Sundance Selects Films by Sebastián Silva, Valeria Bertuccelli, and More

The Queen of Fear by Valeria Bertuccelli and Fabiana Tiscornia

The Queen of Fear by Valeria Bertuccelli and Fabiana Tiscornia

The Sundance Film Festival has announced the first slate of film for its 2018 edition in January, and which includes several Latin American selections from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Uruguay, as well as films by U.S. Latino directors.

Five out of the 12 films participating in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition are coming from Latin America, and all of them having their world premiere at the Park City Festival. Set in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian-Uruguayan production Loveling by Gustavo Pizzi follows Irene, who has only a few days to overcome her anxiety and renew her strength before sending her eldest son out into the world.

Argentine actress Valeria Bertuccelli mades her directorial debut with The Queen of Fear—co-directed with Fabiana Tiscornia—in which she plays the role of acclaimed actress Robertina,  who has only one month left until the premiere of The Golden Time, her long-awaited solo show. Far from focused on the preparations for this new production, Robertina lives in a state of continuous anxiety that turns her privileged life into an absurd and tumultuous landscape. The cast also includes Diego Velázquez, Gabriel Eduardo “Puma” Goity, and Darío Grandinetti. 

In the Brazilian film Rust by Aly Muritiba, Tati and Renet were already trading pics, videos and music by their cellphones and on the last school trip they started making eye contact. However, what could be the beginning of a love story becomes an end. 

Mexican filmmaker Sebastián Hofmann (Halley) participates with his second film untitled Time Share / Tiempo compartido in which two haunted family men join forces in a destructive crusade to rescue their families from a tropical paradise, after becoming convinced that an American timeshare conglomerate has a sinister plan to take their loved ones away. The cast includes Luis Gerardo Mendez, Miguel Rodarte, Andrés Almeida, and Cassandra Ciangherotti.

Starring Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro and based on a true story, Un Traductor by Rodrigo Barriuso and Sebastián Barriuso, tells the story of a Russian Literature professor at the University of Havana who is ordered to work as a translator for child victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster when they are sent to Cuba for medical treatment. 

U.S.-based Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva (The Maid, Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus) is premiering his latest film untitled TYREL in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Starring Jason Mitchell, Christopher Abbott, Michael Cera, Caleb Landry Jones, and Ann Dowd, the film follows Tyler, who spirals out of control when he realizes he‘s the only black person attending a weekend birthday party in a secluded cabin. 

U.S. Latino filmmakers Reinaldo Marcus Green and Carlos Lopez Estrada are also participating in the U.S. Dramatic Competition with Monsters and Men and Blindspotting, respectively. Having its world premiere in the World Documentary Competition is the German/Brazilian co-production The Cleaners by Moritz Riesewieck and Hans Block, and Rudy Valdez will see the world premiere of The Sentence in the U.S. Documentary Competition.

The 2018 edition of the Sundance Film Festival will take place January 18-28 in Park City, Utah.