Three Prizes for Latin American Cinema at Jerusalem Film Fest

The Jerusalem Film Festival which took place July 5-14, awarded the Latin American films Aquí y allá / Here and There by Antonio Méndez Esparza, El lugar más pequeño / The Tiniest Place by Tatiana Huezo and Papirosen (pictured) by Gastón Solnicki with special prizes.

The debut feature by Méndez Esparza, Aquí y Allá / Here and There, received the The Nathan Cummings Foundation Award, in the amount of $5,000 USD. According to the jury, the film "captures with immediacy and authenticity the rituals and demands of daily rural life. With a focus on one Mexican family, using nonprofessional actors, it touches on the global issue of unemployment, giving voice to those usually not heard." The Ostrovsky Family Foundation Award with a cash prize of $2,000 was presented to Huezo's documentary feature El lugar más pequeño / The Tiniest Place. "The large-scale massacre of El Salvadorans beginning in 1979 is evoked in this film by present-day witnesses. Layers of memory emerge from individual as well as collective details, while sounds, images of nature, and voices beautifully construct a coherent political point of view," wrote jury composed by film programmer and producer Violeta Bava; Annette Insdorf, director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia, and Erez Pery, artistic director of the Cinema South Festival.

Additionally, the Argentine film Papirosen by Solnicki received the Lia Award, presented by the Joan Sourasky-Constantiner Holocaust Multimedia Research Center of the Jerusalem Cinematheque, in the amount of $3,000 USD.

World Cinema Fund Awards Peruvian and Argentine Projects

The Berlinale World Cinema fund has announced the winners of its latest round of funding which includes two Latin American film projects: NN from Peru, and Refugiado from Argentina, along with five other international films.

NN is a Piedra Alada production in partnership with the German Autentika Films. It will be directed by Héctor Galvez and Adrián Campos. Awarded with 40,000 euros (around $48,000 USD) NN was previously awarded Best Screenplay at the 33rd edition of the Havana Film Festival. It tells the story of an exhumation which complicated the lives of several characters. 

Refugiado is Argentine director Diego Lerman's new project with producer Campo Cine SRL and their German partner, 27 Films Production. Also receiving an amount of 40,000 euros, the film tells the poetic story of Matias, a 4 year-old boy dressed as Spider-Man who arrives at a women’s shelter with his mother and a small plastic dinosaur.

Since its inception, the WCF has awarded production and distribution funds to film from around the world. All of the films complete have gone on to screen in theaters or have participated in renowned film festivals. . Making their selection from 122 submissions with a total of 43 countries, judges include  film scholar and curator Viola Shafik (Germany/Egypt), documentary producer Marta Andreu (Spain), distributor and producer Jan De Clercq (Belgium) and WCF project managers Sonja Heinen and Vincenzo Bugno.

García Bernal to Be Honored at Locarno Film Fest

The Locarno Film Festival announced today that Mexican actor Gael García Bernal will be honored with the Excellence Award, along with British actress Charlotte Rampling, joining the Swiss festival’s long tradition of honoring actors with an international standing. Past recipients include Susan Sarandon, John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe.

The festival pays tribute to the actor through this year’s screenings of two of his most important roles: Pedro Almodovar’s La mala educacion / Bad Education, an examination of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on two childhood friends (and lovers) and Michel Gondry’s La science des reves / The Science of Sleep, a fantastical comedy in which a man’s vivid dreams and imagination interfere with his ability to interact with his reality.  

Locarno will also be screening Bernal’s latest film, No, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain’s historical drama about Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Before No screens on August 8 in the famous Piazza Grande, Bernal will be on hand to receive the award. Bernal also participated in last year’s festival when the film director Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet participated in the main competition.

The 65th edition of Locarno will take place from August 1st through 11th.  

Trapero Announced as Venice Film Fest Juror

The Venice International Film Festival announced today that Argentine filmmaker Pablo Trapero (pictured) will participate as member of the jury of the 69th edition of the Venice International Film Festival to take place August 29-September 8 in the Italian city. Trapero, who's made seven feature films to date including Mundo Grúa (1999), Carancho (2010), and more recently Elefante blanco / White Elephant (2012), will participate in the nine-member jury headed by American filmmaker Michael Mann.

The other confirmed jury members are the Italian director Matteo Garrone, British actress Samantha Morton, Serbian artist Marina Abramovic, French actress Laetitia Casta, Hong Kong producer and director Peter Ho-Sun Chanm Israeli director and screenwriter Ari Folman, and Franco-Swiss filmmaker Ursula Meier. The jury will be giving out eight awards, including the Golden Lion for Best Film, the Silver Lion for Best Director, the Special Jury Prize, and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress.

