Szifron's WILD TALES Selected for Telluride

The Argentinean film Wild Tales / Retratos salvajes (pictured) by Damián Szifron will have it's North American premiere at the 41st edition of the Telluride Film Festival this weekend, it was announced today. The film, which was the only Latin American film at Cannes' official competition this year, is breaking records at the box office in Argentina after its theatrical release few days ago.

Other Latin American-related titles announced today as selections of the film festival in Colorado are The Salt of the Earth co-directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado about the acclaimed Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman -which just had its world premiere yesterday as opening film of the Venice film festival, and Rosewater the debut feature by Jon Stewart which stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal as an Iranian journalist.

The 41st edition of the Telluride Film Festival takes place August 29-September 1 in Telluride, Colorado.

San Sebastian Announces Latin American Titles

Eight films from Argentina, three from Brazil, and one from Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, will be competing in the Horizontes Latinos section of the 62nd edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, it was announced today.

The Argentinean films featured at the Horizontes Latinos section are Matías Lucchesi's Natural Sciences / Ciencias naturales, Matías Piñeiro's The Princess of France / La princesa de Francia, Lisandro Alonso's Jauja, Celina Murga's La tercera orilla / The Third Side of the River, Martín Rejtman's Two Shots Fired / Dos disparos, Juan Martín Hsu's La Salada, Benjamín Naishtat's History of Fear / Historia del miedo, and Diego Lerman's Refugiado.

From Brazil, Gabriel Mascaro's August Winds / Ventos de agosto; Fellipe Barbosa's Casa Grande, and Karim Aïnouz's Futuro Beach / Praia do Futuro. Chile will be represented by Alejandro Fernández Almendras' To Kill a Man / Matar a un hombre, Mexico with Alonso Ruizpalacio's Güeros, and Colombia with Gente de Bien by Franco Lolli.

As it was previously announced, two South American films will be participating in the festival's main competition: the Argentinean film Open Air / Aire libre by Anahí Berneri, and the Chilean film Voiceover / La voz en off by Cristián Jiménez.

The 62nd edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival will take place September 19-27 in Spain.

BRAZILIAN WESTERN Tops Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro

Brazilian Western / Faroeste Caboclo (pictured) the debut feature film by René Sampaio was the top winner of the 13th annual edition of the Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro which were announced last night at a ceremony in the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro.

Sampaio's film received six "Grande Othelo" awards for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing (Fiction), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.

The award for Best Director was for Bruno Barreto for Reaching for the Moon / Flores Raras. The film's protagonist Gloria Pires received the award for Best Actress for her character of Lota de Macedo Soares. Kleber Mendonça Filho was awarded with the prize for Best Original Feature for his debut feature film Neighboring Sounds / O som ao redor. 

In the documentary category, the award for Best Film was for Nelson Pereira dos Santos' A luz do Tom about Musician composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. The award for Best Editing (documentary) was presented to Elena by Petra Costa. Director Domingos Oliveira was presented with a special award.

The Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro was created in 2000 and it's presented by the Brazilian Film Academy.

Lerman and Alonso Selected as Jury Members at Venice

Argentinean filmmakers Diego Lerman and Lisandro Alonso have been selected as jury members for the 71st edition of the Venice Film Festival, the oldest film festival in the world. Lerman has been selected as president of the jury for the independent section Giornate degli Autori, also known as Venice Days, while Alonso will be participating in the jury to select the Best First Film of the Festival.

Both Lerman and Alonso premiered their fourth and fifth films at the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival: Refugiado and Jauja respectively. Born in 1976, Lerman has previously directed the films Tan de repente / Suddenly (2002), Meanwhile / Mientras tanto (2006) and The Invisible Eye / La mirada invisible (2010), while Alonso (1975) has directed the films La libertad (2001), Los Muertos (2004), Fantasma (2006), and Liverpool (2008).

The 71st edition of the Italian film festival has next to none Latin American representation, only the Argentinean-Uruguayan film El Cinco / El 5 de Talleres by Adrián Biniez will be competing in the independent Venice Days section, and the omnibus film Words with Gods produced by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Arriaga, will have its world premiere as a special screening.

