LOS ÚLTIMOS CRISTEROS Wins Grand Prix at Croatian Film Festival

The Mexican film The Last Cristeros / Los ultimos cristeros (pictured) by Matías Meyer won the Grand Prix award for best feature film at 17th edition of the Split Film Festival that took place September 15-22 at the Adriatic coast of Croatia.

The final days of a band of 1930s Christian rebels in the central Mexican wilderness are depicted with majestic stoicism in Matías Meyer’s elegant ode to independence. Although the project is the product of considerable research as well as an adaptation of Antonio Estrada’s acclaimed novel Rescoldo, The Last Christeros, the film is free of factoidal narrative, and has been de-dramatized to convey the experience of being a guerrilla fighter. Perhaps perversely to some, with the action here largely consisting of what happens between the battles, The Last Christeros encourages an artistic choice that emphasizes the deeper spiritual core of these guerrilla fighters (their journey through the mountainous desert recalling that of biblical figures like the Three Kings), with the existential quests that define Meyer’s two previous film (Wadley, The Cramp).

The Colombian film Chocó by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza was the only other Latin American film in competition at this Croatian film festival.

Morelia Film Fest Announces Official Lineup for its 10th Edition

The Morelia International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 10th annual edition which will take place November 3 – 11. Nine feature films were selected for the official Mexican feature film competition, including Fogo (Yulene Olaizola), which premiered  at the Directors’ Fortnight section of Cannes. A “docu-fiction hybrid” hailed for its masterful cinematography, Fogo depicts life on the Newfoundland/Labrador island of the same name.

Also selected was the feature No quiero dormir sola (Natalia Beristáin), which recently had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The film follows Amanda, a girl with a fear of sleeping alone, as she forms a more meaningful relationship with her grandmother and both women are changed in the process. The other seven selected feature films are Halley by Sebastian Hofmann, I Hate Love by Humberto Hinojosa, Las lágrimas by Pablo Delgado Sánchez, Restos by Alfonso Pineda Ulloa, Rezeta by Luis Fernando Frias de la Parra, No hay nadie allá afuera by Haroldo Fajardo, and Táu by Daniel Castro Zimbrón.

In the official Mexican documentary competition, 25 films have been selected, including Cuates de Australia / Drought by Everardo González, El alcalde by Diego Osorno, Carlos Rossini and Emiliano Altuna, Carrière, 250 metros by Juan Carlos Rulfo, Mitote by Eugenio Polgovsky, and Inori by Pedro González-Rubio.

For a complete list of all Official Selections, please visit the Festival’s website.

3rd Annual Cinema Tropical Awards

WINNERS

                       

Best Feature Film:
O SOM AO REDOR / NEIGHBORING SOUNDS
(Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)

Best Documentary Film:
EL SALVAVIDAS / THE LIFEGUARD
(Maite Alberdi, Chile)

Best Director, Feature Film:
Matías Meyer, LOS ÚLTIMOS CRISTEROS / THE LAST CHRISTEROS
(Mexico)

Best Director, Documentary Film:
Jose Álvarez, CANÍCULA
(Mexico)

Best First Film:
  EL ESTUDIANTE / THE STUDENT
(Santiago Mitre, Argentina)

    

Photos: (from left to right) Cinema Tropical's Carlos A. Gutiérrez with nominated and winning filmmakers Kleber Mendonça Filho, Matías Meyer, Jose Álvarez and Gastón Solnicki. Gutiérrez with jury members Frida Torresblanco, Paula Heredia, Ryan Harrington.

The winners of the 3rd Annual Cinema Tropical AWARDS were announced on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at a special ceremony at the 15th Floor Conference Center of The New York Times headquarters in New York City.

The Cinema Tropical AWARDS are presented by Cinelatino, and sponsored by Hôtel Americano and the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York.

The Cinema Tropical AWARDS are presented in partnership with VOCES, Latino Heritage Network of The New York Times Company and 92YTribeca; Special thanks to Lucila Moctezuma, Rodrigo Brandão, and Mario Díaz.

