Janus Films has picked up North American rights to four of Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas’ features including a restored version of Battle in Heaven ahead of its world premiere in Berlin’s Classics Special.
Other titles in the deal with Coproduction Office include the 2002 Camera d’Or-winning debut feature Japon, 2007 Cannes Jury prize-winning Silent Light whose restoration is planned for later in 2024, and 2012 Cannes best director award-winning Post Tenebras Lux.
Battle in Heaven will screen in 4K resolution with Dolby Atmos sound.
The provocative film is about a driver haunted by the kidnap of a child.
Why sellers are aiming...
Other titles in the deal with Coproduction Office include the 2002 Camera d’Or-winning debut feature Japon, 2007 Cannes Jury prize-winning Silent Light whose restoration is planned for later in 2024, and 2012 Cannes best director award-winning Post Tenebras Lux.
Battle in Heaven will screen in 4K resolution with Dolby Atmos sound.
The provocative film is about a driver haunted by the kidnap of a child.
Why sellers are aiming...
- 2/16/2024
- ScreenDaily
10 films underscoring Mexican cinemas drive into diversity:
“Huesera,” (Michelle Garza Cervera)
Valeria is pregnant, but something is wrong with the baby. Shades of “Rosemary’s Baby,” but “Huesera” goes its own way, as Valeria gradually realizes what for her is really horror.
Genre and LGBTQ, a double winner at Tribeca, taking its coveted New Narrative Director hardware, and picked up by XYZ Films for most world sales. “A terrifying, bone-breaking body horror nightmare,” said Variety. Produced by Mexico’s Napa Films and Machete Films, the latter behind Cannes winners “Leap Year” and “La Jaula de Oro.”
“Mom,” (“Mamá,” Xun Sero)
Selected for Canada’s Hot Docs, Guadalajara Mezcal Award competition, where it won an honorable mention, and now Morelia’s doc strand, one of the banner titles of a new Chiapas cinema. A portrait of Sero’s mom, yes, but also of a remarkable, resilient woman who defied the conventions of her village,...
“Huesera,” (Michelle Garza Cervera)
Valeria is pregnant, but something is wrong with the baby. Shades of “Rosemary’s Baby,” but “Huesera” goes its own way, as Valeria gradually realizes what for her is really horror.
Genre and LGBTQ, a double winner at Tribeca, taking its coveted New Narrative Director hardware, and picked up by XYZ Films for most world sales. “A terrifying, bone-breaking body horror nightmare,” said Variety. Produced by Mexico’s Napa Films and Machete Films, the latter behind Cannes winners “Leap Year” and “La Jaula de Oro.”
“Mom,” (“Mamá,” Xun Sero)
Selected for Canada’s Hot Docs, Guadalajara Mezcal Award competition, where it won an honorable mention, and now Morelia’s doc strand, one of the banner titles of a new Chiapas cinema. A portrait of Sero’s mom, yes, but also of a remarkable, resilient woman who defied the conventions of her village,...
- 9/16/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Production
Debutant Galen Rosenthal‘s “Robber’s Roost,” the last film starring Margot Kidder, has resumed production with the addition of Shiladitya Bora (Platoon One Films) as executive producer. The project is currently filming in Park City, Utah. A psychological thriller set at the turn of the 20th century during the last days of the Wild West, “Robber’s Roost” is the story of a woman who has lived alone in a desolate mountain cabin for decades until one day a mysterious person from her past emerges from the depths of a brutal winter.
Kidder, best known for playing Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in the “Superman” films, died in May 2018 while the film was still incomplete. Mexican actor Nathalia Acevedo, who debuted in Carlos Reygadas‘ 2012 Cannes winner “Post Tenebras Lux,” stepped in to play a younger version of Kidder’s character to finish the film. The cast also includes...
Debutant Galen Rosenthal‘s “Robber’s Roost,” the last film starring Margot Kidder, has resumed production with the addition of Shiladitya Bora (Platoon One Films) as executive producer. The project is currently filming in Park City, Utah. A psychological thriller set at the turn of the 20th century during the last days of the Wild West, “Robber’s Roost” is the story of a woman who has lived alone in a desolate mountain cabin for decades until one day a mysterious person from her past emerges from the depths of a brutal winter.
Kidder, best known for playing Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in the “Superman” films, died in May 2018 while the film was still incomplete. Mexican actor Nathalia Acevedo, who debuted in Carlos Reygadas‘ 2012 Cannes winner “Post Tenebras Lux,” stepped in to play a younger version of Kidder’s character to finish the film. The cast also includes...
- 3/24/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
How you respond to the news that “Robe of Gems” director Natalia López Gallardo is making her feature debut after editing work by the likes of Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas may ultimately guide your response to the film as a whole. Though the first-time writer-director forges her own cinematic path here and is very much an artist unto herself, the influence of her collaborators is evident in this elliptical exploration of a criminal underbelly that’s spent so much time in the light it’s hardly even dark anymore.
Nailea Norvind stars as Isabel, who moves into her mother’s villa in rural Mexico along with her husband and children following the matriarch’s departure. There they learn that the sister of Mari, who’s taken care of the family home since time immemorial, has gone missing — a development that so upets Isabel it spurs her into ill-advised action.
Nailea Norvind stars as Isabel, who moves into her mother’s villa in rural Mexico along with her husband and children following the matriarch’s departure. There they learn that the sister of Mari, who’s taken care of the family home since time immemorial, has gone missing — a development that so upets Isabel it spurs her into ill-advised action.
- 2/14/2022
- by Michael Nordine
- Variety Film + TV
New York-based Visit Films has swooped on world sales rights to “Robe of Gems” (“Manto de Gemas”) which will world premiere in main competition at next’s month’s Berlinale.
Produced by some of the best known producers on the art film and crossover scene in Mexico and Argentina, “Robe of Gems” marks the directorial debut feature of Natalia López Gallardo who has edited some of the most acclaimed and challenging films coming out of Latin America in the last decade, such as Lisandro Alonso’s “Jauja,” starring Viggo Mortensen, and Carlos Reygadas’ “Post Tenebras Lux” and Amat Escalante’s “Heli,” the latter two both best director award winners at the Cannes Festival.
Written, directed and edited by López Gallardo, “Robe of Gems” turns on Isabel, a woman in the midst of divorce who moves to an old country house her family once owned.
There she discovers her helper Marta...
Produced by some of the best known producers on the art film and crossover scene in Mexico and Argentina, “Robe of Gems” marks the directorial debut feature of Natalia López Gallardo who has edited some of the most acclaimed and challenging films coming out of Latin America in the last decade, such as Lisandro Alonso’s “Jauja,” starring Viggo Mortensen, and Carlos Reygadas’ “Post Tenebras Lux” and Amat Escalante’s “Heli,” the latter two both best director award winners at the Cannes Festival.
Written, directed and edited by López Gallardo, “Robe of Gems” turns on Isabel, a woman in the midst of divorce who moves to an old country house her family once owned.
There she discovers her helper Marta...
- 1/20/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Supernova
It’s always a noteworthy point of interest when an artist who excels in one film department crosses over into the directors’ chair. Apart from a 2006 Rotterdam selected short (En el cielo como en la tierra), this is Natalia López feature film debut after editing such noteworthy titles as 2007’s Silent Light, 2012’s Post Tenebras Lux, 2013’s Heli, 2014’s Jauja, and 2016’s The Darkness – plus she appeared alongside her hubby Carlos Reygadas in Nuestro tiempo. We didn’t really take notice of the project when it was making the film coin rounds circa 2018, but it was among the projects selected for Venice Gap-Financing in 2020.…...
It’s always a noteworthy point of interest when an artist who excels in one film department crosses over into the directors’ chair. Apart from a 2006 Rotterdam selected short (En el cielo como en la tierra), this is Natalia López feature film debut after editing such noteworthy titles as 2007’s Silent Light, 2012’s Post Tenebras Lux, 2013’s Heli, 2014’s Jauja, and 2016’s The Darkness – plus she appeared alongside her hubby Carlos Reygadas in Nuestro tiempo. We didn’t really take notice of the project when it was making the film coin rounds circa 2018, but it was among the projects selected for Venice Gap-Financing in 2020.…...
- 1/8/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Praised for its immersive approach to mapping out a drummer’s confrontation with hearing loss, writer-director Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” now contending for six Academy Awards, features a singularly story-driven use of sound.
Part of that sonic alchemy proudly bears a “Made in Mexico” stamp. The film is nominated for best sound, and three of the nominated artisans are Mexican re-recording mixers Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, and Carlos Cortés Navarrete. Together they worked alongside fellow nominees Nicolas Becker and Phillip Bladh to fine-tune the sonic palette. The Mexican trio lent their seasoned skills, honed over many years working on homegrown productions and the occasional international job, across multiple stages of the film’s post-production journey.
