Pamplona once again becomes a meeting point for cinema and science with the seventh edition of #LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival. The event, promoted by the University of Navarra Science Museum, offers a selection of scientific documentaries alongside activities designed for all audiences. The festival opened today and will run until February 24, when the awards ceremony will take place. 

This year's edition featured 1,658 productions from 112 countries. "The films we screen, as well as the conferences, deal with a variety of highly topical issues, such as artificial intelligence, viruses, rare diseases, and ocean degradation. These are issues that affect our daily lives and make it clear that science is everyone's business," said Bienvenido León, director of #LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival.

From February 16 to 22, some of the festival's finalist documentaries will be screened in their original version with subtitles at 7 p.m. at Golem Baiona. On Monday, February 16, the documentary "Ocean with David Attenborough"is scheduled, taking viewers on a journey that shows that there is no place more vital to our survival, more full of life, wonders, and surprises than the ocean. On Wednesday, February 18, it will be the turn of "Noah," which tells the story of a 26-year-old activist who is fighting seven rare and incurable diseases.

On Thursday, the 19th,"The Thinking Game"will be screened, a journey into the heart of DeepMind, one of the world's leading AI laboratories, and on Friday, the 20th, "Blame," which analyzes the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of three scientists who had warned of the arrival of a health crisis. Finally, over the weekend,"Spacewoman," the story of pioneering astronaut Eileen Collins, will be screened, and on Sunday, the 22nd, "Lions of the Skeleton Coast,"about the story of three orphaned lion cubs struggling to survive in Namibia. After each screening, there will be a brief discussion with an expert. 

Awards ceremony

On Tuesday, February 24, at 7 p.m. at the University of Navarra Museum, the festival's awards ceremony will be held, presented by Helena González Burón and Oriol Marimon Garrido, scientists and comedians from "Big Van Ciencia." The ceremony will include monologues on science and live music. The festival will recognize the best documentary or report, television program, video for the web or social media, production made by students, and work produced by a university or research center. In addition, the Sanitas Award for Best Film on Global Health will be presented, as well as the "Passion for Science"Award to Pedro Miguel Echenique, professor of physics and winner of the Prince of Asturias Award (1998). 

Tickets for the screenings and the gala can be picked up at the festival's website: www.labmecrazy.org.

In addition to the screenings, there will be three lectures starting tomorrow, Tuesday, at Civivox Iturrama at 7:00 p.m., with the session "Artificial intelligence in medicine: Examples and challenges in cancer and neurological diseases"by Rubén Armañanzas, researcher at the Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DATAI) at the University of Navarra. On the 12th, Ignacio López-Goñi, professor of Microbiology and director of the University of Navarra Science Museum, will give the session"Why do new viruses emerge?" And on the 17th, Gloria González Aseguinolaza, professor at the Faculty of Medicine and researcher at Cima University of Navarra, will talk about rare diseases. 

In addition to the program open to the public, the festival includes several sessions with university students and professors: on Monday the 16th, with Toby Nowlan, co-director and producer of "Ocean with David Attenborough," and on the 24th, Pedro Miguel Echenique, professor of physics and winner of the Prince of Asturias Award (1998), who will give a lecture entitled "The sublime usefulness of useless science" as part of the 13th Albareda Lecture. In addition, a screening and discussion is planned at the Pamplona Penitentiary. 

Also, on Saturday the 21st, there will be a family workshop entitled "The Solar System and Eclipses in the Solar System," led by Mónica Ruiz Palacios and aimed at children aged 6 to 12. 

#LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival is an international science film competition promoted by the University of Navarra Science Museum, which aims to bring science closer to society. The festival is made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Caja Navarra Foundation and is supported by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) / Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities, Laboral Kutxa, the SACYR Foundation, the Lilly Foundation, the Government of Navarra, and Sanitas.