Miami-based sales and distribution company FiGa Films launches streaming service FiGa en Casa on June 25 with the world premiere of Argentine medium-length film “Rompiente” by Juan Schnitman whose 2015 debut feature, “The Fire,” was hailed by Variety as a “riveting chamber piece of subtle shifts and evenhanded power struggles…”
In “Rompiente,” a director shooting a sex scene in an indie film manipulates his young actors to show more flesh and be more intimate until tensions between the actors and the director reach a breaking point.
“I like to think about this film as a Los Ramones song: Short, fast and urgent,” said Schnitman in a statement, who bases “Rompiente” on what he’s heard about abusive directors and awkward shoots of sex scenes. “Nobody spoke about these issues that we all knew happened. I took this idea to friends, producers and a month later we were shooting,” he added.
“‘Rompiente’ talks...
In “Rompiente,” a director shooting a sex scene in an indie film manipulates his young actors to show more flesh and be more intimate until tensions between the actors and the director reach a breaking point.
“I like to think about this film as a Los Ramones song: Short, fast and urgent,” said Schnitman in a statement, who bases “Rompiente” on what he’s heard about abusive directors and awkward shoots of sex scenes. “Nobody spoke about these issues that we all knew happened. I took this idea to friends, producers and a month later we were shooting,” he added.
“‘Rompiente’ talks...
- 6/17/2020
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Irene Anula, a star of breakout Spanish TV hit “Vis a Vis” (“Locked Up”), is attached to topline Aitor Uribarri’s survival thriller “Kintsugi,” which Spain’s Mano Negra Films will introduce to potential co-production partners at the Locarno Festival’s Match Me! forum.
Along with “Lady Laura,” starring “Locked Up’s” Itziar Castro and written and directed by Manuel Aguilar, “Kintsugi” marks another step up in production ambition at the Seville-based Mano Negra, which producer Daniel Mendez founded in 2010. First focusing on documentaries – most recently Vanessa Benítez’s “Rota n’ Roll” (2017); Guillermo Rocamora’s “Freedom is a Big Word” (2018) – Mano Negra moved into minority international fiction co-production, boarding Argentine Juan Schnitman’S upcoming “La sangre.” “Lady Laura” and “Kintsugi” mark its first two full-blown lead fiction feature productions.
“Kintsugi” stars Anula as a fugitive on the lam in the forests of wild high mountains, who will have to decide...
Along with “Lady Laura,” starring “Locked Up’s” Itziar Castro and written and directed by Manuel Aguilar, “Kintsugi” marks another step up in production ambition at the Seville-based Mano Negra, which producer Daniel Mendez founded in 2010. First focusing on documentaries – most recently Vanessa Benítez’s “Rota n’ Roll” (2017); Guillermo Rocamora’s “Freedom is a Big Word” (2018) – Mano Negra moved into minority international fiction co-production, boarding Argentine Juan Schnitman’S upcoming “La sangre.” “Lady Laura” and “Kintsugi” mark its first two full-blown lead fiction feature productions.
“Kintsugi” stars Anula as a fugitive on the lam in the forests of wild high mountains, who will have to decide...
- 8/9/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The 46 projects include 25 feature and documentary works.
The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.
Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day event will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.
The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.
Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...
The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.
Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day event will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.
The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.
Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...
- 6/29/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The 46 projects include 25 feature and documentary works.
The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.
Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day even will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.
The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.
Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...
The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.
Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day even will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.
The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.
Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...
- 6/29/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Cinema Tropical, the acclaimed New York-based organization dedicated to promoting Latin American cinema in the United States, is celebrating its 15th Anniversary with the 2016 edition of the Cinema Tropical Festival presented with the Museum of the Moving Image. Presenting six feature films from Argentina, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, and Puerto Rico, the festival will feature select winners and nominees from the 6th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards, which were announced at a special ceremony at the New York Times Company headquarters last month.
Founded in 2001 by Carlos A. Gutiérrez and Monika Wagenberg with the mission of distributing, programming and promoting what was to become the biggest boom of Latin American cinema in decades, Cinema Tropical has become the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States. In its 15 years of existence, it has theatrically released 25 Latin American feature films, more than any other U.S. distributor, and has produced numerous film series with multiple cultural organizations. Through a diversity of programs and initiatives, Cinema Tropical is thriving as a dynamic and groundbreaking 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization experimenting in the creation of better and more effective strategies for the distribution and exhibition of foreign cinema in this country.
The Cinema Tropical Festival brings the best of contemporary Latin American cinema to New York City audiences, offering a chance to experience the dynamic and inventive film productions from the region. The opening night screening of "Mala Mala," winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best U.S. Latino Film, will be followed a Q&A with filmmakers Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini, and a 15th Anniversary celebration reception.