GRINGO TRAILS Opens in Theaters this September

Icarus Films has announced the North American theatrical release of the engrossing feature-length documentary film Gringo Trails (pictured) by anthropologist Pegi Vail and produced by Dominican-American filmmaker Melvin Estrella.

Winner of the Special Jury Award at the Visions of Nature/Voices of Nature Environmental Film Festival, a favorite at the Margaret Mead Film Festival where it played to sold-out crowds, and an official selection at numerous festivals around the world, Vail’s debut feature film opens for its theatrical premiere engagement on Thursday, September 4th at Cinema Village in New York City, and on Friday, September 12th at Facets Cinémathèque in Chicago, followed by other cities across the U.S.

Hailed as “required viewing for all thoughtful travelers” (Condé Nast Traveler), Gringo Trails raises urgent questions about one of the most powerful globalizing forces of our time: tourism. The film follows stories along the well‐-worn western travelers’ route—the ‘gringo trail’—through South America, Africa, and Asia, revealing the complex relationships host countries hungry for financial security and the tourists who provide it in their quest for “authentic” experiences.  

Are tourists destroying the planet-or saving it? How do travelers change the remote places they visit, and how are they changed? From the Bolivian jungle to the party beaches of Thailand, and from the deserts of Timbuktu, Mali to the breathtaking beauty of Bhutan, Gringo Trails traces stories over 30 years to show the unanticipated impact of tourism on cultures, economies, and the environment.

Co-producer and director of photography Melvin Estrella has worked in numerous capacities within the independent film arena as well as within commercial, television, and non-profit production. He shot and produced the documentary, The Dodgers Sym-Phony and is the director of photography on the documentary-in-progress Wall Street in the Black. His short film Firebird premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center during the New York Indian Film Festival. He serves on the curatorial committee for The Moth.

Additional Latin American Titles Announced for Toronto

 The Toronto Film Festival announced today the last batch of films for its 2014 edition, which includes several Latin American titles. The Discovery section of the festival will feature the world premiere of the Chilean film I Am Not Lorena / No soy Lorena by Isidora Marras; the Brazilian film Obra by Gregorio Graziosi; and the Peruvian film The Vanished Elephant / El elefante desaparecido by Javier Fuentes-León.

The Argentinean film La Salada by Juan Martín Hsu wil have its international premiere at the same section, while the Colombian film Los Hongos (pictured) by Oscar Ruiz Navia, which just won a prize at the Locarno Film Festival, will see its North American premiere.

In I Am Not Lorena (pictured right), fraudulent charges aimed at a certain “Lorena Ruiz” begin to plague Olivia, who descends into the dark labyrinth of the Chilean payment collection system to confront the unknown woman. In the São Paulo-based Obra, a young architect discovers a clandestine cemetery while walking through the worksite of his first important project. As terrible memories float back, he must struggle with his conscience and question his own heritage.

Fuentes-León's newest film The Vanished Elephant, follows Edo Celeste, a renowned crime novelist, who is obsessed with the disappearance of his fiancée during the 2007 earthquake in Peru. Seven years later, an enigmatic woman brings Edo dozens of cryptic photos that will help him solve the mystery of her disappearance.

La Salada depicts the experience of new immigrants in Argentina told through three stories that take place in La Salada —the largest informal market in Argentina, and Los Hongos —the second feature from Colombian director Oscar Ruiz Navia (Crab Trap) follows two young street artists as they explore the vibrant and exciting milieu of the director’s hometown of Cali.

The Mexican film The Years of Fierro / Los años de Fierro (pictured left) by Santiago Esteinou has been selected in TIFF Docs section. The film tells the story of César Fierro, the oldest Mexican prisoner on death row in the United States. Murder in Pacot / Meurtre à Pacot, the newest film by Haitian director Raoul Peck will have its world premiere at the Mavericks section of the festival. The film follows a privileged couple in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

The 2014 edition of the Toronto Film Festival will take place September 4-14 in Canada.