Toronto Film Critics Select NEIGHBORING SOUNDS as Best First Feature

The Toronto Film Critics Association announced their 2013 awards last night, and Brazilian film Neighboring Sounds (pictured) by Kleber Mendonça Filho was selected as Best First Feature.

"To get this recognition from the Toronto Film Critics Association is something I respect and appreciate, from a city where I know cinema plays such an important part. To me, as a foreign observer of Canada, Toronto also spells out 'CRONENBERG,' whose films made me want to make films," said Mendonça Filho in a statement. 

Neighboring Sounds won the prize for Best Film at last year's Cinema Tropical Awards and is Brazil's official entry for the upcoming 86th Academy Awards. The film is centered on a quiet city block in the coastal city of Recife, ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons, a recent spate of petty crime has rattled the nerves of the well-to-do residents. When a mysterious security firm is brought in to watch over the neighborhood, it sparks the fears and anxieties of a divided society still haunted by its past.

The Toronto Film Critic Association also awarded Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón for Best Director for his most recent film Gravity.

Intelatin Interview with Ecuadorian Filmmaker Javier Andrade

The Intelatin Cloudcast with Sergio C. Muñoz releases Punk Rock, Money and a Porcelain Horse this week. Elements: A dialogue with Tim Rudd on Social Impact Bonds, Rolling Jubilee Funds and Bitcoin. An interview with Javier Andrade, director of Porcelain Horse, Ecuador's Oscar entry. Music by Sex Pistols, X, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Black Flag, FEAR, Death, Bad Brains, Death Grips and Los Propios.

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Mexican Film HELI Wins Havana

Amat Escalante's Heli (pictured) was the top winner at the 35th edition of the Havana Film Festival as it was awarded the Coral pirze for Best Film. The film tells the story of a factory worker who lives a modest life with his father and his sister Estela in rural Mexico. In a misguided attempt to finance his elopement with the 12-year-old Estela, police cadet Beto steals two large packages of cocaine, setting off a string of increasingly bloody, painful, and even fatal consequences. The Mexican premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last May, earning the prize for Best Director.

Argentinean film Wakolda / The German Doctor by Lucía Puenzo was awarded the Special Jury Prize. The second Coral prize was awarded to the Uruguayan film El lugar del hijo / The Militant, the sophomore production by Manuel Nieto Zas, which also won the prize for Best Cinematography and the FIPRESCI award. The third Coral prize was awarded to the Chilean film Gloria by Sebastián Lelio. Venezuelan film Pelo malo / Bad Hair by Mariana Rondón received a Jury Mention.

Brazilian film O Lobo Atras da Porta / Wolf at the Door by Fernando Coimbra received the prize for Best First Film, while Mexican film La Jaula de Oro by Diego Quemada-Diez received a Special Jury Prize in the same category. The winner of the prize for Best Documentary was the Brazilian film Elena by Petra Costa. The 35th edition of the Havana Film Festival took place December 5-15 in Cuba.

Latinos Get Golden Globe Nominations

Nominees have been announced for the 71st edition of the Golden Globes, with 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle topping the list with seven nominations each. And, while no Latin American productions made the final cut this year - including the much hyped Chilean film Gloria by Sebastián Lelio - there is a noteworthy presence of Latino talent.

Coming in at third on the list for most nominations, Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity is not surprisingly competing in four different categories. Recently named Time Magazine's Movie of the Year, Gravity will doubtless have a strong showing in the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Performance by an Actress - Drama and Best Score categories.

Other Latino nominees include Guatemalan-born actor Oscar Isaac (ne Oscar Isaac Hernández of Guatemalan mother and Cuban father, pictured), whose performance in the Coen Brother's Inside Llewyn Davis garnered him a nomination in the Best Performance by an Actor - Comedy or Musical category; Colombian Actress Sofia Vergara's much talked-about role as the oblivious Gloria Delgado Pritchett on Modern Family earned her a nomination in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role - TV category; and finally, the Mexican-born Kenyan Lupita Nyong'o will be competing in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role - Drama category for her role as Patsey in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave.

The winners of the 71st edition of the Golden Globes, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will announced at a ceremony in Beverly Hills on January 12, 2014.

Rethinking Sexuality in Julia Solomonoff's LA BOYITA

By Sergio C. Muñoz for TropicalFRONT

In the summer of 2013, unknowingly, I began an educational course in the salon of Film Movement. Two of their recent releases have forced me to consider that I have a huge gap in my knowledge on sexual topics outside of the mainstream.

The first film, In the Name Of (Poland), caused me to think and re-think upon the nature of homosexuality among male priests and their young, male flock. The second film, La Boyita (Argentina), caused me to think and re-think upon the nature of gender roles among children outside of sexuality.

In La Boyita, Jorgelina is a fireball of a child with an insatiable curiosity for both nature and nurture. She is wise beyond her years because she reads her father's books on human anatomy. The material in the books best suited to a woman three times her age studying to be a physician. Jorgelina's need for attention takes her to a farm in the pampas of Argentina with her father. It is on the farm that she becomes the only one amongst an army of adults that notices that there is something wrong with the boy ranch-hand named, Mario.

Mario is tormented beyond his years but you wouldn't know it through his temperament. He is the prototypical sweet natured child with rosy cheeks and blonde hair. The world around him is rough and despite his innate nature to be soft, he excels at being the "man" that everyone on the farm is rushing him to become. His "coming out" moment looms on the horizon as he trains to ride a racehorse against a boy twice his age. It is verbalized by the adults that winning the race would cement Mario into manhood as if the back of a horse at full gallop could magically convert a boy into a man in rural Argentina.

Unfortunately, Mario's formal education leans toward horse breaking and cow slaughtering more so than it does towards an understanding of the actual person that he is despite his surroundings. He himself understands that he is different but seemingly, he does not understand how or why in scientific terms. He is bright enough to understand that his differences won't be respected among the stone-set folks that surround him on the farm.

His confirmation comes out quietly among his family just before the race. He is unjustly punished for his differences by the very person who created him to be the way he is. The horserace then begins and Mario proves his worth to all on the farm by making his first adult decision: Don't stop running.

CIENCIAS NATURALES and LOS BAÑISTAS Win Ventana Sur

The Argentine film Ciencias naturales / Natural Sciences directed by Matías Lucchesi and the Mexican film Los bañistas / Open Cage (pictured) directed by Max Zunino were awarded the top prizes in distribution and post-production categories in Primer Corte in this year's Ventana Sur film market.

Lucchesi's film obtained two distribution prizes of $15,000 and $2,000 euros as well as a post-production prize of $4,000 euros while Zunino's film was awarded with various post-production prizes. Additionally Brazilian film Mar Negro by Rodrigo Aragao won the Blood Window section of the film for gore, horror and sci-fi films. The film was awarded a distribution prize offered by the Mórbido Film Festival.

The Ventana Sur film market took place from December 3-6 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.