Though all of them studied in Europe or the United States, given the limited availability of sound-focused education in their homeland during their formative period, they returned to Mexico to carve out their careers.
Part of that sonic alchemy proudly bears a “Made in Mexico” stamp. The film is nominated for best sound, and three of the nominated artisans are Mexican re-recording mixers Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, and Carlos Cortés Navarrete. Together they worked alongside fellow nominees Nicolas Becker and Phillip Bladh to fine-tune the sonic palette. The Mexican trio lent their seasoned skills, honed over many years working on homegrown productions and the occasional international job, across multiple stages of the film’s post-production journey.
Though all of them studied in Europe or the United States, given the limited availability of sound-focused education in their homeland during their formative period, they returned to Mexico to carve out their careers.
- 3/23/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Variety Film + TV
“There is no theme. Film whatever you want, however you want, with whomever you want.” This is the message that Egyptian filmmaker Sam Abbas sent to his favorite cinematographers as an invitation to contribute to the new film Erēmīta (Anthologies). Directors of photography from five countries––USA, France, Argentina, Italy, and the UK––answered the call and today we’re pleased to debut the exclusive trailer for the anthology project.
Featuring contributions from Abbas (Alia’s Birth, Marie, The Wedding), Alexis Zabe (The Florida Project, Silent Light, Post Tenebras Lux), Antoine Héberlé (A Son, My Favourite Fabric, GriGris), Ashley Connor (Madeline’s Madeline, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, The Death of Dick Long), Soledad Rodríguez (Pendular, Maternal, The Student), Stefano Falivene (Siberia, Pasolini, Mary), the zero-budget production will now get a release next month on VOD and Virtual Cinemas with all profits going entirely to a charity the team will choose.
Featuring contributions from Abbas (Alia’s Birth, Marie, The Wedding), Alexis Zabe (The Florida Project, Silent Light, Post Tenebras Lux), Antoine Héberlé (A Son, My Favourite Fabric, GriGris), Ashley Connor (Madeline’s Madeline, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, The Death of Dick Long), Soledad Rodríguez (Pendular, Maternal, The Student), Stefano Falivene (Siberia, Pasolini, Mary), the zero-budget production will now get a release next month on VOD and Virtual Cinemas with all profits going entirely to a charity the team will choose.
- 1/25/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Friend and supporter Christian Mungiu hails “meditation on the state of the world”.
Berlin-based Pluto Film has picked up world sales on Hilal Baydarov’s In Between Dying, which will receive its world premiere in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival in September.
In Between Dying tells the love story of Davud, a young man trying to find his “real” family, who completes his life cycle in a single day. When he does find love, it’s in the place he has always lived. But it may be too late.
Baydarov, a former student of Béla Tarr’s Sarajevo-based film.
Berlin-based Pluto Film has picked up world sales on Hilal Baydarov’s In Between Dying, which will receive its world premiere in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival in September.
In Between Dying tells the love story of Davud, a young man trying to find his “real” family, who completes his life cycle in a single day. When he does find love, it’s in the place he has always lived. But it may be too late.
Baydarov, a former student of Béla Tarr’s Sarajevo-based film.
- 7/28/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
At least based of its original title of Where Life is Born, director Carlos Reygadas’ fifth feature film from the outset seemed to promise the ultimate realization of his festival-approved Transcendental Vision. Yet what we finally received instead six years after his last feature is a three-hour cuckold drama that’s thankfully at least a little closer in spirit to the lizard-brained surrealism of Post Tenebras Lux as opposed to his banalization of Dreyer (and still art-house calling card) Silent Light. One almost wants to describe it as admirably awkward; the feeling of both watching a train-wreck unfold in (very) slow-motion and a work of art that very boldly and genuinely seeks to please no one.
In his first misstep, Reygadas casts himself and his wife, Natalia Lopez, in the lead roles of Juan and Esther, respectively, a wealthy couple living on a ranch in the countryside outside Mexico City.
In his first misstep, Reygadas casts himself and his wife, Natalia Lopez, in the lead roles of Juan and Esther, respectively, a wealthy couple living on a ranch in the countryside outside Mexico City.
- 9/17/2018
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
Ever since he shook the cinematic world with the release of his visionary first feature, “Japón,” and then followed that up with his mesmerizing magnum opus “Silent Light,” director Carlos Reygadas struggled to find the same kind of universal acclaim with his polarizing and mystical 2012 film “Post Tenebras Lux” (a beautifully maddening picture which many adore or loathe in equal measure).
Continue reading ‘Our Time’: Carlos Reygadas Offers A Beautiful, But Deeply Distancing Meta-Experience [Tiff Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Our Time’: Carlos Reygadas Offers A Beautiful, But Deeply Distancing Meta-Experience [Tiff Review] at The Playlist.
- 9/14/2018
- by Jordan Ruimy
- The Playlist
Walking out of László Nemes’ Sunset, I was gripped by the same stupefaction I had felt upon first seeing such films as The Dreamed Path or Post Tenebras Lux: though unable to make full sense of the experience or form a definite judgement, I was pretty sure I had just witnessed something genuinely great. This impression has only grown stronger since. In Sunset, Nemes employs a formal strategy very similar to the one from Son of Saul, stringing together a series of propulsive and staggeringly complex handheld shots that stick close to the protagonist at all times, while the intricate […]...
- 9/6/2018
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Walking out of László Nemes’ Sunset, I was gripped by the same stupefaction I had felt upon first seeing such films as The Dreamed Path or Post Tenebras Lux: though unable to make full sense of the experience or form a definite judgement, I was pretty sure I had just witnessed something genuinely great. This impression has only grown stronger since. In Sunset, Nemes employs a formal strategy very similar to the one from Son of Saul, stringing together a series of propulsive and staggeringly complex handheld shots that stick close to the protagonist at all times, while the intricate […]...
- 9/6/2018
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
To know Carlos Reygadas is to be perplexed; it’s hard to say exactly what happens in his films, or even if they’re enjoyable. His most recent, “Post Tenebras Lux,” earned him Best Director laurels at Cannes even as it divided everyone who wasn’t on the jury. That elliptical, two-hour exploration of the family unit encompassed everything from an anatomically correct Satan to a little girl getting lost in a field. However, the film also contained moments of great beauty amid the willful abstraction.
“Nuestro tiempo” (“Our Time”), which runs 173 character-building minutes, is likely to be received as another fans-only proposition that converts few but pleases those already inclined to enjoy his work. Those who don’t will sigh to learn that it’s set on a bull ranch (the animals in Reygadas’ films have as difficult a time as the humans), and is another family drama in which the director casts himself,...
“Nuestro tiempo” (“Our Time”), which runs 173 character-building minutes, is likely to be received as another fans-only proposition that converts few but pleases those already inclined to enjoy his work. Those who don’t will sigh to learn that it’s set on a bull ranch (the animals in Reygadas’ films have as difficult a time as the humans), and is another family drama in which the director casts himself,...
- 9/5/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The autobiographical thread running through Carlos Reygadas’ last film, 2012’s divisive Post Tenebras Lux, becomes more intensely personal in the Mexican iconoclast’s sixth narrative feature, Our Time, which traces the breakdown in an open relationship when one partner transgresses by falling in love outside the marriage. Featuring the director and his real-life wife and children playing versions of themselves, this navel-gazing epic is maddeningly distancing at almost every turn, lacking the spiritual and existential breadth of even Reygadas’ most impenetrable work. Running a prolix three hours, it feels like being trapped in somebody else’s crisis unfolding in real time....
The autobiographical thread running through Carlos Reygadas’ last film, 2012’s divisive Post Tenebras Lux, becomes more intensely personal in the Mexican iconoclast’s sixth narrative feature, Our Time, which traces the breakdown in an open relationship when one partner transgresses by falling in love outside the marriage. Featuring the director and his real-life wife and children playing versions of themselves, this navel-gazing epic is maddeningly distancing at almost every turn, lacking the spiritual and existential breadth of even Reygadas’ most impenetrable work. Running a prolix three hours, it feels like being trapped in somebody else’s crisis unfolding in real time....
Award-winning multi-hyphenate Phil Burgers spent half his life traveling the world, living abroad in South America and Europe, before training at the prestigious French clown school, Ecole Philippe Gaulier — a workshop that has also trained Sacha Baron Cohen and Roberto Benigni. Acclaimed filmmaker Carlos Reygadas took note of Burgers’ work, and cast him in his latest opus, “Nuestro Tiempo,” which focuses on a Mexican family living in the country raising fighting bulls. The pic debuts at the Venice Film Festival. Burgers spoke with Variety about stepping in front of the camera for Reygadas, his background in comedy and what he has in store for the future.
