SEPTEMBER 8-12, 2025
ROUND TABLES 2019
The Navarra International Film Festival will program five thematic sessions that will host works, also in competition, framed within the themes that inspire the contest: Feminisms, LGTBI+, From Navarra, Migrations and Planet.
ROUND TABLE "MIGRATIONS"
It will take place in the auditorium of the PALACIO EL CONDESTABLE, on Thursday, August 29, at 12:30 p.m.
CRISTINA OCHOA TERÉS
Freelance journalist, event presenter, and professional communication skills trainer. With over fifteen years of experience as a radio and television journalist, since 2013 she has led her own company, helping professionals, companies, and institutions achieve their goals by uncovering their message and powerfully communicating their projects.
NADIA ZAKHAROBA
Nadia Zakharova responsable autonómica del Programa integral de Acogida e Integración de las personas solicitantes y beneficiarias de protección internacional y referente del Área de Migraciones de Cruz roja Navarra.
HELENA TABERNA
Navarrese film director and screenwriter. In 2006, she co-founded the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media. Her films include Yoyes (2000), The Good News (2009), and the documentary Nagore. For the Navarre International Film Festival, we selected her feature-length documentary "Extranjeras" (2003), which offers an in-depth look at all the immigrant women living in our country. The film crossed borders and was present at numerous international festivals, where it won several awards.
ROUND TABLE "THE PLANET"
It will take place in Pamplona Cathedral on Thursday, August 29, at 9:00 p.m. and will feature the participation of Javier Armentia, a popularizer and director of the Pamplona Planetarium; Joaquín Araújo, a naturalist and writer; and Tomás Yerro, a professor, writer, and 2019 Prince of Viana Culture Award winner.
JOAQUÍN ARAÚJO
A naturalist and writer from Madrid, Joaquín Araújo is the author of numerous books. A regular columnist in major Spanish newspapers, he also works as a director, producer, screenwriter, and presenter of television series and documentaries. He is president of the Great Ape Project in Spain. In 1991, his work was recognized with the UN GLOBAL 500 Award. He has won the 2004 Mediterranean Waves Award for Dissemination and Awareness-Raising and the 2006 BBVA Foundation Award for Dissemination of Knowledge and Awareness-Raising in Biodiversity Conservation. Araújo practices organic farming.
TOMÁS YERRO
Professor of Spanish language and literature, Tomás Yerro is a high school and university teacher. He is a former Director General of Culture for the Government of Navarre. He is a cultural promoter and member of several associations and foundations. A contributor to specialized magazines, he is the author of a dozen books on topics related to his field (Don Quixote, Pío Baroja, Amado Alonso, contemporary novels and poetry, advertising, and more). He is a former editor of the magazines Ítaca and Río Arga. He is a columnist and social volunteer. He was awarded the 2019 Prince of Viana Award for Culture.
JAVIER ARMENTIA
An astrophysicist and science communicator, Javier Armentia works as director of the Pamplona Planetarium and regularly contributes to various media outlets, including newspaper columns, radio programs, TV and social media appearances, and science activities for all audiences and in bars. On Twitter, @javierarmentia, he discusses science and society; and he maintains a blog dedicated to diversity in science: www.ciencialgtbiq.es
ROUND TABLE "ILLITERACY"
It will take place in the auditorium of the Palacio el Condestable, on Friday, August 30, at 1:00 p.m., and where Julio Suárez, Sebas Parra and Belén Galindo will participate.
BELEN GALINDO
A Navarrese journalist and writer, she has worked in print, television, and radio. She is the author of "People of Chattanooga," a book about her time in the United States, and co-author of "Cuero de Montaña." She teaches Spanish at the Chattanooga School of Languages in the United States and teaches Spanish Literature at the university in the same city. Since 2013, she has written a weekly blog about culture, books, art, and inspiring experiences for the newspaper Diario de Navarra. She currently works at Grupo La Información as a journalist and outreach manager.
SEBAS PARRA
Sebas Parra. Born in Socuéllamos (La Mancha), he is a retired adult education teacher and associate professor at the University of Girona (UdG). He directed the Salt Adult Education School (Catalonia) and collaborated with the Carlos Fonseca Amador Popular Education Association (AEPCFA) in Nicaragua for over 30 years. He is currently a member of the board of directors of La Guerrilla Comunicacional and the Paulo Freire Nucleus at the UdG. He has published books about his literacy experiences in Nicaragua with Orlando Pineda Flores, a Nicaraguan popular educator. He has worked as a screenwriter on the documentaries Leo a la vida and Encara som vius, by director Julio Suárez. In 2000, he received the 68th Mestres Award. Sebas Parra, who has dedicated his entire life to literacy, knows that education is a powerful weapon that helps erase differences and also that the best teacher is the one who, more than just teaching what is necessary, inspires in the student a great desire to continue learning.