The festival will feature the U.S. premiere of the Tiger Award winner "Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes") by Juan Daniel F. Molero, which became the first Peruvian film ever to receive the top prize at the Rotterdam Film Festival, with the filmmaker in attendance. The lineup also includes the New York premieres of Juan Schnitman’s debut feature "The Fire," winner of the Best Film Award at the Transylvania Film Festival, and Abner Benaim’s "Invasión," Panama’s first film to be submitted for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
From Guatemala, Best First Film winner and recipient of the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at the 2015 Berlinale, Jayro Bustamante’s "Ixcanul" will screen on Saturday. The Argentine film "Jauja" by Lisandro Alonso starring Viggo Mortensen, and winner of the Cinema Tropical for Best Latin American Film of the Year, will close out the Festival on Sunday evening.
Other winners at the Cinema Tropical included "Invasion" (Panama) for Best Documentary Film, "Ixcanul" (Guatemala) for Best First Film "Mala Mala" for Best U.S. Latino Film, Pablo Larraín ("The Club," Chile) for Best Director, Feature Film, and Betzabé García ("Kings of Nowhere," Mexico) for Best Director, Documentary.
Schedule:
"Mala Mala"
(Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini, USA/Puerto Rico, color, 87 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
Winner Best U.S. Latino Film – Cinema Tropical Awards The critically acclaimed Mala Mala explores the intimate moments, performances, friendships and activism of trans identifying people, drag queens and others who defy typical gender identities in Puerto Rico. The film features Ivana, an activist; Soraya, an older sex-change pioneer; Sandy, a prostitute looking to make a change; and Samantha and Paxx, both of whom struggle with the quality of medical resources available to assist in their transition. Hailed as “Sensitive and thoughtful” by the New York Times and winner of the audience award for documentary film at the Tribeca Film Festival, Mala Mala affirms that the quest to find oneself can be both difficult and beautiful. A Strand Releasing release. Q&A with filmmakers, reception to follow.
Friday, February 26, 7:00pm
"Invasion"
(Invasión, Abner Benaim, Panama/Argentina, 2014, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) New York Premiere Winner, Best Documentary – Cinema Tropical Awards Using reenactments and interviews, filmmaker Abner Benaim documents the collective memory -as well as the selective amnesia- of his fellow Panamanians around the 1989 U.S. invasion to overthrow General Manuel Noriega. The lives of the people of the Central American nation were deeply shaken by the American military incursion. Invasion–Panama’s first film to be submitted for the Best Foreign Language Oscar– is a witty and engaging documentary that talks about the perils of sovereignty, democracy and endangered virtues of today’s ultra-capitalist world. The film not only explores the mechanisms in which memory is turned into history, but holds a mirror to the present to show how the recent past shapes the current Panama.
Saturday, February 27, 12:30pm
"Ixcanul"
(Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/France, 2015, 93 min. In Kaqchikel and Spanish with English subtitles)
Winner, Best First Film – Cinema Tropical Awards
Winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize–the top honor ever won by a Central American film– Ixcanul marks the auspicious debut of Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante. The film follows María (played by María Mercedes Coroy), a 17-year-old Mayan girl who lives and works in a coffee plantation that sits at the base of an active volcano in Guatemala. Although Maria dreams of going to the 'big city,' her condition as an indigenous woman does not permit her to change her destiny, and an arranged wedding is waiting for her. A snake bite forces her to go out into the modern world where her life is saved, but at a steep price. Ixcanul is a beautiful and poignant meditation on the clash between tradition and modernity. A Kino Lorber release.
Saturday, February 27, 3:00pm
"The Fire"
(El incendio, Juan Schnitman, Argentina, 2015, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) New York Premiere Nominated, Best First Film – Cinema Tropical Awards On the way to closing the contract on their first home, Lucía and Marcelo withdraw a hundred thousand dollars in cash from their bank. The seller can’t make it to the signing and it gets postponed to the next day. Frustrated, they head back to their old place and put the money away. The next 24 hours will unveil the true nature of their love, the crisis they are in, and the violence within themselves. “A riveting chamber piece of subtle shifts and evenhanded power struggles (Variety), Schnitman’s debut feature film was the winner of the Best Film Award at the Transylvania Film Festival.
Saturday, February 27, 5:00pm
"Videophilia (And Other Viral Syndromes)"
(Videofilia (y otros síndromes virales), Juan Daniel F. Molero, Peru/USA, 2015, color, 102 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) U.S. Premiere Nominated, Best First Film – Cinema Tropical Awards The first Peruvian film to ever win the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival, Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) follows Luz, a teenage misfit from Lima who meets online Junior, a weird slacker who is obsessed with conspiracy theories, Mayan prophecies of the end of the world, and underground porn. They try to hook up in the real life but supernatural events start to unfold to guide their destinies. Set in Lima, Juan Daniel F. Molero’s exhilarating debut fiction film is a playful mashup of internet cafes, slackers, not-so-innocent schoolgirls, amateur porn, Google Glass, acid trips and guinea pigs as extras in an exorcism.