How did you get involved with “Nuestro Tiempo”?
Carlos had seen a television special I did in the U.K. with Channel 4, and because I’m not a classically trained actor, and that’s what Carlos looks for when he does his casting...
How did you get involved with “Nuestro Tiempo”?
Carlos had seen a television special I did in the U.K. with Channel 4, and because I’m not a classically trained actor, and that’s what Carlos looks for when he does his casting...
- 9/1/2018
- by Nick Clement
- Variety Film + TV
Until a few years ago, the Venice International Film Festival wasn’t viewed as much of an awards-season bellwether. After the success of “La La Land” and “The Shape of Water,” it’s hard to imagine it as anything else. And while this year’s edition of the world’s oldest film festival boasts Damien Chazelle’s “First Man,” Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria,” and Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born,” that’s all the more reason to dig a little deeper.
It’s also worth anticipating Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh in “At Eternity’s Gate,” and Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly as siblings in “The Sisters Brothers.” But with all of those offerings generating hype across the fall festival season, the under-the-radar options look all the more enticing. Here are 10 of them. The festival runs August 29 – September 8.
“Charlie Says” (Orizzonti)
Mary Harron,...
It’s also worth anticipating Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh in “At Eternity’s Gate,” and Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly as siblings in “The Sisters Brothers.” But with all of those offerings generating hype across the fall festival season, the under-the-radar options look all the more enticing. Here are 10 of them. The festival runs August 29 – September 8.
“Charlie Says” (Orizzonti)
Mary Harron,...
- 8/28/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Madrid — Carlos Reygadas’ “Our Time,” Alvaro Brechner’s “A Twelve-Year Night” and Ana Katz’s “Sueño Florianópolis” feature in San Sebastian’s Latin America-focused Horizontes Latinos, the biggest section at the Spanish festival after its main competition and New Directors’ strand.
Opening with Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses,” winner of the Sebastiane Latino Prize, Horizontes Latinos, as is its wont, mixes fest players, drawn from Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Venice, with a brace of lesser-known movies – this year María Alche’s “A Family Submerged,” Eugenio Canevari’s “Figuras” and Ignacio Juricic’s “Enigma” – whose presence in such august company only serves to highlight their titles all the more.
Three titles are drawn from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight – an indirect tribute to the passion for Latin American movies of Edouard Waintrop, Directors’ Fortnight head from 2012 to this year’s edition.
The large theme which courses through the selection is, however, women. Only...
Opening with Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses,” winner of the Sebastiane Latino Prize, Horizontes Latinos, as is its wont, mixes fest players, drawn from Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Venice, with a brace of lesser-known movies – this year María Alche’s “A Family Submerged,” Eugenio Canevari’s “Figuras” and Ignacio Juricic’s “Enigma” – whose presence in such august company only serves to highlight their titles all the more.
Three titles are drawn from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight – an indirect tribute to the passion for Latin American movies of Edouard Waintrop, Directors’ Fortnight head from 2012 to this year’s edition.
The large theme which courses through the selection is, however, women. Only...
- 8/10/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Followers of this column will need no introduction to the work of Sam Smith, whom I’ve written about a number of times since I first discovered his work in 2009. Over the past year Sam has been busy touring as a musician, traveling widely (he recently launched his design brand called Sammy—“imaginative art & design for children and the child inside”—with an exhibition in Japan) and broadcasting his essential monthly movie poster podcast The Poster Boys with his good friend and fellow designer Brandon Schaefer. But it has been a while since we’ve seen a new poster from Sam. So it was a treat to find out that he has been working on a poster for the new film by Carlos Reygadas which will premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival at the end of next month. Originally announced as Where Life is Born, now titled Nuestro Tiempo or Our Time,...
- 7/27/2018
- MUBI
With all due respect to Pixar and Studio Ghibli, can we start acknowledging Nick Park and Aardman Animations as the innovators they are? Those who’ve seen the “Wallace & Gromit” shorts and 2005 movie tend to love them, but the studio responsible for that iconic duo doesn’t get a fraction of the acclaim. Maybe it’s because the British studio has never been especially prolific, but with “Early Man,” its first feature film since 2015’s delightful “Shaun the Sheep Movie,” Aardman once again reminds viewers that its stop-motion creations are consistently joyous spectacles.
Beginning, as it must, with a primordial prologue about the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs — just as it strikes, two dinos who were fighting moments before embrace in fear — the film concerns a tribe of well-meaning cavemen whose happy existence is disrupted by the arrival of civilization: Bronze Age intruders show up one day, there...
Beginning, as it must, with a primordial prologue about the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs — just as it strikes, two dinos who were fighting moments before embrace in fear — the film concerns a tribe of well-meaning cavemen whose happy existence is disrupted by the arrival of civilization: Bronze Age intruders show up one day, there...
- 1/14/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Angelina Jolie was glowing as she attended the Light After Darkness: Memory, Resilience and Renewal in Cambodia discussion at the Asia Society in NYC on Thursday. The actress stepped out in a slinky navy gown and velvet robe as she made her way into the event, where she spoke on a panel with activist and First They Killed My Father author Loung Ung. It's been a whirlwind year for Angelina, who has traveled the globe with her and Brad Pitt's six children while promoting her Netflix film based on Loung Ung's book. Most recently, she gave an impassioned speech at THR's Women in Entertainment luncheon and honored those who "refuse to be intimidated" and who "are fighting so that others may one day have the freedoms we now have." Related9 Angelina Jolie Moments From 2017 That Will Make You Wonder, "How Does She Do It All?"...
- 12/15/2017
- by Brittney Stephens
- Popsugar.com
Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project,” Joshua Z. Weinstein’s “Menashe” and Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” are nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors Heterodox Award, which goes to films that blur the line between narrative fiction and documentary filmmaking. Guido Hendrikx’s “Stranger in Paradise” and Pawel Lozinski’s “You Have No Idea How Much I Love You” were also nominated for the award. Previous winners include “Boyhood,” “Taxi,” “Beginners,” “All These Sleepless Nights” and “Post Tenebras Lux,” among others. At the same time, the Cinema Eye Honors, which were established in 2007 to honor all facets of non-fiction filmmaking,...
- 12/6/2017
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
There are no talking foxes in Amat Escalante’s latest whatist, but chaos still reigns.
And though “La región salvaje” translates literally as “The Wilds,” one struggles to imagine a more fitting title for this surreal erotic thriller than “The Untamed.” The Mexican auteur, who last divided audiences with the punishing “Heli” (for which he won Best Director at Cannes), takes a cue from Andrzej Żuławski’s “Possession” in his tentacled pulse-pounder about the pain and pleasure of love in all its forms. This is the kind of experience that might tell you more about yourself as both a viewer and a person than you’re comfortable knowing; it’s also the most alluringly strange movie of the year so far.
It’s frequently beautiful, too, with cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro (who also lensed “Nymphomaniac”) capturing the strange goings on and foggy environs in all their alien glory. “The Untamed...
And though “La región salvaje” translates literally as “The Wilds,” one struggles to imagine a more fitting title for this surreal erotic thriller than “The Untamed.” The Mexican auteur, who last divided audiences with the punishing “Heli” (for which he won Best Director at Cannes), takes a cue from Andrzej Żuławski’s “Possession” in his tentacled pulse-pounder about the pain and pleasure of love in all its forms. This is the kind of experience that might tell you more about yourself as both a viewer and a person than you’re comfortable knowing; it’s also the most alluringly strange movie of the year so far.
It’s frequently beautiful, too, with cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro (who also lensed “Nymphomaniac”) capturing the strange goings on and foggy environs in all their alien glory. “The Untamed...
- 7/20/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Where Life is Born
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Writer: Carlos Reygadas
Open couples relationships and bull breeding ranches form the backdrop for the latest from Mexican auteur Carlos Reygadas, his fifth feature and first project since 2012’s superb Post Tenebras Lux (which took home Best Director at Cannes).
Continue reading...
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Writer: Carlos Reygadas
Open couples relationships and bull breeding ranches form the backdrop for the latest from Mexican auteur Carlos Reygadas, his fifth feature and first project since 2012’s superb Post Tenebras Lux (which took home Best Director at Cannes).
Continue reading...
- 1/9/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
With some of the most inventive, energetic direction we’ve seen this decade, last year’s Tangerine was one of the most essential dramas of last year, and not just due to seeing what one can accomplish just on an iPhone. Director Sean Baker wasted little time getting his follow-up together and after completing production down south, we now have the first images and new details for The Florida Project.
