Films from Argentina and Chile Top Guadalajara Film Fest

The Argentinean film Infancia clandestina / Clandestine Childhood (pictured) by Benjamín Ávila won the top prize for Best Ibero-American Fiction Film at the 28th edition of the Guadalajara Film Festival which ran March 1-9 in Mexico. Ávila's debut feature is loosely based on his own childhood and tells the story of a Juan, a preteen living with under a fake identity in Argentina as his family fights the military junta that rules the country. One of the film's protagonists, Hector Alterio, also received the prize for Best Actor.

The Uruguayan-Mexican co-production Tanta agua / So Much Water by Ana Guevara y Leticia Jorge received the prize as Best First Film, while the Brazilian film Xingu by Cao Hamburger was awarded with a Special Jury Prize. The award for Best Director was given to the Argentine filmmaker Dario Nardi for Las mariposas de Sadourní/ Sadourni's Butterflies.

The prize for Best Documentary was awarded to Ignacio Agüero's El otro día / The Other Day from Chile, a meditation on the filmmaker's past through familiar objects left in his home, that serves as a deeper reflection on the complexities of Chilean society.

The Mexican film Quebranto / Disrupted by Roberto Fiesco received a Special Jury Prize as well as was awarded the Maguey Prize for Best Gay Film, and the documentary jury gave a Special Mention to the Brazilian film Elena by Petra Costa.

Workers (pictured above right), the debut feature film by Salvadorean-Mexican director José Luis Valle González was the winner of the Mezcal Award for Best Mexican Feature Film. The film tells the story of Rafael, who lives the previous hours to his long waited retirement day as a ganitor of a big factory, and of Lidia, who finds out that after 30 years of work as a maid in a mansion, the old lady has left the inheritance to the dog. Their past is connected by a love story, their future by an unexpected turn of events.

The Mexican film Tercera llamada / Last Call (pictured right) by Francisco Franco was the most popular receiving the Audience Award, as well as the Best Actress Award for its cast including Silvia Pinal and Irene Azuela.

Latin American Films Selected for the San Francisco International Film Fest

The San Francisco International Film Festival has announced its lineup of 22 films, ten narrative features and twelve documentaries which will screen during this year's festival. Held each spring for 15 days, the festival prides itself on showcasing cinematic discovery and innovation.

The ten narrative features from 12 countries including Peru, Colombia and Argentina to name a few, have been selected to compete for the New Directors Prize, which includes $15,000. The the twelve documentaries chosen will compete for the Golden Gate Award which is comprised to $20,000.

Making its rounds once again is the Peruvian film Adrian Saba, El limpiador / The Cleaner, a story of  Eusebio, a forensic cleaner who sterilizes the apartments of the dead and discovers and eight-year-old boy hiding in an uninhabited house during a devastating epidemic. Also included are Habi, la extranjera / Habi the Foreigner, an Argentine-Brazilian co-production directed by Maria Florencia Alvarez, a first-time feature about a young Argentine woman assuming a fake Muslim identity, from Colombia, France and Mexico William Vega's La Sirga, about a Colombian refugee trying to rebuild her life at a guest house located on the shores of a great lake in the Andes. Also chosen is the Brazilian film, They'll Come Back / Eles Voltam (pictured) directed by Marcelo Lordello, in which an upper-middle-class child learns how Brazil;s other half lives when she and her brother are left behind by their parents in a rural backwater.

Selected for the documentary competition is Mexican director Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio's Inori, about Kannogawa, a small mountain community in Japan where the laws of nature have changed what used to be a lively town. While younger generations have left for bigger cities, the few remaining inhabitants perform their everyday activities on their history and the cycles of life.

The New Directors section will also include 19 out-of-competition films which will be announced April 2nd. The San Francisco International Film Festival will take place from April 25 through May 9. For more information, visit www.sffs.org.

Cartagena Announces 2013 Winners

The Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias (FICCI) has announced the winners of its 53rd edition, which ran February 27, with Portuguese-Brazilian co-production Tabu (pictured) by Miguel Gomes selected for Best Film.

The jury comprised of Nancy Gerstman co-founder of Zeitgeist Films, Paul Schrader, film director and screenwriter, and Raoul Peck, filmmaker, were given the task of choosing winners from a varied selection of films, awarding with the Best Director and Best Screenplay prizes to Paraguay's Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schembori for the film 7 cajas / 7 Boxes, the story of a man offered the chance to deliver 7 boxes with unknown contents in exchange for $100.

In the documentary competition, the Best Film award went to the Mexican production The Mayor / El alcalde, directed by Emiliano Altuna. Carlos Rossini and Diego Osorno. Alejo Hoijman was chosen as Best Director for the film The Shark's Eye / El ojo del tiburon. Teresa Arredondo's Sibila was given special mention.

