In the Best First Film competition, five films -from Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Peru, and Uruguay, have been nominated as the most outstanding breakthrough Latin American films of the year. The winners will be announced at a special event on Wednesday, January 29 at The New York Times Company headquarters.
First Film Category Nominees
CARNE DE PERRO / DOG'S FLESH
A film by Fernando Guzzoni (Chile/France/Germany, 2012)
Nominated for Best First Film
Winner of the Best Film prize at San Sebastian's New Directors section and the Ingmar Bergman Award for Best First Film at the Goteborg Film Festival, Fernando Guzzoni's Carne de perro focuses on the complicated week in the life of Alejandro. A 55 year old, solitary, fragile and unpredictable man crushed by the hostility of his past. Here we have someone anxious for a new identity who becomes lost amid his ghosts and his obsessions. A man with a distorted view of reality who begins to disintegrate dangerously. This is a present-day story of a former torturer who tries to reinvent his life and give it a new meaning.
EL LIMPIADOR / THE CLEANER
A film by Adrián Saba (Peru, 2012)
Nominated for Best First Film
Eusebio, a man whose work as a forensic cleaner is to sterilize places where someone has died, is the busiest he has ever been since the outbreak of a mysterious outbreak that has the city of Lima in its grips. One day, while cleaning an abandoned house, he comes across a boy hiding in a wardrobe; it is obvious his parents are dead. Now, with the mission to find the boy's remaining family, Eusebio takes charge of the child and tries to look after him in a slowly dying city. El limpiador, the first film by Spanish-born Peruvian director, was feature at numerous film festivals including San Sebastian, Seattle and Palm Springs.
MELAZA / MOLASSES
A film by Carlos Díaz Lechuga (Cuba/France/Panama, 2012)
Nominated for Best First Film
Sugar was always the essence of Cuba, sugar mills the heart that gave life to most of the country’s villages. Melaza, named for its large sugarcane fields, was one of those. However, there is no sugar cane in Melaza anymore, the sugar mill was shut down, sugar production was suspended and workers are on hold. Monica and Aldo, a young married couple, struggles for survival in an intent to save their world without loosing their faith. Carlos Díaz Lechuga's assured directorial debut feature had its world premiere as part of the 2013 Rotterdam Film Festival.
LOS SALVAJES / THE WILD ONES
A film by Alejandro Fadel (Argentina, 2012)
Nominated for Best First Film
Like in a western, it all begins with an escape. Five teenagers violently escape a reformatory school in an Argentinean province. They must pilgrimage a hundred kilometers on foot, across the hills, for the promise of a home to continue their days. They hunt to feed, rob houses they come across, do drugs, bathe in the river, fight with each other and make love: A progressive voyage into the wilderness, that soon becomes a mystic fable about courage and grace. The debut feature film by Alejandro Fadel -who has worked as a screenwriter for Pablo Trapero, Adrián Caetano and Walter Salles, was an official selection of Cannes' Critics Week in 2012.
Click here to watch the trailer
TANTA AGUA / SO MUCH WATER
Nominated for Best Film, Best Director, and Best First Film
U.S. distributor: Film Movement
What could be worse than being 14 and on vacation with your father, stuck indoors during a seemingly endless rainstorm? Alberto and his two children, Lucia and Federico, set off to a hot springs resort for a short vacation. Alberto, who doesn't see his kids much since the divorce, refuses to allow anything to ruin his plans. But the springs are closed until further notice due to heavy rains, and Lucia's adolescent rebellion clashes against her father's enthusiastic efforts for family quality time. Winner of multiple awards at different international film festivals, the debut feature film by the directing duo of Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, extends the artistry of recent Uruguayan cinema.