Q&A with filmmaker
Saturday, February 27, 7:00pm
"Jauja"
(Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/Denmark/France/Mexico, 2014, color, 108 min. In Danish and Spanish with English subtitles) Winner Best Fiction Film – Cinema Tropical Awards An astonishingly beautiful and gripping Western starring Viggo Mortensen, Jauja begins in a remote outpost in Patagonia during the late 1800s. Captain Gunnar Dinesen has come from abroad with his fifteen year-old daughter to take an engineering job with the Argentine army. Being the only female in the area, Ingeborg creates quite a stir among the men. She falls in love with a young soldier, and one night they run away together. When Dinesen realizes what has happened, he decides to venture into enemy territory, against his men’s wishes, to find the young couple. Featuring a superb performance from Mortensen, Jauja (the name suggests a fabled city of riches sought by European explorers) is the story of a man’s desperate search for his daughter, a solitary quest that takes him to a place beyond time, where the past vanishes and the future has no meaning. A Cinema Guild release.
Sunday, February 28, 4:30pm...
Founded in 2001 by Carlos A. Gutiérrez and Monika Wagenberg with the mission of distributing, programming and promoting what was to become the biggest boom of Latin American cinema in decades, Cinema Tropical has become the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States. In its 15 years of existence, it has theatrically released 25 Latin American feature films, more than any other U.S. distributor, and has produced numerous film series with multiple cultural organizations. Through a diversity of programs and initiatives, Cinema Tropical is thriving as a dynamic and groundbreaking 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization experimenting in the creation of better and more effective strategies for the distribution and exhibition of foreign cinema in this country.
The Cinema Tropical Festival brings the best of contemporary Latin American cinema to New York City audiences, offering a chance to experience the dynamic and inventive film productions from the region. The opening night screening of "Mala Mala," winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best U.S. Latino Film, will be followed a Q&A with filmmakers Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini, and a 15th Anniversary celebration reception.
The festival will feature the U.S. premiere of the Tiger Award winner "Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes") by Juan Daniel F. Molero, which became the first Peruvian film ever to receive the top prize at the Rotterdam Film Festival, with the filmmaker in attendance. The lineup also includes the New York premieres of Juan Schnitman’s debut feature "The Fire," winner of the Best Film Award at the Transylvania Film Festival, and Abner Benaim’s "Invasión," Panama’s first film to be submitted for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
From Guatemala, Best First Film winner and recipient of the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at the 2015 Berlinale, Jayro Bustamante’s "Ixcanul" will screen on Saturday. The Argentine film "Jauja" by Lisandro Alonso starring Viggo Mortensen, and winner of the Cinema Tropical for Best Latin American Film of the Year, will close out the Festival on Sunday evening.
Other winners at the Cinema Tropical included "Invasion" (Panama) for Best Documentary Film, "Ixcanul" (Guatemala) for Best First Film "Mala Mala" for Best U.S. Latino Film, Pablo Larraín ("The Club," Chile) for Best Director, Feature Film, and Betzabé García ("Kings of Nowhere," Mexico) for Best Director, Documentary.
Schedule:
"Mala Mala"
(Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini, USA/Puerto Rico, color, 87 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
Winner Best U.S. Latino Film – Cinema Tropical Awards The critically acclaimed Mala Mala explores the intimate moments, performances, friendships and activism of trans identifying people, drag queens and others who defy typical gender identities in Puerto Rico. The film features Ivana, an activist; Soraya, an older sex-change pioneer; Sandy, a prostitute looking to make a change; and Samantha and Paxx, both of whom struggle with the quality of medical resources available to assist in their transition. Hailed as “Sensitive and thoughtful” by the New York Times and winner of the audience award for documentary film at the Tribeca Film Festival, Mala Mala affirms that the quest to find oneself can be both difficult and beautiful. A Strand Releasing release. Q&A with filmmakers, reception to follow.
Friday, February 26, 7:00pm
"Invasion"
(Invasión, Abner Benaim, Panama/Argentina, 2014, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) New York Premiere Winner, Best Documentary – Cinema Tropical Awards Using reenactments and interviews, filmmaker Abner Benaim documents the collective memory -as well as the selective amnesia- of his fellow Panamanians around the 1989 U.S. invasion to overthrow General Manuel Noriega. The lives of the people of the Central American nation were deeply shaken by the American military incursion. Invasion–Panama’s first film to be submitted for the Best Foreign Language Oscar– is a witty and engaging documentary that talks about the perils of sovereignty, democracy and endangered virtues of today’s ultra-capitalist world. The film not only explores the mechanisms in which memory is turned into history, but holds a mirror to the present to show how the recent past shapes the current Panama.
