MORENO FUENTES and the Movie "AMANDA" turned Winner for Best Director in Experimental at London Director Awards, hold in Shoreditch at a Fancy and trendy Arthouse Theatre, The CLOSE-UP FILM CENTRE (as those we used to go in the 90's!! There are still some!!) with a large Cinephile Library enclosed and a Café Bistro at the entrance.
This is the 4th Award-Win in The UK and in London!! (4 Awards out of 7 Nominations), but 2nd and 3rd were Online. And I was really looking forward to returning personally and physically, now that the restrictions on travel in Europe and the UK have been eased!! And here I am, fearless!!
February brings me luck!! In 2020 I personally attended another important Festival I won too: The North Europe Fusion International FilmFest. I felt homesick for London (in person!) and I am visiting those places that I didn't have time for in 2020. This is my 7th visit to the UK and my 2nd to London just to pick up an Award!! So I turned very happy when got the news!! Here's the Video!!
The format of the FilmFestival has been different from that followed at Fusion. Two afternoons of screenings, with an Interview on stage talking about the film, and a sealed envelope announcing whether or not you had won, which also included a symbolic compensation in cash supporting your work and effort!! Since the organization of the Award involved the Borough of Shoreditch and the City Council of London. The Trophy will be sent to me to Madrid in a month.
Artists and Filmmakers at the FilmFest Arthouse Theatre were mainly Brit and some Aussie and I've been delighted to talk with them all. But since the Networking has been smaller, and no one wear a mask cover in the UK even indoors, it's been a bit of a challenge for me, as I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, and still even use actually mask cover indoors (the spaces and the Café were crowded!!): I was the only one masked!! Not on purpose, I always have to draw attention, hehehe! 
This time I'm having more spare time for visiting London: The Wonderful Francis Bacon Exhibition at Royal Academy of Arts!! The Barbican, all the Thames River Bridges, the graves of William Blake and Daniel Defoe, Victoria & Albert Museum... and a lot of different Boroughs, long walks!! I'm afraid I'm now knowing London better than most Londoners!!
I'm pre-producing and preparing a new Project, but I won't say a word... I'm superstitious!! Well, just a clue: I'll shoot it in English, definitely. The screenplay it's quite advanced, almost finished.
For me, the script and the story you want and need to tell the audience is the most important thing. You need to tell a story, and it needs to take hold of you. Believe in it above all else!! I started mainly as a Writer and Actor since teenager!! My mum (as she had been a self-made-woman who had become Top Civil Servant, just studying and working very, very hard -because Spanish Civil War ruined Granpa-) slightly forced me to study a Law Degree, because she didn't take the other "as serious" (It is true that artistic careers are full of ups and downs!!)... altough I started to get well paid as a teenage and young actor: But she didn't like it, was contemptuous -less with writing- . So we reached an agreement: In exchange for getting very good marks and grades at School and College... she by the way (and just in that case) would help me to afford Acting Academies fees. So I had to study hard, on what she considered "serious" and what she did not. A strict education is important, but she was very hard on me. Now I think it was for my own good: she just thought I would have more resources and alternatives.
Stay healthy my friends!! Take still some precautions!! And take care! Love for all!! Moreno Fuentes.
