INSTRUCTIONS Becomes Highest Grossing Spanish-Language Film in U.S. History

Eugenio Derbez's Instructions Not Included / No se aceptan devoluciones (pictured) continues to break records on both sides of the border becoming today the highest grossing Spanish-language film in the United States ever, having earned as of today an estimated $38,567,000 in the box office surpassing the previous record holder Pan's Labyrinth / El laberinto del fauno by Guillermo del Toro. The Mexican film has also become the fourth top grossing foreign-language film in the U.S.

The Mexican film opened on 348 screens on Labor Day weekend and since then it has expanded to become the sleeper hit of the year in the U.S., also becoming the highest grossing independent film of the year so far (surpassing Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine).

After only one week in release in theaters south of the border, Instructions Not Included is also headed to become the top grossing Mexican film ever as it broke records for a local production in its opening weekend. The film has made a jaw-dropping $232.2 million pesos (about $17.6 million USD) and has been seen in Mexico by over 5.8 million people.

Venezuelan Film BAD HAIR Tops San Sebastian

Mariana Rondón's Pelo malo / Bad Hair (pictured) was announced today as the winner of the Golden Shell as Best Film at the 61st edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival. Rondón's third feature film makes history as the first Venezuelan film to ever win the Spanish festival. It is the sixth Latin American film to win the Golden Shell prize, the last time was in 2001 with the Chilean film Taxi para tres / Cab for Three by Orlando Lübbert.

The film tells the story of Junior, a sensitive, slim nine-year-old who lives with his single mother Marta, who's trying to get her security guard job back, and his baby brother. Before school begins, Junior needs his photo taken, but, prodded by his indulgent grandmother (who senses that he's gay) and his plump gal pal neighbour, he's become obsessed with straightening his curly hair beforehand.

Other Latin American winners at San Sebastian are Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke who won the Silver Shell as Best Director for his film Club Sándwich, and Brazilian film O lobo atras da porta / Wolf at the Door by Fernando Coimbra which won the Horizontes Latinos Award in the Latin American competition.

The 61st edition of the festival took place September 20-28 in Spain.

Argentinean Project LA SALADA Wins Cine en Construcción

Argentinean film project La Salada (pictured), the directorial debut by Juan Martín Hsu won the Cine en Construcción section of the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, it was announced today.

A mosaic of the new immigrant experience in Argentina, La Salada is linked through three stories that take place in the fair of the same name. People of different races to fight against loneliness and rootlessness of his earth, a Korean father and daughter preparing for a marriage concluded, a young Bolivian who just came to the country in search of work and a seller of DVDs Taiwanese looking for a girlfriend to keep him company. 

The Festival also announced the Cuban-French co-production film El acompañante / The Companion as the winner of the Best Project at the Europe-Latin American Co-Production Forum, and the jury have a Special Mention to the Colombian-French co-production La tierra y la sombra by César Augusto Acevedo.

The 61st edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival runs September 20-28 in Spain.

NY Film Fest to Present Eimbcke Retrospective

Among the dozens of films presented during the 51st edition of the New York Film Festival, this year's lineup includes a special retrospective of Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke as part of the Emerging Artists sidebar. This section of the festival spotlights enormously talented filmmakers, near the beginning of their respective careers. On its first edition, Emerging Actors will celebrate the work of Eimbcke and British filmmaker Joanna Hogg.

Along with his brand new film, this section will also be screening Eimbcke's previous films. Eimbcke's run begins with his latest, Club Sándwich (pictured below right), which focuses on a teenage boy, Héctor, taking his first tentative steps into the uncharted waters of sex and his mother, Paloma, who must learn to navigate life without the constant companionship of her only child.

Also screening is the film Lake Tahoe, which follows the meanderings of Juan, scouring the sleepy streets of a small town as he searches for a spare part of crashing the family car. Eimbcke's first feature film Temporada de patos / Duck Season (picture above left), will also be shown, the story of two 14 year olds left home alone, with video games, soda, and snacks and no parents. But, when the power goes out, the day becomes littered with adventures.

For all screenings, Eimbcke and his producer Christian Valdeliévre will be in attendance. Emerging Artists will run from October 1-8 at the 51st New York International Film Festival.

Margaret Mead Film Fest Announces Latino Titles

The Margaret Mead Festival, the preeminent showcase for contemporary cultural and media conversation set in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, has announced its lineup for this year's edition, including three Latin American feature films as well as two shorts.

Featuring 16 U.S. premieres with a wide variety of subjects, this year's festival slate will explore the theme "See for Yourself," in which audiences are asked to reflect on how we perceive culture through various artistic narratives and forms as well as how our identities shape how we look and see.

The Latin American lineup of feature films includes the German-Guatemalan co-production Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth directed by Frauke Sandig and Erick Black, which follows six young Maya and their indigenous perspectives on their ancestors' convictions. Otilia Portillo Padua's Three Voices / Diario a tres voces, (pictured left), is about three generations of Mexican women who sit in their homes and reflect on love and sex in a rich visual world inspired by '40s technicolor films.

Completing the lineup of feature films is Mexican film Calle López (pictured right), directed by Gerardo Barroso and Lisa Tillinger, in which the directors and their child move to the noisy and vibrant Calle López to document it. Barroso and Tillinger will be competing for the Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award, given to a filmmaker whose feature documentary displays artistic excellence and originality of storytelling technique while offering a new perspective on a culture or community remote from the majority of the audience's experience.

The short films selected include Laura Murray's A Kiss for Gabriela / Um Beijo para Gabriela, following cultural icon Gabriela Leite, the first sex worker to run for Brazilian congress. Murray's film is a part of the Emerging Visual Anthropologists Showcase. The second film, The Barrel / El Galón, directed by Anabel Rodríguez Ríos, illustrates life in a floating village through the eyes of a child, juxtaposing poverty and wealth through Venezuela's oil industry.

The Margaret Mead Film Festival will run from October 17 - 20.

CUATES DE AUSTRALIA and THE SHARK'S EYE Awarded in Argentina

By Richard Shpuntoff

Argentina’s first International Festival of Documentary Cinema and Arts (FIDBA), Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival, held its awards and closing ceremony last night.

Everardo González's Cuates de Australia / Drought from Mexico was awarded the prize for Best Ibero-American Documentary, while Alejo Hoijman’s The Shark's Eye / El ojo del Tiburón (pictured) and Tatiana Font's Mi reino no es de este mundo, won first place and an honorable mention, respectively, in the Argentine competition. The Portuguese film What Now? Remind Me / É Agora? Lembra-me by Joaquim Pinto which took the grand prize in the international competition.

The festival – Argentina’s first competitive international festival dedicated solely to documentary – aims to open the field of documentary creation and production beyond older, “traditional” idea of documentary practice in the region. Founded by the directors of the Buenos Aires branch of the Observatorio Documentary Film School (founded in Barcelona), the festival ran an eight day campus parallel to the competition and other screenings.

The campus consisted of a series of in-depth seminars on a range of approaches to documentary material including: WebDocs by Jorge Caballero, Interactive Documentary by Christopher Allen and Andre Valentim Almedia of Union Docs, and a Live Cinema lesson by José Luis Martin Galindo and José Inerzia, who presented Antropotrip: Sinfonía Urbana en Directo, a live documentary around the subject of Tijuana, México and the U.S. border.