Co-written by Chris Bergoch, Indiewire reports that it “tells the story of a precocious six year old and her rag-tag group of close friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility, and a sense of adventure, while their parents and the adults around them struggle with hard times.” Not much more is known about the story, but the title refers to when Disney began buying up land to make Disney World, so if we had to take a...
Co-written by Chris Bergoch, Indiewire reports that it “tells the story of a precocious six year old and her rag-tag group of close friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility, and a sense of adventure, while their parents and the adults around them struggle with hard times.” Not much more is known about the story, but the title refers to when Disney began buying up land to make Disney World, so if we had to take a...
- 9/23/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“Tangerine” director Sean Baker has wrapped production on his new film, “The Florida Project,” and checked in with IndieWire to give us an exclusive sneak peek.
Read More: Willem Dafoe Cast in Sean Baker’s ‘The Florida Project,’ the Writer/Director’s Follow-Up to ‘Tangerine’
The film is not, as many believed, Sean Baker’s “Untitled Florida Project.” The official title is “The Florida Project,” and it refers to Florida’s Disney World. When Disney first started buying up land and planning Disney World, they referred to it as “The Florida Project.”
Baker joked that title confusion even spilled over to the cast and crew; toward the end of the shoot, he realized they still thought the film was untitled.
Presumedly, Disney World is in some way a backdrop to Baker’s script, which he co-wrote with Chris Bergoch (“Tangerine” and “Starlet”) and tells the story of a precocious six...
Read More: Willem Dafoe Cast in Sean Baker’s ‘The Florida Project,’ the Writer/Director’s Follow-Up to ‘Tangerine’
The film is not, as many believed, Sean Baker’s “Untitled Florida Project.” The official title is “The Florida Project,” and it refers to Florida’s Disney World. When Disney first started buying up land and planning Disney World, they referred to it as “The Florida Project.”
Baker joked that title confusion even spilled over to the cast and crew; toward the end of the shoot, he realized they still thought the film was untitled.
Presumedly, Disney World is in some way a backdrop to Baker’s script, which he co-wrote with Chris Bergoch (“Tangerine” and “Starlet”) and tells the story of a precocious six...
- 9/22/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Willem Dafoe is not an insecure person. Holding court before a throng of journalists at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the actor was asked about his crooked smile, and if — as a younger actor — he ever considered having it “fixed” in order to be more conventionally attractive. He grinned: “They were my teeth, and they looked fine to me.”
Dafoe, who came to this idyllic Czech spa town in order to receive a Crystal Globe for his contributions to world cinema and host screenings of “Pasolini” and “The Last Temptation of Christ,” shows his teeth without hesitation. The jagged lines of his face have steered him towards a career pockmarked with sadists and supervillains, but in person the man is almost constantly beaming. It’s been almost 40 years since he took a break from experimental theater in order to shoot an ill-fated role in “Heaven’s Gate” (he was...
Dafoe, who came to this idyllic Czech spa town in order to receive a Crystal Globe for his contributions to world cinema and host screenings of “Pasolini” and “The Last Temptation of Christ,” shows his teeth without hesitation. The jagged lines of his face have steered him towards a career pockmarked with sadists and supervillains, but in person the man is almost constantly beaming. It’s been almost 40 years since he took a break from experimental theater in order to shoot an ill-fated role in “Heaven’s Gate” (he was...
- 7/8/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Melding the beautiful imagery you’d expect from a Terrence Malick film, with the playfulness and provocation of Lars von Trier, director Carlos Reygadas has carved out his own corner of the arthouse world. He’s staked his name on audacious, challenging works like “Silent Night,” “Battle In Heaven,” and his most recent, “Post Tenebras Lux.” But […]
The post Carlos Reygadas’ Next Film Is ‘Where Life Is Born’ appeared first on The Playlist.
The post Carlos Reygadas’ Next Film Is ‘Where Life Is Born’ appeared first on The Playlist.
- 5/17/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
The International Film Festival in Guadalajara (FICG31) celebrated its 31th anniversary this year and moved to the center of town, a move toward regaining its early luster within the galaxy of younger festivals now competing for resources in México. With its myriad of activities beyond the mere programming of films, its mentoring other festivals such as Puerto Vallarta and Oaxaca, I would give it two thumbs up.
On Friday, March 11, it announced its awards and officially announced next year’s Guest of Honor, Germany, closing with the German film, Doris Dörrie’s “Fukushima Mon Amour” (Isa: The Match Factory). This film is a deeply moving homage to the spirit of humanity, recovery and love as a German clown, played by Rosalie Thomass and her clown partners, the wonderful Moshe Cohen of San Francisco and Nami Kamata, visit the people remaining at the devastated town of Fukushima and Rosalie bonds with the last geisha of Fukushima played by the beautiful Aya Irizuki. It premiered at the Panorama of the Berlinale where Doris won the C.I.C.A.E. Award and the Heiner Carow Prize.
Official Competition Winners FICG31
Mezcal Award for Best Mexican Film to “Maquinaria Panamericana”/ “Panamerican Machinery”
Mezcal jury
The jury consists of 30 students from related fields from universities or major schools of Mexico, Latin American, Europe and Canada. Serving as a sort of tutor, Jose Ramon Mikelajauregui, Director of Dis was responsible for the academic program held at FICG31.
The Mezcal Award consisting of 500,000 Mexican pesos went to the director, Joaquín del Paso for “Maquinaria Panamericana”/ “Panamerican Machinery”, a portrait of an inefficient factory on the edge of Mexico City where the workers lock themselves in when the owner is found dead in the back of the warehouse and they discover he has been bankrolling the wages out of his own pocket for years.
A coproduction of Mantarraya Producciones, it also won the Fipresci Prize at its premiere in the Forum of the Berlinale. International sales agent (Isa) is the new Paris-based sales and co-production company Luxbox whose
co-ceo Fiorella Moretti was formerly head of sales at Ndm, the Mexico City-based sales company she set up with director Carlos Reygadas and producer Jaime Romandia of Mantarraya Productions in 2012 to sell “Post Tenebras Lux”.
Co-ceo Hédi Zardi previously worked in sales for Fortissimo and went on to Unifrance, the French cinema promotions agency and then to the PR and events company Le Public Systeme, where he was in charge of industry initiatives at Marrakesh and Deauville festivals.
The pair got to know one another through Gabriel Ripstein’s “600 Miles”, winner of the best first feature last year at the Berlinale, which Zardi associate produced and Moretti sold.
Special Mention went to “Margarita” directed by Bruno Santamaría Razo
Infinitum Aaward Grante dby the Public, consisting of 150,000 pesos, went to " El Charro de Toluquilla" (Isa: Imcine) by José Villalobos Romero, a doc about mariachi singer Jaime Garcia Dominguez who became fascinated by the recklessness and ladies´ man lifestyle of the classic Mexican movie characters with one difference: he´s got HIV. Jaime faces an inner maturing process as he decides between keeping this lifestyle or becoming a family man. It also won the award for Best Iberoamerican Documentary of 150,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars to the director.
Best Latin American Fiction Film consisting of 250,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars went to the production company of Felipe Guerrero’s film “ Oscuro animal”, about three women forced to flee their homes in a war torn region in Colombia. The film also won Best Actress Award (s) for Marleyda Soto, Luisa Galiano and Jocelyn Vides Meneses and Best Photography Award to Fernando Lockett.
A coproduction of Argentina, Greece, Netherlands, Germany and Colombia, it is being sold internationally by FiGa. It previously played in the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Tiger Competition and Ficci Cartagena 2016’s Official Dramatic Competition. At the Berlinale’s Efm 2016 it was part of the World Cinema Fund’s First Look section. Financing for the film came from Colombia’s Proimágenes, Argentina’s Incaa, Netherlands’ Hubert Bals Fund, Fundación Typa, and Germany’s Nrw and World Cinema Fund.
It also won the award for Award for Best Iberoamerican Director consisting off 150,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars, because “almost wordlessly it portrays a complex and painful situation in Colombia which is all too common in Latin America.”
Special Feature Film Jury Award Iberoamerican Fiction of 125,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars, went to the production company of “The 4th Company”/ ”La 4a Compañía” by Amir Galván Cervera and Mitzi Vanessa Arreola, based upon a true story about an underdog prison (American-style) football team that, against all odds, wins against the police force team. The jury stated that it “considers it a cinematic achievement about a shameful moment in the history of Mexico to be remembered and not to be repeated”. Adrian Thief also won for Best Actor, and he is that! There is no Isa of record, so those ISAs reading this should check it out on Cinando! It’s a seller!