Saturday, February 27, 12:30pm
"Ixcanul"
(Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/France, 2015, 93 min. In Kaqchikel and Spanish with English subtitles)
Winner, Best First Film – Cinema Tropical Awards
Winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize–the top honor ever won by a Central American film– Ixcanul marks the auspicious debut of Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante. The film follows María (played by María Mercedes Coroy), a 17-year-old Mayan girl who lives and works in a coffee plantation that sits at the base of an active volcano in Guatemala. Although Maria dreams of going to the 'big city,' her condition as an indigenous woman does not permit her to change her destiny, and an arranged wedding is waiting for her. A snake bite forces her to go out into the modern world where her life is saved, but at a steep price. Ixcanul is a beautiful and poignant meditation on the clash between tradition and modernity. A Kino Lorber release.
Saturday, February 27, 3:00pm
"The Fire"
(El incendio, Juan Schnitman, Argentina, 2015, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) New York Premiere Nominated, Best First Film – Cinema Tropical Awards On the way to closing the contract on their first home, Lucía and Marcelo withdraw a hundred thousand dollars in cash from their bank. The seller can’t make it to the signing and it gets postponed to the next day. Frustrated, they head back to their old place and put the money away. The next 24 hours will unveil the true nature of their love, the crisis they are in, and the violence within themselves. “A riveting chamber piece of subtle shifts and evenhanded power struggles (Variety), Schnitman’s debut feature film was the winner of the Best Film Award at the Transylvania Film Festival.
Saturday, February 27, 5:00pm
"Videophilia (And Other Viral Syndromes)"
(Videofilia (y otros síndromes virales), Juan Daniel F. Molero, Peru/USA, 2015, color, 102 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) U.S. Premiere Nominated, Best First Film – Cinema Tropical Awards The first Peruvian film to ever win the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival, Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) follows Luz, a teenage misfit from Lima who meets online Junior, a weird slacker who is obsessed with conspiracy theories, Mayan prophecies of the end of the world, and underground porn. They try to hook up in the real life but supernatural events start to unfold to guide their destinies. Set in Lima, Juan Daniel F. Molero’s exhilarating debut fiction film is a playful mashup of internet cafes, slackers, not-so-innocent schoolgirls, amateur porn, Google Glass, acid trips and guinea pigs as extras in an exorcism.
Q&A with filmmaker
Saturday, February 27, 7:00pm
"Jauja"
(Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/Denmark/France/Mexico, 2014, color, 108 min. In Danish and Spanish with English subtitles) Winner Best Fiction Film – Cinema Tropical Awards An astonishingly beautiful and gripping Western starring Viggo Mortensen, Jauja begins in a remote outpost in Patagonia during the late 1800s. Captain Gunnar Dinesen has come from abroad with his fifteen year-old daughter to take an engineering job with the Argentine army. Being the only female in the area, Ingeborg creates quite a stir among the men. She falls in love with a young soldier, and one night they run away together. When Dinesen realizes what has happened, he decides to venture into enemy territory, against his men’s wishes, to find the young couple. Featuring a superb performance from Mortensen, Jauja (the name suggests a fabled city of riches sought by European explorers) is the story of a man’s desperate search for his daughter, a solitary quest that takes him to a place beyond time, where the past vanishes and the future has no meaning. A Cinema Guild release.
Sunday, February 28, 4:30pm...
- 2/22/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Twenty-nine films from twelve countries have been nominated in the sixth annual edition of the Cinema Tropical Awards, honoring the best of Latin American cinema of the year in six different categories: Best Feature Film; Best Documentary Film; Best Director, Feature Film; Best Director, Documentary Film; Best First Film; and Best U.S. Latino Film.
The five films competing for the Cinema Tropical Award for Best Feature Film of the Year are: The Club by Pablo Larraín (Chile), Jauja by Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Los Hongos by Oscar Ruiz Navia (Colombia), The Princess of France by Matías Piñeiro (Argentina), and White Out, Black In by Adirley Queirós (Brazil).
The five nominees for Best U.S. Latino Film of the Year are: The Book of Life by Jorge Gutierrez, East Side Sushi by Anthony Lucero, Mala Mala by Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and We Like It Like That by Mathew Ramirez Warren.
The winners of the 6th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards will be announced at a special evening ceremony at The New York Times Company headquarters in New York City on Wednesday, January 20, 2016. The winning films will be showcased as part of the Cinema Tropical Festival at Museum of the Moving Image, February 25-28, 2016, celebrating the organization’s 15th anniversary.
The candidates were culled from a comprehensive list of films created by a nominating committee composed of 12 film professionals from Latin America, the U.S., and Europe. All the films under consideration had a minimum of 60 minutes in length and premiered between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015.
