The 32nd Miami International Film Festival has announced its line up, which promises to be another stellar showcase of Latin American cinema. The festival will screen 125 feature, documentary and short films from 40 countries during its ten day run and will kick off with the wonderfully deranged satire and Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Wild Tales / Relatos salvajes by Damián Szifron.
Multiple Latino titles will vie for the Knight Competition Award, and the accompanying $40,000 cash prize, distributed to the outstanding feature length film, director and actor, as selected by the jury. The films include the Argentinean films Butterfly / Mariposas from Marco Berger and Sunstrokes/ Las insoladas from Gustavo Taretto; the Brazilian film Blue Blood / Sangue azul by Lírio Ferreira; the Chilean films Aurora by Rodrigo Sepúlveda and Voice Over / La Voz en off by Cristián Jiménez; the Colombian films Los Hongos by Oscar Ruiz Navia and Life is Sacred by Andreas Dalsgaard, Viviana Gómez and Nicolás Servide; the Cuban film The Project of the Century / La obra del siglo by Carlos Machado Quintela, the Mexican film The Obscure Spring / Las oscuras primaveras (pictured above left) by Ernesto Contreras, and Panama's first official submission to the Oscars, The Invasion / Invasión by Abner Benahim.
The Latino films competing for the Knight Documentary Achievement Award include the Mexican film, Before We Are Forgotten / Antes de que nos olviden from Matías Gueilburt; from Peru, Finding Gastón/ Buscando a Gastón by Patricia Perez; from Colombia, Playing Lecuona by Pavel Giroud and Juan Manuel Villar; from Brazil, The Salt of the Earth / Le sel de la terre by Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders; from Chile, Tea Time / La once by Maite Alberdi; and The Holders by Carla Forte. The award comes with a $10,000 cash prize given to the most engaging feature-length documentary.
Five films will compete for the Lexus Ibero-American Opera Prima Award, including the Venezuelan film, 3 Beauties / 3 Bellezas by Carlos Caridad Montero; from Argentina, Easy Sex, Sad Movies / Sexo fácil, películas tristes by Alejo Flah; from Chile, In the Grayscale / En las gamas de gris by Claudio Marcone; from the Dominican Republic, On the Road, Somewhere / Algun lugar by Guillermo Zouain and from Mexico, They Are All Dead / Todos están muertos by Beatriz Sanchís. The award comes with a $10,000 cash prize.
The Latino films included in the Cinema 360˚ section include Architecture of Color / A arquitetura da cor by José Henrique Fonseca and Priscilla Lopes, Ciudad Delirio by Chus Gutiérrez, Panama Canal Stories / Historias del canal by Carolina Borrero, Pinky Mon, Luis Franco, Abner Benaim and Pituka Ortega Heilbron, Sand Dollars / Dólares de arena by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, Tango Glories / Fermín: Glorias del Tango and Venice / Venecia by Kiki Álvarez.
Additional sections will include the Jordan Alexander Ressler Foundation Screenwriting Prize, the Park Grove Shorts Competition, the Emerging Cuban Independent Film/Video Artists Program, the Spotlight on French Cinema, the Spotlight on Asian Cinema, a Florida Focus program, a Culinary Cinema program, as well as Master Classes.
The Miami Dade College’s Miami International Film Festival will take place March 6-15, 2015.
