Notice of the day: the High Speed Train reaches Barcelona + Festivals

The most important peace of news today in Spain has been the official launch of the high speed train service arriving to Barcelona. Since first launch in 1992 of the AVE Madrid-Sevilla, it has been many years (too many), of delay, but finally it happened. 17 daily trains will communicate at near 200MPH Madrid and Barcelona in 2h 35minutes, the same time it takes to connect cities 80Miles away on some old tracks of trains of the region.
The AVE is a serious competitor to the Iberia Shuttle service, which without any doubt, will be affected. A service it is the best and most profitable of the airline. Despite the real time of flight between Madrid and BCN is 55minutes, the security controls, boarding times (in the shuttle service, boarding times might be immediate in some cases, but very long in others), added to the fact that both airports are far from city downtown, build a total time on the flight connection similar to this of the high speed train. The cost, again globally, is also cheaper if you add the cost of taxi service (almost a must) to connect the airports with city centers.
The day has been fine, without any incidence in the service nor delays, and let’s hope it keeps this way for many years and works as well as the Madrid-Sevilla service.

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This is a list of some festivals and events related to cinema which will be held soon:

The 80th Oscars Academy Award Ceremony in Los Angeles. Sunday February 24th. http://www.oscars.org/
11th Festival de Málaga. April 4th to 12th in Malaga. http://www.festivaldemalaga.com/
NAB. April 11th to 17th in Las Vegas. http://www.nab.org/
Marché du film. May 14th to 23rd in Cannes. http://www.marchedufilm.com/
61st Festival of cinema of Cannes. 14th to 25th of May in Cannes. http://www.festival-cannes.com/
16th Mostra de films de dones. June 6th to 15th in Barcelona. http://mostra.dracmagic.cat

Still far in time …
35th SIGGRAPH. August 11th to 16th in Los Angeles. http://www.siggraph.org/
41st IBC. September 11th to 16th in Amsterdam. http://www.ibc.org/
41st Festival de cinema de Sitges. Early/mid October. http://www.cinemasitges.com/
34th Festival Internacional FILMETS de Badalona. 14th to 22nd of November in Badalona. http://www.festivalfilmets.cat/