JULIO SUÁREZ
Director and producer. He considers himself a member of the mainstream cinema scene, that is, watching the film and then, with the audience, commenting, giving his opinion, asking questions, analyzing, critiquing, or whispering in the audience's ear: thank you for coming. His experiences, as well as workshops with Abbas Kiarostami and Patricio Guzmán, have confirmed to him that the best way to study film is to pick up the camera, go out into the street, and film reality.
"LGBT+" ROUND TABLE
It will take place in the auditorium of the Palacio el Condestable, on Saturday, August 31, at 12:45.
EKHIÑE ETXEBERRIA
Originally from Navarre, Ekhiñe, 27, studied a higher degree in film and video production at the School of Film and Video. She is currently completing her degree in cinematography (specializing in documentary directing) at the School of Cinema and Audiovisual of Catalonia (ESCAC). Documentary filmography: “Love and Happiness,” “Nortasuna,” “Amor,” “Ausencia.”
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JAVIER ARMENTIA
Javier Armentia es astrofísico y divulgador científico. Trabaja como director del Planetario de Pamplona y colabora habitualmente en diversos medios de comunicación, con columnas en prensa, programas de radio, apariciones en tv y en las redes, con actividades de ciencia para todos los públicos y en los bares.. En twitter, @javierarmentia. Habla de ciencia y sociedad, y lleva un blog dedicado a la diversidad en la ciencia, www.ciencialgtbiq.es. En Twitter: @javierarmentia
XABI SÁNCHEZ
Coordinator of Kattalingorri. Kattalingorri is an organization that works against all discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It was born out of the need to create a space for information, support, and assistance for the LGBTI+ community. It is an open and diverse organization that brings together the LGBTI+ communities of Navarre and works primarily to provide support and information services to the lesbian, gay, transsexual, transgender, and bisexual population.
ROUND TABLE "FEMINISMS"
It will take place in the main hall of the Navarra School of Theatre, on Saturday, August 31, at 5:30 p.m.
CONCHÍN FERNÁNDEZ
(Pamplona, 1975). Journalist and presenter for Spanish Television. A graduate of the University of Navarra, she began her professional career at Diario de Navarra, where she wrote hundreds of reports and interviews. She later worked on the program Navarra de cerca (Navarra de cerca) at TVE's regional center in Navarra. At TVE Madrid, she presented El tiempo (The Weather), the nightly news on Canal 24H (24-hour channel), and the international news program, and was deputy director of the program Europa 2013. She has also worked in the Technical Cooperation Office of the Spanish Embassy in Rabat in communications tasks. With the help of Father Amable, a Rwandan priest, she traveled to the Congo for the first time, where she made several reports that were broadcast on television. In 2010, she moved to Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, to work as a project manager for the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Honorary vice president of the Granda-Rodríguez Foundation for Aid to the Congo, he has received the Manos Unidas Second Prize for Journalism for his reporting on that country. As a result of this experience, he has written his first book, Dear Noah, a moving and gripping account.
LOURDES BIURRUN
Lourdes Biurrun is a journalist from Pamplona with extensive experience in television. She began her career at Canal 6 Navarra, from where she moved to the Telecinco News division. She has also worked for Telemadrid, ETB, and DMAX. She is currently part of the La Sexta Noticias team. She also has experience hosting all kinds of events and activities. Her free time is filled with theater and film.
MARÍA SANZ DE GALDEANO
An economist with over two decades dedicated to entrepreneurship, innovation, and the creation and launch of new projects. She currently supports and assists in the creation of companies and projects through CEIN, a leading entity in Navarra, which she has also coordinated since 2013. She is a mentor at AMEDNA on female leadership. She is an associate professor at the Public University of Navarra. A specialist in digital strategy, she is a co-founder of a startup related to digitalization. She has been contributing articles to the digital newspaper DN+ for over three years.
CHELO ÁLVAREZ
Spanish journalist and filmmaker Chelo Alvarez-Stehle has worked for two decades denouncing gender-based violence and trafficking. She was a correspondent for the newspaper El Mundo in Tokyo and a contributor from Los Angeles. Canal+ transformed one of her reports on child trafficking from Nepal to India for the magazine Planeta Humano into the documentary film "Niñas de Hojalata," on which she worked as an interviewer and assistant director. Her work has also been published in Geo, El País, The Huffington Post, Documentary, and The Guardian. She has directed/produced several short documentaries such as SOLD IN AMERICA — A Tale of Modern Slavery and produced THROUGH THE WALL (A Través del Muro), about a family divided by the US/Mexico border, winner of the Imagen Awards in Hollywood. Her feature-length documentary Arenas de Silencio (Sands of Silence), has received awards on both sides of the Atlantic and has been presented at the United Nations in New York and in the European Parliament.