Complete List of Nominations:
Best Feature Film
• "The Club"/ "El club" (Pablo Larraín, Chile, 2015)
• "Jauja" (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina, 2014)
• "Los Hongos" (Óscar Ruiz Navia, Colombia, 2014)
• "The Princess of France" / "La princesa de Francia" (Matías Piñeiro, Argentina/USA, 2014)
• "White Out, Black In" / "Branco Sai, Petro Fica" (Adirley Queirós, Brazil, 2014)
Best Director, Feature Film
• Nicolás Pereda, "The Absent" / "Los ausentes" (Mexico, 2014)
• Gabriel Mascaro, "August Winds" / "Ventos de Agosto" (Brazil, 2014)
• Pablo Larraín, "The Club" / "El club" (Chile, 2015)
• Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, "Sand Dollars" / "Dólares de arena" (Dominican Republic/Mexico/Argentina, 2014)
• Paz Fábrega, "Viaje" (Costa Rica, 2015)
Best First Film
• "600 Miles" (Gabriel Ripstein, Mexico, 2015)
• "The Fire" / "El incendio" (Juan Schnitman, Argentina, 2015)
• "Ixcanul" (Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala, 2015)
• "She Comes Back on Thursday" / "Ela Volta Na Quinta" (Andrés Novais Oliveira, Brazil, 2014)
• "Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes)" / "Videofilia (y otros síndromes virales)" (Juan Daniel F. Molero, Peru, 2015)
Best Documentary Film
• "A Committee Chronicle" / "Crónica de un comité" (José Luis Sepúlveda and Carolina Adriazola, Chile, 2014)
• "Identification Photos" / "Retratos de Identificaçao" (Anita Leandro, Brazil, 2014)
• "Invasion" / "Invasión" (Abner Benaim, Panama, 2014)
• "Last Conversations" / "Últimas Conversas" (Eduardo Coutinho, Brazil,2015)
• "Monte Adentro" (Nicolás Macario Alonso, Colombia/Argentina, 2014)
Best Director, Documentary Film
• Maíra Bühler and Matias Mariani, "I Touched All Your Stuff"/ "A Vida Privada dos Hipopótamos" (Brazil, 2014)
• Karina García Casanova, "Juanicas" (Mexico, 2014)
• Betzabé García, "Kings of Nowhere"/ "Los reyes del pueblo que no existe" (Mexico, 2015)
• Aldo Garay, "The New Man" / "El hombre nuevo" (Uruguay, 2015)
• Christopher Murray, "Propaganda" (Chile, 2014)
Best U.S. Latino Film
• "The Book of Life" (Jorge Gutierrez, USA, 2014)
• "East Side Sushi" (Anthony Lucero, USA, 2014)
• "Mala Mala" (Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles, USA/Puerto Rico, 2014)
• "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon USA, 2015)
• "We Like It Like That" (Mathew Ramirez Warren, USA, 2015)
2015 Jury: Amalia Córdova, film programmer and scholar; Aaron Cutler, film critic and programmer; Paul Dallas, film critic; Vanessa Erazo, Film Editor, Remezcla; Michelle Farrell, film scholar; Sandra Kogut, filmmaker; Dominic Davis, film programmer, Rooftop Films; David Schwartz, Chief Curator, Museum of the Moving Image; Diana Vargas, Artistic Director, Havana Film Festival New York.
2015 Nominating Committee: Fábio Andrade, Revista Cinética, Brazil; Juan Pablo Bastarrachea, Cine Tonalá, Mexico; Consuelo Castillo, Doctv Latinoamérica, Colombia; Fernando del Razo, Riviera Maya Film Festival, Mexico; Vanessa Erazo, Film Editor, Remezcla, USA; Luis Gonzalez Zaffaroni, DocMontevideo, Uruguay; James Lattimer, Berlinale's Forum, Germany; Alicia Morales, Lima Film Festival, Peru; Joel Poblete. Sanfic, Chile; Andrea Stavenhagen, San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain; Charles Tesson, Critics' Week, Cannes, France; Raúl Niño Zambrano, International Documentary Film Festival - Idfa, Netherlands.
The five films competing for the Cinema Tropical Award for Best Feature Film of the Year are: The Club by Pablo Larraín (Chile), Jauja by Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Los Hongos by Oscar Ruiz Navia (Colombia), The Princess of France by Matías Piñeiro (Argentina), and White Out, Black In by Adirley Queirós (Brazil).
The five nominees for Best U.S. Latino Film of the Year are: The Book of Life by Jorge Gutierrez, East Side Sushi by Anthony Lucero, Mala Mala by Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and We Like It Like That by Mathew Ramirez Warren.
The winners of the 6th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards will be announced at a special evening ceremony at The New York Times Company headquarters in New York City on Wednesday, January 20, 2016. The winning films will be showcased as part of the Cinema Tropical Festival at Museum of the Moving Image, February 25-28, 2016, celebrating the organization’s 15th anniversary.
The candidates were culled from a comprehensive list of films created by a nominating committee composed of 12 film professionals from Latin America, the U.S., and Europe. All the films under consideration had a minimum of 60 minutes in length and premiered between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015.