Pereda and Hernández Cordón Will Premiere New Films at Locarno

Mexican filmmaker Nicolás Pereda and Guatemalan filmmaker Julio Hernández Cordón will have the world premiere of their newest films at the International Competition of the upcoming 65th edition of the Locarno Film Festival to take place between August 1-11 at the lakeside Swiss city. Both Pereda (b. 1982) and Hernández Cordón (b. 1975) are great examples of two young Latin American directors who have been able to build a robust and important film career in just few years.   

Pereda wil be presenting Los mejores temas / Greatest Hits, his fifth feature film which provides a conclusion for the saga of several mother and son characters the director has created, with interfamily conflict. The story tells of Gabino, a 27 year-old who sells pirate music in the subway of Mexico city and lives with his mother Teresa. One day, after 15 years of no contact, his estranged father Emilio returns, planning to stay an indefinite period of time. Eventually his presence causes a rift in the family’s set dynamics, causing Teresa to decide to throw him out of the house. In making this choice, her relationship with Gabino will change their lives forever.

Hernández Cordón, who just premiered another film just last week at FID Marseille winning two prizes at the French Festival, will premiere Polvo, Ignacio and Alejandro decide to produce a documentary about Comalapa. There they meet Juan, a man who’s father was kidnapped and has lost all hope of recovery. Juan knows who was responsible, for whom he harbors feelings of intense vengeance which Ignacio and Alejandra bear witness to.

Both Los mejores temas and Polvo will be competing along with other 17 film for the Golden Leopard, the festival's main prize, which last year, was awarded to the Argentine film Abrir puertas y ventanas / Back to Stay by Milagros Mumenthaler.

The Swiss festival announced its complete lineup today, which will also include the Chilean film No by Pablo Larraín and a showcase of Latin American short films including Boa Sorte, Meu Amor / Good Luck, Sweetheart by Daniel Aragao (Brazil); Feliz / Happy by Achille Milone (Argentina); Ismael by Sebastián Hofmann (Mexico); Los Retratos / Portraits by Iván D. Gaona (Colombia); Dizem que os cães veem coisas / Dogs Are Said to See Things by Guto Parente (Brazil); Insight by Sebastián Díaz Morales (Netherlands/Argentina); Monumento by Gregorio Graziosi (Brazil); and Enjoy Yourself by Gastón Solnicki (Argentina).

The Locarno Film Festival's Carte Blanche will be dedicated to Mexico. Started in 2011 with Colombia, this now annual initiative aims to offer a showcase for a number of films in post-production, from a different country each year, in Asia, Africa, Latin America or South-East Europe. Carte Blanche will show seven Mexican films in postproduction, each introduced by its producer, to the various international sales agents and festival programmers who will participate in Industry Days. At the end of the program, a jury composed of three professionals will offer the best film a cash prize, to be used to complete the film.

Guatemalan Film Wins Two Prizes at FID Marseille

The Guatemalan-Mexican film Hasta el sol tiene manchas / Even the Sun Has Spots (pictured) by Julio Hernández Cordón won two special prizes at the 23rd edition of FID (Festival International de Cinéma) Marseille which took place July 4-9, at the Mediterranean city. The film was awarded the Marseille Espérance Prize, as well as a Special Mention of the Jury in the Official International Competition in the French film festival where it had its world premiere.

The third feature film by Hernández Cordón (after Gasolina and Marimbas from Hell) is a story of two men amongst the small group that plays out this fable. One has a mental disability, who works to persuade people to vote for a presidential candidate that promises to organize the first World Cup in Guatemala. The second is a masked troublemaker who scales buildings, threatening passerby with the hit of a ball. The two form an unlikely friendship, evoking the past and present of a country that does itself constant harm.

Staying true to the previous worlds of his past films, Hernández Cordón continues to outline themes of importance to him; neglected adolescents, stylistic documentary that organizes fiction, and using characters as allegories for a country’s destiny. Shot in 2D sets with vivid splashes of yellow, the use of masks and the schematization of characters to convey a direct political message, Hasta el sol tiene manchas presents the possibilities of a minimal script and making a film amongst friends.

Hernández Cordón just finished his fourth feature film back to back, his newest film untitled Polvo will have its world premiere at the upcoming Locarno Film Festival this August in Switzerland.