          Presented by                           Sponsored by                                 Co-presenting Partners:

         

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NOMINATIONS

 

BEST FEATURE FILM

               

- EL ESTUDIANTE | The Student (Santiago Mitre, Argentina, 2011)
- HELENO (José Henrique Fonseca, Brazil, 2011)
- O SOM AO REDOR | Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2012)
- LOS ÚLTIMOS CRISTEROS | The Last Christeros (Matías Meyer, Mexico, 2011)
- VERANO | Summer (José Luis Torres Leiva, Chile, 2011)
  

 

BEST DIRECTOR, FEATURE FILM

             

- DOMINGA SOTOMAYOR, DE JUEVES A DOMINGO | Thursday Till Sunday (Chile, 2012)
- SANTIAGO MITRE, EL ESTUDIANTE | The Student (Argentina, 2011)
- KLEBER MENDONÇA FILHO, O SOM AO REDOR | Neighboring Sounds (Brazil, 2012)
- MATÍAS MEYER, LOS ÚLTIMOS CRISTEROS | The Last Christeros (Mexico, 2011)
- JOSÉ LUIS TORRES LEIVA, VERANO | Summer (Chile, 2011)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

         

- CANÍCULA (José Álvarez, Mexico, 2011)
- CON MI CORAZÓN EN YAMBO | With My Heart in Yambo (María Fernanda Restrepo, Ecuador, 2011)
- CUATES DE AUSTRALIA | Drought (Everardo González, Mexico, 2011)
- OLHE PRA MIM DE NOVO | Look at Me Again (Claudia Priscilla & Kiko Goifman, Brazil, 2012)
- EL SALVAVIDAS | The Lifeguard (Maite Alberdi, Chile, 2011)

BEST DIRECTOR, DOCUMENTARY FILM

           

- JOSÉ ÁLVAREZ, CANÍCULA (Mexico, 2011)
- GASTÓN SOLNICKI, PAPIROSEN (Argentina, 2011)
- MAITE ALBERDI, EL SALVAVIDAS | The Lifeguard (Chile, 2011)
- OLIVARES, ROBERTO AND JONATHAN AMITH, SILVESTRE PANTALEÓN (Mexico, 2011)
- HERMES PARALLUELO, YATASTO (Argentina, 2011)

BEST FIRST FILM

                  

- DE JUEVES A DOMINGO | Thursday Till Sunday (Dominga Sotomayor, Chile, 2012)
- EL ESTUDIANTE | The Student (Santiago Mitre, Argentina, 2011)
- GIRIMUNHO | Swirl (Clarissa Campolina and Helvécio Marins Jr., Brazil, 2011)
- O SOM AO REDOR | Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2012)
- SUDOESTE | Southwest (Eduardo Nunes, Brazil, 2012)

The films were selected from a list of Latin American feature films with a minimum of 60 minutes in length that were premiered between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012. The winners and final nominees were selected by a six-member jury panel from a list of fiction and documentary films compiled from the selections of a nominating committee composed of 14 film professionals from Latin America, the U.S. and Europe (see list below).

FICTION JURY

Dennis Lim writes about film and popular culture for various publications including The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He is the founding editor of Moving Image Source, the online publication and research resource of the Museum of the Moving Image and was formerly the film editor of The Village Voice. His work has also appeared in The Believer, The Oxford American, Blender, Spin, Espous, Indiewire, New York Daily News, The Independent on Sunday, The Guardian, and the film quarterly Cinema Scope, where he is a contributing editor. A member of the National Society of Film Critics and the editor of The Village Voice Film Guide (2006), he has served as a member of the New York Film Festival selection committee and he teaches in the Cultural Reporting and Criticism graduate program a New York University.

Matías Piñeiro is a filmmaker and professor at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. His first feature-length work, El hombre robado / The Stolen Man (2007), won awards at the Jeonju International Film Festival and at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival. In 2009, his second feature, Todos mienten / They All Lie, premiered at BAFICI (Buenos Aires Festival International de Cine Independiente), where it won two awards. It also won a prize at the Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine. In 2010, he was selected—along with James Benning and Denis Côté—to screen his third film, Rosalinda at the 11th Jeonju Digital Project. Piñeiro recently premiered his most recent film, Viola, at the Toronto Film Festival, and it's slated for a US release in 2013. He earned a filmmaking degree from Universidad del Cine. His award-winning films have been screened around the world, including at Anthology Film Archives, Festival des 3 Continents, the Festival del film Locarno, the London Film Festival, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, the Museum of Modern Art, Rencontré Cinémas d’Amerique Latine de Toulouse, and the Viennale.