Complete List of Nominations:
Best Feature Film
• "The Club"/ "El club" (Pablo Larraín, Chile, 2015)
• "Jauja" (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina, 2014)
• "Los Hongos" (Óscar Ruiz Navia, Colombia, 2014)
• "The Princess of France" / "La princesa de Francia" (Matías Piñeiro, Argentina/USA, 2014)
• "White Out, Black In" / "Branco Sai, Petro Fica" (Adirley Queirós, Brazil, 2014)
Best Director, Feature Film
• Nicolás Pereda, "The Absent" / "Los ausentes" (Mexico, 2014)
• Gabriel Mascaro, "August Winds" / "Ventos de Agosto" (Brazil, 2014)
• Pablo Larraín, "The Club" / "El club" (Chile, 2015)
• Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, "Sand Dollars" / "Dólares de arena" (Dominican Republic/Mexico/Argentina, 2014)
• Paz Fábrega, "Viaje" (Costa Rica, 2015)
Best First Film
• "600 Miles" (Gabriel Ripstein, Mexico, 2015)
• "The Fire" / "El incendio" (Juan Schnitman, Argentina, 2015)
• "Ixcanul" (Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala, 2015)
• "She Comes Back on Thursday" / "Ela Volta Na Quinta" (Andrés Novais Oliveira, Brazil, 2014)
• "Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes)" / "Videofilia (y otros síndromes virales)" (Juan Daniel F. Molero, Peru, 2015)
Best Documentary Film
• "A Committee Chronicle" / "Crónica de un comité" (José Luis Sepúlveda and Carolina Adriazola, Chile, 2014)
• "Identification Photos" / "Retratos de Identificaçao" (Anita Leandro, Brazil, 2014)
• "Invasion" / "Invasión" (Abner Benaim, Panama, 2014)
• "Last Conversations" / "Últimas Conversas" (Eduardo Coutinho, Brazil,2015)
• "Monte Adentro" (Nicolás Macario Alonso, Colombia/Argentina, 2014)
Best Director, Documentary Film
• Maíra Bühler and Matias Mariani, "I Touched All Your Stuff"/ "A Vida Privada dos Hipopótamos" (Brazil, 2014)
• Karina García Casanova, "Juanicas" (Mexico, 2014)
• Betzabé García, "Kings of Nowhere"/ "Los reyes del pueblo que no existe" (Mexico, 2015)
• Aldo Garay, "The New Man" / "El hombre nuevo" (Uruguay, 2015)
• Christopher Murray, "Propaganda" (Chile, 2014)
Best U.S. Latino Film
• "The Book of Life" (Jorge Gutierrez, USA, 2014)
• "East Side Sushi" (Anthony Lucero, USA, 2014)
• "Mala Mala" (Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles, USA/Puerto Rico, 2014)
• "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon USA, 2015)
• "We Like It Like That" (Mathew Ramirez Warren, USA, 2015)
2015 Jury: Amalia Córdova, film programmer and scholar; Aaron Cutler, film critic and programmer; Paul Dallas, film critic; Vanessa Erazo, Film Editor, Remezcla; Michelle Farrell, film scholar; Sandra Kogut, filmmaker; Dominic Davis, film programmer, Rooftop Films; David Schwartz, Chief Curator, Museum of the Moving Image; Diana Vargas, Artistic Director, Havana Film Festival New York.
2015 Nominating Committee: Fábio Andrade, Revista Cinética, Brazil; Juan Pablo Bastarrachea, Cine Tonalá, Mexico; Consuelo Castillo, Doctv Latinoamérica, Colombia; Fernando del Razo, Riviera Maya Film Festival, Mexico; Vanessa Erazo, Film Editor, Remezcla, USA; Luis Gonzalez Zaffaroni, DocMontevideo, Uruguay; James Lattimer, Berlinale's Forum, Germany; Alicia Morales, Lima Film Festival, Peru; Joel Poblete. Sanfic, Chile; Andrea Stavenhagen, San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain; Charles Tesson, Critics' Week, Cannes, France; Raúl Niño Zambrano, International Documentary Film Festival - Idfa, Netherlands.
- 12/27/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The 44th edition of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema has just announced their entire lineup and it’s pretty insane! The festival which takes place in Montreal from October 7 to 18 is screening nearly 400 films and events in only 11 days. This includes 151 feature films and 203 short films from 68 countries – 49 world premieres, 38 North American premieres and 60 Canadian premieres. Give credit to the team of programmers: Claude Chamberlan, Dimitri Eipides Julien Fonfrède, Philippe Gajan, Karolewicz Daniel, Marie-Hélène Brousseau, Katayoun Dibamehr and Gabrielle Tougas-Frechette.
Below is the lineup. There’s a lot to process so take your sweet time!
Opening and closing
The whole New Testament directed by Jaco Van Dormael (Toto the Hero, Mr Nobody, The Eighth Day), will kick off this 44th edition.
After its world premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last May, the new opus unconventional Belgian director, starring Benoît Poelvoorde (Three Hearts, Ransom of Glory), Yolande Moreau (Mammuth,...
Below is the lineup. There’s a lot to process so take your sweet time!