Winners of the Colombia al 100% competition, specializing in local films, were the animated feature Anina (pictured right) directed by Alfredo Soderguit, who won for Best Film and Best Director. The Best Actor prize was Alejandro Buitargo for the Deshora. The Special Jury prize was given to Priscila Padilla's The Eternal Night of Twelve Moons / La eterna noche de las doce lunas. 

This year's festival saw the inclusion of special guests such as Harvey Keitel, artist Bel Borba and Julio Medem as well as a strong incentive for funding of local films and talent. 

Latinos at the Oscars Recap

The 85th edition of the Academy Awards didn't offer major surprises for the nominated Latino talent. The only Latin American Oscar winner of the evening was Chilean cinematographer Claudio Miranda (pictured) who won the statue for Best Cinematography for his work on Ang Lee's Life of Pi. As TropicalFRONT had previously informed, Miranda becomes the third Latin American cinematographer to win this award after Spanish-Cuban Néstor Almendros in 1978 and Mexican Guillermo Navarro in 2006.

The other Chilean contender, the film No by Pablo Larraín was not able to upset favorite nominee Austrian film Amour by Michael Haneke which, as largely predicted, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The last time a Latin American film won the Oscar in this category was Argentina's El secreto en sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes in 2009.

In a curious coincidence, the two documentary films (feature length and short) that won Oscars last night were about Mexican-American subjects: Searching for Sugar Man and Inocente. The Swedish/British co-production Searching for Sugar Man by Malik Bendjelloul tells the incredible story of Detroit-based Mexican-American singer/songwriter named Sixto Rodriguez, a '60s folk singer who unknowingly became an anti-apartheid icon in South Africa.

Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's documentary short Inocente focuses on the story of Inocente Izúcar Galicia (pictured right), who was undocumented and homeless in San Diego and was able to overcome her conditions with the support of an arts program.

And what it seemed a major oversight was the Academy's snub of Latina actress Lupe Ontiveros in the In Memoriam section of the show. Ontiveros, who performed in numerous American films, died last July at the age of 69.

Chilean Cinematographer Claudio Miranda Wins Oscar

Chilean cinematographer Claudio Miranda (pictured) is the winner for Best Cinematography for his work on Ang Lee's Life of Pi at the 85th edition of the annual Academy Awards which were announced this evening in Los Angeles. Miranda becomes the third Latin American cinematographer to win this category after Spanish-Cuban Néstor Almendros for Days of Heaven in 1978, and Mexican Guillermo Navarro for Pan's Labyrinth in 2006.

This was Miranda's second nomination, the firs time was in 2008 for his work on The Curious Life of Benjamin Button by David Fincher, the first entirely digitally filmed movie ever nominated for an Academy Award. 

Y El Ganador Es... This Year's Latino Oscar Nominees

For the 85th annual Academy Awards, taking place tonight in Los Angeles, three nominees in three different categories will be representing Latino talent: two from Chile and one from Mexico.

In the Foreign Language Film category, Latin America is represented by the Chilean film No by director Pablo Larraín, starring Mexican actor Gael García Bernal. It is the first time ever that Chile receives an Oscar nomination. Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littín had received two nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film category but for movies entered under other countries: Actas de Marusia / Letters from Marusia (Mexico) in 1975, and Alsino y el cóndor / Alsino and the Condor (Nicaragua) in 1982. 

No premiered at Cannes' Directors Fortnight last May where it received the Art Cinema Award, the section's top prize for Best Film. The film opened last week in U.S. theaters to great critical and pipular acclaim. Larraín's film faces the serious challenge from the French production Amour by Austrian director Michael Haneke, a longtime arthouse favorite, which also received nominations in three other categories.

Also from Chile, Director of Photography Claudio Miranda (pictured) is nominated for Best Cinematography for his work on Ang Lee's Life of Pi (also a Best Picture Nominee this year). It is the second time Miranda receives a nomination in this category, he was nominated in 2008 for his work on The Curious Life of Benjamin Button by David Fincher.

Miranda joins a group of six Latin American DPs that have nominated in this category including Mexican Gabriel Figueroa (The Night of the Iguana, 1964); Mexican Emmanuel Lubezki (A Little Princess, 1995, Sleepy Hollow, 1999, The New World, 2005, Children of Men, 2006, and The Tree of Life, 2011); Mexican Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain, 2005); Mexican Guillermo Navarro (Pan's Labyrinth, 2006); Uruguayan-Brazilian César Charlone (City of God, 2003); and Spanish-Cuban Néstor Almendros (Days of Heaven, 1978, Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979, The Blue Lagoon, 1980, and Sophie's Choice, 1982). Miranda is the favorite to win this year.

And lastly, José Antonio García from Mexico is part of the three-men group nominated for Best Sound Mixing for his work on Argo. Born in Mexico City, he got started in the film industry as an assistant sound mixer for the film Gaby, a True Story in the late 80s. Since then, he's worked with numerous filmmakers such as Clint Eastwood, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Alexander Payne and Terrence Malick. This is his first nomination to the Academy Awards.