Award for Best Latin American Film of 125,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars went to the superb debuting director from Puerto Rico, Angel Manuel Soto for“La Granja”/ “The Farm”. Also the first film produced independently by Tom Davia’s Cinemaven (but check out his credits!), this film is a full-circle “Crash”-style story that rivals “Gemorrah” in its look at the barrio called “The Farm” or “La Granja” in which the lives of a midwife, a young boxer, a janitor, a mute kid and a young couple collide in a story about the desperate pursuit of happiness on the mean streets of La Granja. Shot on a budget of $250,000, this film took four years to complete as the Puerto Rican government film establishment sought to block its production and release – and you can see why. It previously played in Fantastic Fest.
This is another discovery film with no Isa, and I am sure the agents have already locked their eyes upon writer-director Angel Manuel Soto. He lives in Los Angeles. “Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Son of a car salesman and a flight attendant. Studied architecture and advertising. Always loved films. Now he makes them. He is a cinephile. He travels all over the world doing it, including Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, France, USA, and Puerto Rico. He is not planning on stopping.”
Best Screenplay Award went to Marina Seresesky for “La Puerta Abierta”/ “Open Door” (pictured above). Marina also directed this first film. She has made two shorts previously. After Ficg it will play at Sofia Iff 2016 in International Competition, San Diego Latino 2016 and Chicago Latino 2016 Film Festivals.
Movies Recommended for Selection for the Golden Globes Awards 2017 are “The 4th Company” and “Ciudades Desiertas” / “Deserted Cities” by Roberto Sneider.
Documentary Jury Special Award of 100,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars to the director Jorge Caballero for“Patient”/ "Paciente" Isa Rise and Shine, a new company in Germany, picked up the film at its world premiere in Competition at Idfa.
Best Iberoamerican Short Film Award D of 75,000 pesos or its equivalent in dollars to the directors Miguel de Olaso and Bruno Zacharias for the 10 minute short “ Los Angeles 1991”.
Special Mention went to “Juan's Sundown”/ "El Ocaso de Juan" by Omar Deneb Vargas Juárez
Rigo Mora Award for Best Mexican Animated Short Film of 100,000 Mexican pesos went to the director Alejandro Rios for “ The Cats”/"Los Gatos."
Maguey Award for best Lgbt film went to "Theo et Hugo dans le meme bateau"/ "Paris 05:59" of France, directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau.
Special Mention went to “Neon Bull” of Brazil, directed by Gabriel Mascaro for its poetic and innovative illustrating of how traditional ideas of masculinity slowly have been made obsolete inviting us to question our own perspectives on gender bias.
After the Awards, Ficg gave a great closing night party. Lots of good people, new and old friends, great salsa band, danced til 3! Here’s me with my friend David Martinez of Raindance Film Festival. Coming from Guadalajara, living in London, this year he came home with Elliot Grove of Founder and Director of Raindance, and Aaron Wileman of Imaginative Exposure who gave a Master Class on Film Funds and Product Placement.
And of course I presented my own book in its abridged, Spanish language format, published by the University of Guadalajara Press, Cine Iberoamerican Industria y financiamiento por pais (Iberoamerican Cinema: Industry and Financing by Country). Read more about it here.
On Friday, March 11, it announced its awards and officially announced next year’s Guest of Honor, Germany, closing with the German film, Doris Dörrie’s “Fukushima Mon Amour” (Isa: The Match Factory). This film is a deeply moving homage to the spirit of humanity, recovery and love as a German clown, played by Rosalie Thomass and her clown partners, the wonderful Moshe Cohen of San Francisco and Nami Kamata, visit the people remaining at the devastated town of Fukushima and Rosalie bonds with the last geisha of Fukushima played by the beautiful Aya Irizuki. It premiered at the Panorama of the Berlinale where Doris won the C.I.C.A.E. Award and the Heiner Carow Prize.
Official Competition Winners FICG31
Mezcal Award for Best Mexican Film to “Maquinaria Panamericana”/ “Panamerican Machinery”
Mezcal jury
The jury consists of 30 students from related fields from universities or major schools of Mexico, Latin American, Europe and Canada. Serving as a sort of tutor, Jose Ramon Mikelajauregui, Director of Dis was responsible for the academic program held at FICG31.
The Mezcal Award consisting of 500,000 Mexican pesos went to the director, Joaquín del Paso for “Maquinaria Panamericana”/ “Panamerican Machinery”, a portrait of an inefficient factory on the edge of Mexico City where the workers lock themselves in when the owner is found dead in the back of the warehouse and they discover he has been bankrolling the wages out of his own pocket for years.
A coproduction of Mantarraya Producciones, it also won the Fipresci Prize at its premiere in the Forum of the Berlinale. International sales agent (Isa) is the new Paris-based sales and co-production company Luxbox whose
co-ceo Fiorella Moretti was formerly head of sales at Ndm, the Mexico City-based sales company she set up with director Carlos Reygadas and producer Jaime Romandia of Mantarraya Productions in 2012 to sell “Post Tenebras Lux”.
Co-ceo Hédi Zardi previously worked in sales for Fortissimo and went on to Unifrance, the French cinema promotions agency and then to the PR and events company Le Public Systeme, where he was in charge of industry initiatives at Marrakesh and Deauville festivals.
The pair got to know one another through Gabriel Ripstein’s “600 Miles”, winner of the best first feature last year at the Berlinale, which Zardi associate produced and Moretti sold.
Special Mention went to “Margarita” directed by Bruno Santamaría Razo
Infinitum Aaward Grante dby the Public, consisting of 150,000 pesos, went to " El Charro de Toluquilla" (Isa: Imcine) by José Villalobos Romero, a doc about mariachi singer Jaime Garcia Dominguez who became fascinated by the recklessness and ladies´ man lifestyle of the classic Mexican movie characters with one difference: he´s got HIV. Jaime faces an inner maturing process as he decides between keeping this lifestyle or becoming a family man. It also won the award for Best Iberoamerican Documentary of 150,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars to the director.
Best Latin American Fiction Film consisting of 250,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars went to the production company of Felipe Guerrero’s film “ Oscuro animal”, about three women forced to flee their homes in a war torn region in Colombia. The film also won Best Actress Award (s) for Marleyda Soto, Luisa Galiano and Jocelyn Vides Meneses and Best Photography Award to Fernando Lockett.
A coproduction of Argentina, Greece, Netherlands, Germany and Colombia, it is being sold internationally by FiGa. It previously played in the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Tiger Competition and Ficci Cartagena 2016’s Official Dramatic Competition. At the Berlinale’s Efm 2016 it was part of the World Cinema Fund’s First Look section. Financing for the film came from Colombia’s Proimágenes, Argentina’s Incaa, Netherlands’ Hubert Bals Fund, Fundación Typa, and Germany’s Nrw and World Cinema Fund.
It also won the award for Award for Best Iberoamerican Director consisting off 150,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars, because “almost wordlessly it portrays a complex and painful situation in Colombia which is all too common in Latin America.”
Special Feature Film Jury Award Iberoamerican Fiction of 125,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars, went to the production company of “The 4th Company”/ ”La 4a Compañía” by Amir Galván Cervera and Mitzi Vanessa Arreola, based upon a true story about an underdog prison (American-style) football team that, against all odds, wins against the police force team. The jury stated that it “considers it a cinematic achievement about a shameful moment in the history of Mexico to be remembered and not to be repeated”. Adrian Thief also won for Best Actor, and he is that! There is no Isa of record, so those ISAs reading this should check it out on Cinando! It’s a seller!
Award for Best Latin American Film of 125,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars went to the superb debuting director from Puerto Rico, Angel Manuel Soto for“La Granja”/ “The Farm”. Also the first film produced independently by Tom Davia’s Cinemaven (but check out his credits!), this film is a full-circle “Crash”-style story that rivals “Gemorrah” in its look at the barrio called “The Farm” or “La Granja” in which the lives of a midwife, a young boxer, a janitor, a mute kid and a young couple collide in a story about the desperate pursuit of happiness on the mean streets of La Granja. Shot on a budget of $250,000, this film took four years to complete as the Puerto Rican government film establishment sought to block its production and release – and you can see why. It previously played in Fantastic Fest.
This is another discovery film with no Isa, and I am sure the agents have already locked their eyes upon writer-director Angel Manuel Soto. He lives in Los Angeles. “Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Son of a car salesman and a flight attendant. Studied architecture and advertising. Always loved films. Now he makes them. He is a cinephile. He travels all over the world doing it, including Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, France, USA, and Puerto Rico. He is not planning on stopping.”
Best Screenplay Award went to Marina Seresesky for “La Puerta Abierta”/ “Open Door” (pictured above). Marina also directed this first film. She has made two shorts previously. After Ficg it will play at Sofia Iff 2016 in International Competition, San Diego Latino 2016 and Chicago Latino 2016 Film Festivals.