Opening and closing
The whole New Testament directed by Jaco Van Dormael (Toto the Hero, Mr Nobody, The Eighth Day), will kick off this 44th edition.
After its world premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last May, the new opus unconventional Belgian director, starring Benoît Poelvoorde (Three Hearts, Ransom of Glory), Yolande Moreau (Mammuth,...
- 9/29/2015
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Brutal and horrifying are words you'd normally use to describe a horror movie, not a relationship drama, but The Fire (El Incendio), from first-time director Juan Schnitman, earns them. It has nothing to do with ghosts or monsters, but it's just as hair-raising and uncomfortable, suggesting horrors of a different, everyday sort.This two-person drama follows a day in the life of young couple Lucia (Pilar Gamboa) and Marcelo (Juan Barberini) on what should be a happy occasion: they're about to move into a brand-new apartment. The moving gets delayed until the next day, and for the next 24 hours, we watch as this apparently blissful union deteriorates beyond repair.Relationships are all about trust and communication, and it's quickly apparent that our two lovers never learned...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 8/13/2015
- Screen Anarchy
★★★★☆ The familiar volatile passions of cinematic portrayals of Latin-American ardour may lie at the heart of Juan Schnitman's latest feature, The Fire (2015), but they - and it - are twisted into something raw and utterly compelling. There's a permeating feeling of unease from the very first frame; a locked bird's-eye-view shot of two people lying in bed. Marcelo (Juan Barberini) lies on his front, dead to the world; Lucía (Pilar Gamboa) is on her back, staring unblinking up at the ceiling. Her eyes burn disconcertingly through the camera lens, but her anxieties remain tantalisingly ambiguous and will remain so throughout the emotional oscillations to follow.
- 7/12/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
I haven’t traveled all I have to Buenos Aires and back to tell you about how this festival, alongside Mar del Plata and Valdivia (this last one in Chile), form the triad of the most important festivals of Latin America, because if you know about it, you know about it. People that have travelled to Argentina for the past 17 years in April have felt the presence of cinema in the streets—and Buenos Aires is a big city. The importance of a festival that brings over 300 titles, some of them for the first time crossing an ocean, is fundamental for the Latino viewer, as well for those who want to make the effort and come to see the movies that play here. On a closer look, what plays here may seem to be eclectic at times, it is purely due to what seems to be the motto of the festival: discovery.
- 6/8/2015
- by Jaime Grijalba Gómez
- MUBI
Rams wins Special Jury Prize and Audience Award, The Treasure picks up Best Romanian Film at 14th Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj
Juan Schnitman’s The Fire has won the top prize at the 14th Transilvania International Film Festival (May 29-July 7).
The Argentinian relationship drama, which received its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, won the Transilvania Trophy and a €15,000 cash prize at the Cluj-Napoca event.
The Special Jury Prize, worth €1,500, and the audience award for one of the 12 first or second films by their directors in the international competition, went to Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams.
The Icelandic film won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section last month.
The most popular film overall at the festival was Operation Arctic by Grethe Bøe-Waal from Norway, one of the countries in Focus at this year’s Tiff, along with Argentina.
Bulgarian-Greek hit The Lesson, which has already won a string of awards at Sofia, Thessaloniki, Gothenburg...
Juan Schnitman’s The Fire has won the top prize at the 14th Transilvania International Film Festival (May 29-July 7).
The Argentinian relationship drama, which received its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, won the Transilvania Trophy and a €15,000 cash prize at the Cluj-Napoca event.
The Special Jury Prize, worth €1,500, and the audience award for one of the 12 first or second films by their directors in the international competition, went to Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams.
The Icelandic film won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section last month.
The most popular film overall at the festival was Operation Arctic by Grethe Bøe-Waal from Norway, one of the countries in Focus at this year’s Tiff, along with Argentina.
Bulgarian-Greek hit The Lesson, which has already won a string of awards at Sofia, Thessaloniki, Gothenburg...
- 6/8/2015
- by vladan.petkovic@gmail.com (Vladan Petkovic)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Us-based FiGa Films has lined up a Cannes slate that includes Paz Fabrega’s Tribeca 2015 selection Viaje and Berlin entry The Fire from Juan Schnitman.
Kattia Gonzalez and Fernando Bolanos star in Viaje, which marks the Costa Rican Fabrega’s second film and centres on a casual encounter.
The Fire (El Incendio) stars Pilar Gambo and Juan Barberini and tells of a couple whose love is tested during a tense attempt to buy a home.
FiGa, which as of June 1 will relocate from Los Angeles and Florida, will also tout Berlin selection and rites-of-passage drama Seashore (Beira Mar) from Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon and stars Mateus Almada and Mauricio Jose Barcellos.
Gregoria Graziosi’s Brazilian drama Obra (pictured) premiered in Toronto last year and stars Irandhir Santos, Lola Peploe and Julio Andrade.
Thriller I Swear I’ll Leave This Town (Prometo Um Dia Deixar Essa Cidade) from Daniel Aragao launched at the Rio de Janeiro...