Frida Torresblanco served as a producer in Spain working on film including The Dancer Upstairs, directed by John Malkovich and starring Javier Bardem, as well as Susan Seidelman’s Gaudi Afternoon. She moved to New York City in 2002 to launch and lead Alfonso Cuaron’s film production company, Esperanto, where she served as Executive Producer and Creative On-Set Producer for The Assassination of Richard Nixon (directed by Niels Mueller, starring Sean Penn), among others. In 2006, Frida joined Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro to produce El laberinto del Fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth (Three Oscars & another three Oscar nominations; three wins & five BAFTA nominations; a nomination for the Palm d’Or and a Golden Globe). The Hollywood Reporter named Frida one of the 50 most powerful Latinos in Hollywood. She also produced Rudo y Cursi (directed by Carlos Cuarón, starring Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna). In 2010, Frida launched her new film production company, Braven Films, with partners Eric Laufer and Giovanna Randall. Her next project, Magic Magic, produced through Braven Films, will star Michael Cera, Juno Temple and Emily Browning.

DOCUMENTARY JURY

Ryan Harrington is the Director of Documentary Programs at the Tribeca Film Institute where he oversees the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, the TFI Documentary Fund, Tribeca All Access documentary program and the Latin America Media Arts Fund while developing other initiatives and programs that support non-fiction filmmaking. Recent TFI successes include Give Up Tomorrow, If a Tree Falls, The Redemption of General Butt Naked, The Oath, Enemies of the People, Marathon Boy and Donor Unknown. Independently he is currently working on the feature doc Hungry in America, with filmmakers Kristi Jacobson & Lori Silverbush and Participant Media, that explores why so many people in the USA go without food, and what can be done about it. Harrington managed production for A&E IndieFilms, the theatrical documentary arm of the A&E Network, for four years. Throughout his time there he championed the Oscar-nominated films Murderball and Jesus Camp, and the Sundance hits My Kid Could Paint That and American Teen. 

Paula Heredia is a director and editor based in New York. She was awarded an Emmy for the HBO documentary In Memoriam, NYC 9/11/01, and an ACE Eddie Award for the acclaimed documentary Unzipped. Her directorial work includes the documentaries George Plimpton and the Paris Review, Ralph Gibson, and The Couple in the Cage. Her dramatic work includes Having a Baby, Tras La Ventana, Slings and Arrows, and La Cena de Matrimonio. Her short film La Pájara Pinta premiered at the Lincoln Center Film Society LatinBeat Film Festival. Heredia’s editorial work can be seen in the HBO feature-length documentary Addiction, which received the 2007 Emmy Governors Award, and Alive Day Memories—Home from Iraq, executive produced by James Gandolfini for HBO. Her new edit, The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale and Jacques D'Ambois in China, will air on HBO this summer. Other editorial credits include: Modulations Cinema for the Ear, The Vagina Monologues, Finding Christa and Free Tibet. Paula’s work and creative process is featured in the book: The Art of the Documentary by Megan Cunningham. With partner Larry Garvin, she co-founded Heredia Pictures, heads the international committee of New York Women in Film and Television and serves on the board of advisors of Tribeca All Access and Clementina, Inc.

Chi-hui Yang is a film programmer, lecturer and writer based in New York. As a guest curator, Yang has presented film and video series at film festivals and events internationally, including MoMA's Documentary Fortnight, Robert Flaherty Film Seminar (“The Age of Migration”), Seattle International Film Festival, Washington D.C. International Film Festival and Barcelona Asian Film Festival. From 2000-2010 he was the Director and Programmer of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the largest showcase of its kind in the US.  Yang is also the programmer of “Cinema Asian America,” a new On-Demand service offered by Comcast and currently a Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute.

 NOMINATING COMMITTEE

- Isabel Arrate Fernandez, IDFA, The Netherlands   
- Hugo Chaparro, film critic, Colombia
- Lucile De Calan, programmer, Biarritz Latin American Film Festival, France
- Denis de la Roca, programmer, Abu Dhabi Film Festival
- Mara Fortes, programmer, Morelia Film Festival   
- Erick Gonzalez, programmer, Valdivia Film Festival, Chile
- Elías Jiménez, director, Festival Ícaro, Guatemala
- Roger Alan Koza, film critic and programmer, Filmfest Hamburg, FICUNAM, Mexico
- Janneke Langelaan, Hubert Bals Fund, The Netherlands
- Diego Lerer, film critic, Argentina
- Rosa Martinez Rivero, film producer, Argentina
- Christian Sida-Valenzuela, director, Vancouver Latin American Film Festival
- Hebe Tabachnik, programmer, Los Angeles and Palm Springs Film Festivals
- Sergio Wolf, film programmer, Argentina

Venezuelan Film EL RUMOR DE LAS PIEDRAS Wins NY Latino Film Fest

The New York International Film Festival announced the winner of its 2012 edition which ran August 13-19. The Venezuelan film The Rumble of the Stones / El rumor de las piedras (pictured) by Alejandro Bellame Palacios won the prizes for Best International Feature and Best Director, each award comes with a cash prize of $5,000 and $1,000 respectively.