Movies Recommended for Selection for the Golden Globes Awards 2017 are “The 4th Company” and “Ciudades Desiertas” / “Deserted Cities” by Roberto Sneider.
Documentary Jury Special Award of 100,000 Mexican pesos or its equivalent in dollars to the director Jorge Caballero for“Patient”/ "Paciente" Isa Rise and Shine, a new company in Germany, picked up the film at its world premiere in Competition at Idfa.
Best Iberoamerican Short Film Award D of 75,000 pesos or its equivalent in dollars to the directors Miguel de Olaso and Bruno Zacharias for the 10 minute short “ Los Angeles 1991”.
Special Mention went to “Juan's Sundown”/ "El Ocaso de Juan" by Omar Deneb Vargas Juárez
Rigo Mora Award for Best Mexican Animated Short Film of 100,000 Mexican pesos went to the director Alejandro Rios for “ The Cats”/"Los Gatos."
Maguey Award for best Lgbt film went to "Theo et Hugo dans le meme bateau"/ "Paris 05:59" of France, directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau.
Special Mention went to “Neon Bull” of Brazil, directed by Gabriel Mascaro for its poetic and innovative illustrating of how traditional ideas of masculinity slowly have been made obsolete inviting us to question our own perspectives on gender bias.
After the Awards, Ficg gave a great closing night party. Lots of good people, new and old friends, great salsa band, danced til 3! Here’s me with my friend David Martinez of Raindance Film Festival. Coming from Guadalajara, living in London, this year he came home with Elliot Grove of Founder and Director of Raindance, and Aaron Wileman of Imaginative Exposure who gave a Master Class on Film Funds and Product Placement.
And of course I presented my own book in its abridged, Spanish language format, published by the University of Guadalajara Press, Cine Iberoamerican Industria y financiamiento por pais (Iberoamerican Cinema: Industry and Financing by Country). Read more about it here.
- 3/17/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: Alfonso Cuarón & Alejandro G. Iñárritu Endorse Emiliano Rocha Minter's 'We Are The Flesh'
The next generation of Mexican filmmakers, Julio Chavezmontes of Piano Films, and Moises Cosio of Detalle Films, executive producer of Atom Egoyan’s “Remember," Jodorowsky’s “The Dance of Reality,” and Apichatpong Weersethaku’s “Cemetery of Splendor,” are premiering "We Are The Flesh” ("Tenemos la carne") in Iff Rotterdam’s Bright Future Section.
The directorial debut by 25-year-old Emiliano Rocha Minter has the support of Academy Award-winning directors Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Amores Perros”) and Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity), with Cannes-winning director Carlos Reygadas ("Silent Light", "Post Tenebras Lux”) involved as a co-producer. This makes "Tenemos la carne"/ "We are the Flesh" the first Mexican film, let alone a feature debut, to receive the endorsement of three of the most important directors working today. That is a film to see! It will also be on offer at the Berlinale’s Efm by its international sales agent, Reel Suspects.
In addition to Reygadas, Mexican director Sebastian Hofmann, of the Sundance New Frontier film "Halley," Yann Gonzalez, French director director of Cannes Critics’ Week Special Screening “You and the Night,” and Splendor Omnia’s Natalia Lopez, are co-producers of the film. Mexican associate producers are Simplemente’s Rune Hansen, Monica Reina and Celia Iturraga. "We Are The Flesh" was supported by the Mexican Film Institute's (Imcine) Foprocine fund.
"We Are the Flesh" takes place in a post-apocalyptic Mexico in which a brother and sister find their way into one of the last remaining buildings after years of wandering. Inside, they find a man who makes them a dangerous offer to survive in the outside world. You can view the trailer below:...
The directorial debut by 25-year-old Emiliano Rocha Minter has the support of Academy Award-winning directors Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Amores Perros”) and Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity), with Cannes-winning director Carlos Reygadas ("Silent Light", "Post Tenebras Lux”) involved as a co-producer. This makes "Tenemos la carne"/ "We are the Flesh" the first Mexican film, let alone a feature debut, to receive the endorsement of three of the most important directors working today. That is a film to see! It will also be on offer at the Berlinale’s Efm by its international sales agent, Reel Suspects.
In addition to Reygadas, Mexican director Sebastian Hofmann, of the Sundance New Frontier film "Halley," Yann Gonzalez, French director director of Cannes Critics’ Week Special Screening “You and the Night,” and Splendor Omnia’s Natalia Lopez, are co-producers of the film. Mexican associate producers are Simplemente’s Rune Hansen, Monica Reina and Celia Iturraga. "We Are The Flesh" was supported by the Mexican Film Institute's (Imcine) Foprocine fund.
"We Are the Flesh" takes place in a post-apocalyptic Mexico in which a brother and sister find their way into one of the last remaining buildings after years of wandering. Inside, they find a man who makes them a dangerous offer to survive in the outside world. You can view the trailer below:...
- 2/2/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: New company to make first official market outing at Efm.
New Paris-based sales and co-production company Luxbox has acquired world rights to Hedi and Maquinaria Panamericana ahead of their premieres at the Berlinale.
Tunisian director and scriptwriter Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi is the first Arab-language film to play in competition at the Berlinale since Hany Abu Assad’s Paradise Now in 2005.
It follows an unassuming, young man who is controlled by an authoritarian mother. On the eve of his arranged marriage to a local girl chosen by his mother, he meets an adventurous, free-spirited young girl who changes his view of life.
Dora Bouchoucha of Tunis-based Nomadis Images — who has strong ties with the European film industry through her work with France’s National Cinema Centre (Cnc) and Rotterdam’s CineMart — produced the film with the Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes’s Les Films du Fleuve on board as a co-producer.
“Hedi means ‘calm...
New Paris-based sales and co-production company Luxbox has acquired world rights to Hedi and Maquinaria Panamericana ahead of their premieres at the Berlinale.
Tunisian director and scriptwriter Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi is the first Arab-language film to play in competition at the Berlinale since Hany Abu Assad’s Paradise Now in 2005.
It follows an unassuming, young man who is controlled by an authoritarian mother. On the eve of his arranged marriage to a local girl chosen by his mother, he meets an adventurous, free-spirited young girl who changes his view of life.
Dora Bouchoucha of Tunis-based Nomadis Images — who has strong ties with the European film industry through her work with France’s National Cinema Centre (Cnc) and Rotterdam’s CineMart — produced the film with the Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes’s Les Films du Fleuve on board as a co-producer.
“Hedi means ‘calm...
- 2/1/2016
- ScreenDaily
Essential Killing: Inarritu’s Remarkable New Thanksgiving Film
After winning a trio of Academy Awards last year for Birdman (which took home Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu returns in surprising succession with another English language masterpiece, The Revenant. Based loosely on a 2002 novel by Michael Punke, which documents a near mythical 1820’s cross country trek by fur trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass, it’s perhaps most important to note Inarritu’s ‘looseness’ in adapting an already embellished ‘true account.’ Grueling, impressively detailed, and beautifully shot by Inarritu’s returning DoP Emmanuel Lubezki, it’s a ragged portrait of the American frontier, a period and time often glorified for the white, European perspective. Though the film sees a theatrical release during the high tide of awards season zenith, one wishes it had been ready in time to open on Thanksgiving weekend due to its barbed depiction of historical American gang wars,...
After winning a trio of Academy Awards last year for Birdman (which took home Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu returns in surprising succession with another English language masterpiece, The Revenant. Based loosely on a 2002 novel by Michael Punke, which documents a near mythical 1820’s cross country trek by fur trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass, it’s perhaps most important to note Inarritu’s ‘looseness’ in adapting an already embellished ‘true account.’ Grueling, impressively detailed, and beautifully shot by Inarritu’s returning DoP Emmanuel Lubezki, it’s a ragged portrait of the American frontier, a period and time often glorified for the white, European perspective. Though the film sees a theatrical release during the high tide of awards season zenith, one wishes it had been ready in time to open on Thanksgiving weekend due to its barbed depiction of historical American gang wars,...
- 12/5/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Read More: 'Cartel Land' and 'The Look of Silence' Lead 2015 Cinema Eye Nonfiction Film Award Nominees Cinema Eye has announced the five nominees for this years Heterodox Award. The Heterodox Award is an annual award presented to a narrative fiction film for incorporating elements of nonfiction film style and content. Past award recipients include "Beginners," "Post Tenebras Lux" and "Boyhood." This years nominees include: "Arabian Nights: Volume One (The Restless One)," directed by Miguel Gomes "God Bless the Child," directed by Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck "Tangerine," directed by Sean Baker "Taxi," directed by Jafar Panahi "The Tribe," directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy The winner of the 2016 Heterodox Award will be announced on January 12 during Cinema Eye Week. Read More: Cinema Eye Honors Amy Winehouse, Angulo Brothers As 'Unforgettable' Documentary Subjects...