Kattia Gonzalez and Fernando Bolanos star in Viaje, which marks the Costa Rican Fabrega’s second film and centres on a casual encounter.
The Fire (El Incendio) stars Pilar Gambo and Juan Barberini and tells of a couple whose love is tested during a tense attempt to buy a home.
FiGa, which as of June 1 will relocate from Los Angeles and Florida, will also tout Berlin selection and rites-of-passage drama Seashore (Beira Mar) from Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon and stars Mateus Almada and Mauricio Jose Barcellos.
Gregoria Graziosi’s Brazilian drama Obra (pictured) premiered in Toronto last year and stars Irandhir Santos, Lola Peploe and Julio Andrade.
Thriller I Swear I’ll Leave This Town (Prometo Um Dia Deixar Essa Cidade) from Daniel Aragao launched at the Rio de Janeiro...
- 5/10/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Copenhagen’s Cph Pix (April 9-22) will be bookended by films from two Danish directors shooting in the UK – Jeppe Ronde’s Welsh teen suicide drama Bridgend [pictured] and Thomas Vinterberg’s Thomas Hardy adaptation, Far From The Madding Crowd.
The audience-focused Cph Pix will show 130 feature films during 420 screenings and events.
Festival director Jacob Neiiendam said: “Artistically it’s a strong year for Danish cinema.”
Indeed, three Danish debut features will screen at Pix. “The first features from Thomas Daneskov [The Elite], Anna Sofie Hartmann [Limbo] and Jeppe Rønde showcase a diversity and nerve we have been missing in our fiction films, and they are just the tip of the iceberg,” added Neiiendam.
“We always wanted the festival to be a platform for local films which wouldn’t play well with regular releases, and this year we’ve been flooded with films produced outside the standard support system - and they are good films.”
Opening night will also...
The audience-focused Cph Pix will show 130 feature films during 420 screenings and events.
Festival director Jacob Neiiendam said: “Artistically it’s a strong year for Danish cinema.”
Indeed, three Danish debut features will screen at Pix. “The first features from Thomas Daneskov [The Elite], Anna Sofie Hartmann [Limbo] and Jeppe Rønde showcase a diversity and nerve we have been missing in our fiction films, and they are just the tip of the iceberg,” added Neiiendam.
“We always wanted the festival to be a platform for local films which wouldn’t play well with regular releases, and this year we’ve been flooded with films produced outside the standard support system - and they are good films.”
Opening night will also...
- 3/12/2015
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Argentinian filmmaker Juan Schnitman is heading to the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival to world premiere his emotional relationship drama "El Incendio," starring Pilar Gamboa and Juan Barberini as lovers caught in a 24-hour whirlwind of life-changing moments. The film's official synopsis reads, "On the way to closing the contract on their first home, Lucia and Marcelo withdraw $100,000 in cash from their bank. The seller can't make it to the signing, and it gets postponed to the next day. Frustrated, they head back to their old place and put the money away. The next 24 hours will unveil the true nature of their love, the crisis they are in and the violence within themselves." If that dramatically ripe storyline doesn't sell the high stakes, the new trailer for the film certainly will. Featuring intimate handheld shots and previewing two rich performances from Gamboa and Barberini, this stirring trailer should get everyone excited for the film's.
- 2/4/2015
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Starting off with its premiere at Bafici, Santiago Mitre's debut feature El Estudiante (The Student, 2011) has proceeded on an aggressive campaign trail, stopping to woo votes at Locarno, the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), and next at the New York Film Festival.
In his review from Locarno, indieWire's Eric Kohn dubbed Santiago Mitre "a South American Aaron Sorkin." Mitre has previously worked as a screenwriter, crafting the scripts for Leonera (2008) and Carancho (2010), both directed by Pablo Trapero. He also co-directed the film El amor—primera parte (2005) with Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui, and Juan Schnitman. I caught up with Santiago in Toronto where we sat down to talk about El Estudiante. My thanks to Tiff publicist Lina Rodriguez for facilitating the interview and for providing translative assistance.
Michael GUILLÉN: El Estudiante rests on the shoulders of your lead actor Esteban Lamothe. What were the qualities within Esteban that convinced you...
In his review from Locarno, indieWire's Eric Kohn dubbed Santiago Mitre "a South American Aaron Sorkin." Mitre has previously worked as a screenwriter, crafting the scripts for Leonera (2008) and Carancho (2010), both directed by Pablo Trapero. He also co-directed the film El amor—primera parte (2005) with Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui, and Juan Schnitman. I caught up with Santiago in Toronto where we sat down to talk about El Estudiante. My thanks to Tiff publicist Lina Rodriguez for facilitating the interview and for providing translative assistance.
Michael GUILLÉN: El Estudiante rests on the shoulders of your lead actor Esteban Lamothe. What were the qualities within Esteban that convinced you...
- 10/15/2011
- MUBI
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