Social and female cinema: consolidation of Belén Funes´ film style, from short to feature.

Abstract

This article shows that Belén Funes' short films are the style basis of her first feature film, La hija de un ladrón (A Thief's Daughter), which was awarded with the Goya for Best New Director in 2020. Therefore, on one hand, it highlights the short film value in the construction of the filmmakers' gaze and, on the other hand, it widens the still scarce research on women directors in Spain. Through a methodological triangulation that combines content analysis based on the découpage with in-depth interviews, the elements common to Funes' short films that she transfers to her debut feature are observed. It is concluded that the filmmaker's authorial style is already defined in her short films and is consolidated in the writing of her feature film. This style is defined by stories of fighting women in hard situations, in a social, naturalistic and realistic cinema, with influences of Mar Coll, Ken Loach or the Dardenne brothers. The experts interviewed confirm that she is a filmmaker "with a voice of her own", whose feminine gaze is reflected since her first work.