SXSW announced their 2016 lineup for the Narrative Feature Film Competition yesterday. SXSW pledges to showcase independent discoveries from up-and-coming directors and this year’s selection includes four films from Latin America. Brazil represents Latin America in a big way this year at SXSW— three of the four films hail from region.
Marco Del Fiol’s The Space in Between - Marina Abramovic and Brazil will have its world premiere at the Festival in the Documentary Feature Competition. The film follows performance artist Marina Abramovic as she travels though Brazil in a quest for personal healing and artistic inspiration, experiencing sacred rituals and exploring the limits between art and spirituality.
The second film from Brazil also having its world premiere is Caito Ortiz’s soccer comedy Jules and Dolores / O Roubo da Taça (pictured above) in the Visions section of the festival. Jules and Dolores is a pop comedy about the theft of the World Cup Trophy that occurred in Brazil in 1983. Curiously enough, nobody truly knows the details surrounding this unbelievable event, until now.
Brazilian Kill Me Please / Mate-Me Por Favor (pictured right) premiered last fall at Venice Film Festival, it now receives its U.S. premiere at SXSW in the SXGlobal section. Anita Rocha Da Silver’s debut feature takes place in Barra da Tijuca, the West Side Zone of Rio de Janeiro where a wave of murderers plague the area. Bia, a fifteen year old girl, who has an encounter with death finds herself doing anything to make sure she's alive.
The Ecuadorian film (in co-production with Colombia and Mexico) UIO: Take me for a Ride / UIO Sácame a pasear (pictured left) by Micaela Rueda will also receive its world premiere in the SXGlobal section of the festival. Starting her senior year in high school, Sara doesn't have many friends and is caught between an overbearing mother, and a more understanding father. With uneasiness at school and tension in the household, Sara escapes to smoke in a little alley alone – that is – until Andrea, a new classmate, arrives. A close friendship develops to all that can see, but behind closed doors, an intimate relationship unfolds, which, when discovered, throws everything into disarray.
The 2016 edition of SXSW Film will take place March 11-19 in Austin, Texas.