The film tells the story of Delia, a single mother who struggles to raise her sons, William and Santiago, in a shantytown of Caracas, but it seems that everyday they slip farther away from her and closer to a life of crime and delinquency.

Under my Mails by Arí Maniel Cruz which tells the story of a Puerto Rican woman who works in a nail salon and who becomes intrigued by the violent sexual practices of her new neighbors, was awarded the prize for Best Domestic Feature. The award also comes with a $5,000 cash prize. The prize for Best Documentary was awarded to Daniel Fridell's El Médico: The Cubatón Story, a Cuba-Swedish production while the prize for Best Short was awarded to the Peruvian-American production Pescadora by Enrique García and Ahna Terpstra

"This year's festival line up was outstanding in its quality and range of diversity," said Calixto Chinchilla, NYILFF Founder and Co-Executive Director. "We hope to continue to bring the highest quality films and stories to the New York community."

NYFF Includes Three Chilean Filmmakers in its Lineup

In an unprecedented selection, three Chilean filmmakers have been invited to participate in the official lineup of the 50th anniversary edition of the New York Film Festival (NYFF) presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Films by Pablo Larráin, Valeria Sarmiento, and the late Raúl Ruiz, will be participating in this year's festival which runs September 28 through October14.

From universally acclaimed to promising newcomers, Selection Committee Chair and Program Director Richard Peña has stated, “The films making up the main slate of this year's NYFF, have in common a general quality of fearlessness" that unites otherwise very disparate works.”

Pablo Larraín will present his most recent feature No (pictured), starring Mexican actor Gael García Bernal. The film tells the story of ad-man Rene Saavedra has spent his life pushing soft drinks and soap and suddenly sets out to sell Chileans on democracy and freedom during Pinochet’s reign.

With the loss of director Raúl Ruiz lies emerges his last cherished masterpiece, La Noche de enfrente / Night Across the Street. A moving mediation on one man’s mortality as he narrates several tales from his childhood, guiding the audience through tales of private and public, historical and mythic, the here and beyond, is also a brilliant summation of this illustrious director’s career. 

Valeria Sarmiento, the wife of the late Ruiz, will be presenting the intimate epic Lines of Wellington / Linhas de Wellington (pictured right), a French-Portuguese co-production. Passionate romance, brutal treachery, and selfless nobility are set against the background of Napoleon's invasion of Portugal in Sarmiento's most recent film starring John Malkovich, Mathieu Amalric and Marisa Paredes.

The New York Film Festival will also feature the winner of the Grand Prize at this year’s Critics Week in Cannes, Antonio Esparza’s Aquí y Allá / Here and There. This is the story about a man who returns home to Mexico after years of working in the U.S., finding the adjustment exceedingly difficult. The distance between he and his daughters, scarce job opportunities and the temptation of heading back to the U.S. make this a film that goes way beyond cliché and stereotype.

Completing the Latino participation at this year's festival is the Spanish-Argentinean film The Dead Man and Being Happy / El muerto y ser feliz by Javier Rebollp. The playful and unexpectedly moving reverie on love, death and the open road follows a dying hitman and a mysterious femme fatale set off on an oddball journey through Argentina's interior. 

Kino Lorber Acquires Chilean Film VIOLETA WENT TO HEAVEN

Kino Lorber Inc. announced today the acquisition of the North American rights to the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Jury Prize winner, Violeta Went to Heaven / Violeta se fue a los cielos (pictured), directed by Andrés Wood. The biopic of legendary musician and poet, Violeta Parra, details the evolution of an iconic woman, from her struggles as an impoverished child to her fame as an international sensation.

Directed by Wood (Machuca, Football Stories), the film follows many of Parra’s political struggles including her constant efforts in protecting indigenous cultures, as seen in one of her most famous song’s "La Carta." This story blended with magical realism and drama illustrates the ups and downs of this incredible artist who continues to be revered through her signature song, "Gracias a la Vida" by musicians around the world.

Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber stated that "Violeta inspired us at its first screening at Sundance." "Although she is not a household name here, her story is poignantly universal and enhanced by her phenomenal music throughout.”

This week, the film premieres in New York City at the Latinbeat Film Festival, organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Kino Lorber is also planning a nationwide theatrical release during November/December 2012 as well as VOD and theatrical expansion.