- 11/18/2015
- by Ryan Anielski
- Indiewire
To cinephiles, few cinematographers get the blood truly pumping quite like beloved and Criterion-approved director of photography Christopher Doyle. Best known for his iconic work in films like Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood For Love (to this very day one of the greatest achievements in film photography), Doyle has honed his craft largely outside of the United States, occasionally coming stateside to work with filmmakers like Gus Van Sant (Paranoid Park) or even Barry Levinson (Liberty Heights). Working numerous times with directors like Wong Kar-Wai, as well as the likes of Zhang Yimou and Edward Yang (Doyle’s first film was Yang’s That Day, on the Beach), he has become a bastion of the world cinema scene and one of today’s most beloved photographers.
Playing this year’s New York Asian Film Festival is his latest journey behind the camera, as Filipino poet/filmmaker/artist Khavn (aka...
Playing this year’s New York Asian Film Festival is his latest journey behind the camera, as Filipino poet/filmmaker/artist Khavn (aka...
- 7/3/2015
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Stars: Raúl Méndez, Humberto Busto, Erick Trinidad Camacho, Magda Brugengheim, Santiago Mendoza Cortes, Nailea Norvind | Written and Directed by Isaac Ezban
My initiation into Sci-Fi London looked like it was going to tick all the boxes for me: time-twisting premise; Primer-esque allusions to a complex (and possibly unsolvable) narrative; and, best of all, the fact that El Incidente was an original, mid-budget science-fiction movie I knew almost nothing about.
Well, the final result isn’t quite what I just described, but it’s still a far cry from being a cookie-cutter blockbuster, and everyone in the (very enthusiastic) crowd seemed very happy that was the case. Without giving too much away, the film concerns two sets of separate characters in parallel situations: in one, a group of three men are stranded in an infinitely repeating staircase; in the other, the same is true of a family of four stuck on...
My initiation into Sci-Fi London looked like it was going to tick all the boxes for me: time-twisting premise; Primer-esque allusions to a complex (and possibly unsolvable) narrative; and, best of all, the fact that El Incidente was an original, mid-budget science-fiction movie I knew almost nothing about.
Well, the final result isn’t quite what I just described, but it’s still a far cry from being a cookie-cutter blockbuster, and everyone in the (very enthusiastic) crowd seemed very happy that was the case. Without giving too much away, the film concerns two sets of separate characters in parallel situations: in one, a group of three men are stranded in an infinitely repeating staircase; in the other, the same is true of a family of four stuck on...
- 6/2/2015
- by Mark Allen
- Nerdly
Let’s get the obvious question out of the way: why in the world is Criterion Cast posting a review of Star Trek: The Motion Picture? The film was released in the late Seventies, no new version has been recently issued on either Blu-ray or in a new theatrical run, and while it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility for this site to take a look at mainstream big budget productions aimed at the mass audience, it’s also pretty obvious that St:tmp isn’t the sort of movie that fits all that comfortably alongside the foreign, independent and alternative cinematic expressions that typically draw our critical attention.
The reason I’m posting this review here is that I agreed to participate in the 2015 White Elephant Blogathon, a project organized by Philip Tatler in which he solicits nominations from a couple dozen movie bloggers for offbeat films...
The reason I’m posting this review here is that I agreed to participate in the 2015 White Elephant Blogathon, a project organized by Philip Tatler in which he solicits nominations from a couple dozen movie bloggers for offbeat films...
- 6/1/2015
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Matthew McConaughey and Gus Van Sant are critical favorites and Cannes Film Festival royalty — the latter even managed a twofer in 2003 when he took home both the Best Director trophy and the Palme d'Or for his film Elephant — but yesterday, their new effort The Sea of Trees found a far more rocky reception on the Croisette. The story of a suicidal widower (played by McConaughey) who decides to end his life in Japan's Aokigahara forest, Sea of Trees drew lusty boos at the end of its press screening yesterday, a notorious Cannes tradition saved for both the risible and the rarefied. The Ryan Gosling starrer Only God Forgives earned fairly deserved jeers two years ago when it debuted at Cannes; on the other hand, one of my favorite Cannes movies of recent vintage, the lush Carlos Reygadas head-scratcher Post Tenebras Lux, was booed by my the woman...
- 5/16/2015
- by Kyle Buchanan
- Vulture
This year, Richard Linklater’s "Boyhood" played in the closing night slot of the True/False Film Fest, a festival dedicated to documentaries. The organizers explained the that, because of its documentary-like production schedule, the film represented something that only non-fiction is capable of. "For most casual filmgoers, the role of the producer may be mysterious, in part because their efforts are designed to be invisible onscreen. But a film like 'Boyhood,' seamless as a viewing experience, also demands that we acknowledge the epic care and attention to detail than went into its creation. What's more, Linklater's artistic process, by necessity, took into account the natural meanderings of his actor's lives, lending a verisimilitude to the action missing from many other fiction films." The folks behind the Cinema Eye awards clearly agree with True/False’s assessment and in the possibility that fiction can transcend its own narrative...
- 12/8/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
Jauja
Written by Lisandro Alonso and Fabian Casas
Directed by Lisandro Alonso
Argentina, 2014
Leaving his long studies of structure and work behind, Lisandro Alonso’s newest feature Jauja instead behaves like a dark fairy tale in a minimalistic universe of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s hauntingly slow, but only to the point that we can experience everything that needs to be said and done. In this respect, Alonso uses his small conversations and economic direction of space to solidify his particular brand of art-house contemplation without sacrificing a good-natured inquiry into the sort of visceral reaction his style can commandeer. However, Jauja seems to be straddling the limits of what Alonso can possibly offer, always taking a step back whenever he tempts to be too interesting.
Jauja opens in a round-bordered 4:3 frame, as a military-dress-clad father (Viggo Mortensen) discusses getting a dog with his daughter. It’s an uneventful...
Written by Lisandro Alonso and Fabian Casas
Directed by Lisandro Alonso
Argentina, 2014
Leaving his long studies of structure and work behind, Lisandro Alonso’s newest feature Jauja instead behaves like a dark fairy tale in a minimalistic universe of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s hauntingly slow, but only to the point that we can experience everything that needs to be said and done. In this respect, Alonso uses his small conversations and economic direction of space to solidify his particular brand of art-house contemplation without sacrificing a good-natured inquiry into the sort of visceral reaction his style can commandeer. However, Jauja seems to be straddling the limits of what Alonso can possibly offer, always taking a step back whenever he tempts to be too interesting.
Jauja opens in a round-bordered 4:3 frame, as a military-dress-clad father (Viggo Mortensen) discusses getting a dog with his daughter. It’s an uneventful...
- 5/19/2014
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
Brazil will host the World Cup this summer and football (or soccer for our American readers) fans the world over are marking down the days with as much excitement as fanboys have for the next tentpole or we have for the next Claire Denis film. In an effort to capitalize on this worldwide excitement, Variety reports Mexican director Daniel Gruener is shepherding a new omnibus film centered around the sport and he’s bringing along some interesting names. According to the trade, the 31 directors—spanning four continents—that will direct segments for “Short Plays” include Gasper Noe, enfant terrible Vincent Gallo, “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and “Post Tenebras Lux” filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, as well as Carlos Moreno, Fernando Eimbcke, Sebastian Cordero, Brit Duane Hopkins, Mascha Halberstad, Buthina Cannan Koury, Kiki Sugino,Dorris Dorrie, Yang Ik-june, Bobo Jelcic, Abner Benaim, Rune Denstad Langlo, Juan Carlos Valdivia,...
- 3/25/2014
- by Cain Rodriguez
- The Playlist
El Crimen del Cácaro Gumaro was, on paper, a much welcomed movie for Mexican cinema. In a period when "art films" are winning prestigious awards internationally (i.e. Post Tenebras Lux and Heli at Cannes) and the number of film festivals keep growing in the country, a movie that pokes fun at "serious" filmmaking was just a matter of time. Pastorela's Emilo Portes teamed with Armando Vega Gil (bass player of the rock band Botellita de Jerez and writer) and renowned television comedian Andrés Bustamante to write a script full of pop culture references, current issues and many, many jokes that could function as hilarious entertainment and, at the same time, say something clever about the Mexican film industry. The movie, however, is far from being...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 3/17/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Mexican director Carlos Reygadas (Japón, Silent Light) had critics divided with his latest, Post Tenebras Lux (the title is a Latin phrase meaning “after darkness, light”). Met with boos following its premiere at Cannes last year (although it went on to win the Best Director prize), Post Tenebras Lux represents the director’s attempt to make a personal work. This week we sit down and discuss its many unforgettable and ominous images. After we take time to also discuss Terence Malick’s beautiful, compassionate, tragic and transcendent To The Wonder – also booed at Cannes. Joining us this week is Sound On Sight contributor Zachary Lewis – also of In Review Online.
