15 January: the next step for Granada's Capital of Culture 2031 bid

Monday 29 December was the deadline for submitting applications for the European Capital of Culture 2031. Now we know that the next milestone for Granada is 15 January when representatives from the city will travel to Madrid for the pre-selection process, from which the shortlist of candidates will be drawn up.

The twelve experts will evaluate on the basis of the sixty-page bid which was presented on Monday and representatives from Granada will have 30 minutes to present its proposal and be subjected to an hour-long question and answer session. In those first thirty minutes, the animated short film Elvira and the Treasure, by Manuel Sicilia, will be screened and there will be several interventions, including one by mayor Marifrán Carazo.

It is likely that David Jiménez-Blanco, commissioner of Granada 2031 together with the former rector Pilar Aranda and the poet Luis García Montero, will be on hand to answer questions, which will be in English.

From there, the city will have to wait for the experts to decide who will go on to the final phase. The number of cities is not known, although in the last two rounds, in the case of France there were four and in the case of Belgium, three.