which it was obvious what people would vote- find out on monday which one that was…. top 100…

There was one question that had to be recounted – it was the closest by a mile – and it was quite an interesting question (for reasons before i cant say what it was…) Pete Tong made a great comment after everyone had revoted, that the reason the vote had shifted to “yes” was that Lenny had now voted as he was asleep in the original vote…