Playlist:
Andy Quin – “Awakening”
Chapel – “Satan’s Rock n Roll
Please give us a rating on iTunes. It would be very much appreciated!
Listen on iTunes
Like us on Facebook
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Follow Simon...
Playlist:
Andy Quin – “Awakening”
Chapel – “Satan’s Rock n Roll
Please give us a rating on iTunes. It would be very much appreciated!
Listen on iTunes
Like us on Facebook
Follow Ricky on Twitter
Follow Josh on Twitter
Follow Simon...
- 2/7/2014
- by Sound On Sight Podcast
- SoundOnSight
A week or so ago, we launched the inaugural Guardian Film Awards. Now, we're taking a closer look at the longlist in each category. Today: best scene
A movie in microcosm. A watercooler fave. A possibly-dodgy YouTube rip. An endlessly emailed link. What are the moments that stick with you from this season's contenders? And which great sequences are missing from our longlist?
Alan Partridge lip-synching to Roachford in the car in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
Simple pleasures here: just a man silently singing along to an 80s classic. But what a man, and what a lip-synch. This acts as a lovely re-introduction to the character - faintly more funky yet still the old Alan ("Your fog lamps are on") - as well as a stirring start to a feelgood movie.
Reading on mobile? Click here to watch
The opening scene of Gravity
This, surely, is how Alfonso Cuaron always...
A movie in microcosm. A watercooler fave. A possibly-dodgy YouTube rip. An endlessly emailed link. What are the moments that stick with you from this season's contenders? And which great sequences are missing from our longlist?
Alan Partridge lip-synching to Roachford in the car in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
Simple pleasures here: just a man silently singing along to an 80s classic. But what a man, and what a lip-synch. This acts as a lovely re-introduction to the character - faintly more funky yet still the old Alan ("Your fog lamps are on") - as well as a stirring start to a feelgood movie.
Reading on mobile? Click here to watch
The opening scene of Gravity
This, surely, is how Alfonso Cuaron always...
- 1/27/2014
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
• 12 Years a Slave takes eight nominations in the inaugural longlist, but there's also recognition for The Selfish Giant, Wadjda, Alan Partidge: Alpha Papa and many more
• Claudia Winkleman and Adam Curtis join Guardian staff and readers to vote for a set of awards that aim to act as antidote
Visit the official awards site
12 Years a Slave may have been just pipped to the post at this year's Oscar nominations, but there is consolation for Steve McQueen: his film dominates the longlist for the first ever Guardian Film Awards.
The awards, which aim to act as an antidote rather than an addition to the established slate of ceremonies, will be handed out at a winners-only event in London just after this year's Academy Awards. The awards reflect Guardian values in two ways: first in terms of categories - Best Actor, for instance, is open to both genders, reflecting Guardian...
• Claudia Winkleman and Adam Curtis join Guardian staff and readers to vote for a set of awards that aim to act as antidote
Visit the official awards site
12 Years a Slave may have been just pipped to the post at this year's Oscar nominations, but there is consolation for Steve McQueen: his film dominates the longlist for the first ever Guardian Film Awards.
The awards, which aim to act as an antidote rather than an addition to the established slate of ceremonies, will be handed out at a winners-only event in London just after this year's Academy Awards. The awards reflect Guardian values in two ways: first in terms of categories - Best Actor, for instance, is open to both genders, reflecting Guardian...
- 1/17/2014
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Winners of the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Honors, recognizing the best documentaries of the year, were revealed and Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing" (one of my faves of 2013) won the Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking while Sarah Polley took home the Outstanding Achievement in Direction for "Stories We Tell."
Another big winner was Zachary Heinzerling's "Cutie and the Boxer" which won Outstanding Debut for Heinzerling, Outstanding Graphics and Animation for production company Art Jail and Outstanding Original Score for Yasuaki Shimizu.
Incidentally, all three movies are part of the Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary, so we'll see if they all make the cut when the Academy Award nominations are revealed on January 16.
Here are the complete winners of the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Honors:
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
The Act of Killing
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen
Presented by...
Another big winner was Zachary Heinzerling's "Cutie and the Boxer" which won Outstanding Debut for Heinzerling, Outstanding Graphics and Animation for production company Art Jail and Outstanding Original Score for Yasuaki Shimizu.
Incidentally, all three movies are part of the Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary, so we'll see if they all make the cut when the Academy Award nominations are revealed on January 16.
Here are the complete winners of the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Honors:
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
The Act of Killing
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen
Presented by...
- 1/10/2014
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
As the leading presenter of Latin American Cinema in the U.S. Cinema Tropical advocates for the Latino filmmaking community and honors their achievements. Cinema Tropical Awards now in its fourth edition have announced this year's nominees
The winners of the 4th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards will be announced at a special event at The New York Times Company headquarters in New York City in late January, 2014.
The nominees for this year’s Cinema Tropical Awards were selected by a nine-member jury panel from a list of Latin American and U.S. Latino feature films of a minimum of 60 minutes in length that were premiered between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013 (January 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, for U.S. Latino productions). The list was culled by a nominating committee composed of 17 film professionals from Latin America, the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
The Cinema Tropical Awards are presented in partnership with Voces, Latino Heritage Network of The New York Times Company. Media Sponsors: LatAm Cinema and Remezcla. Special thanks to Mario Díaz, Andrea Betanzos, and Tatiana García.
Best Feature Film
- Gloria (Sebastián Lelio, Chile/Spain, 2013)
- No (Pablo Larraín, Chile/USA/France/Mexico, 2012)
- Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Germany/Netherlands, 2012)
- Tanta Agua | So Much Water (Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay/Germany/Mexico, 2013)
- VIolA (Matías Piñeiro, Argentina, 2012)
Best Director, Feature Film
- Sebastián Silva, Crystal Fairy (Chile, 2013)
- Pablo Larraín, No (Chile/USA/France/Mexico, 2012)
- Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux (Mexico/ France/ Germany/ Netherlands, 2012)
-Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Tanta Agua | So Much Water
(Uruguay/ Germany/ Mexico, 2013)
- Matías Piñeiro, Viola (Argentina, 2012)
Best Documentary Film
- El Alcalde | The Mayor (Emiliano Altuna, Carlos F. Rossini, Diego Osorno, Mexico, 2012)
- La Chica Del Sur | The Girl from the South (José Luis García, Argentina, 2012)
- La Gente Del RÍO | The River People (Martín Benchimol and Pablo Aparo, Argentina, 2012)
- El Huaso (Carlo Guillermo Proto, Chile/Canada, 2012)
- El Otro DÍA | The Other Day (Ignacio Agüero, Chile, 2012)
Best Director, Documentary Film
- José Luis García, La Chica Del Sur | The Girl from the South (Argentina, 2012)
- Priscilla Padilla, La Eterna Noche De Las Doce Lunas | The Eternal Night of the Twelve Moons (Colombia, 2013)
- Martín Benchimol, Pablo Aparo, La Gente Del RÍO | The River People (Argentina, 2012)
- Mercedes Moncada, Palabras MÁGICAS (Para Romper Un Encantamiento) | Magic Words (Breaking a Spell) (Mexico/Guatemala, 2012)
- Ignacio Agüero, El Otro DÍA | The Other Day (Chile, 2012)
Best First Film
- Carne De Perro | Dog Flesh (Fernando Guzzoni, Chile/France/Germany, 2012)
- El Limpiador | The Cleaner (Adrián Saba, Peru, 2012)
- Melaza | Molasses (Carlos Díaz Lechuga, Cuba/France/Panama, 2012)
- Tanta Agua | So Much Water (Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay/Germany/Mexico, 2013)
- Los Salvajes | The Wild Ones (Alejandro Fadel, Argentina, 2012)
Best U.S. Latino Film
- American Promise (Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, USA, 2013)
- Filly Brown (Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos, USA, 2012)
- Mosquita Y Mari (Aurora Guerrero, USA, 2012)
- Reportero (Bernardo Ruiz, USA, 2012)
- Wonder Women! The Untold Story Of American Superheroines (Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, USA, 2012)
2013 Jury:
Chris Allen, founder and director, UnionDocs; Melissa Anderson, film critic, Artforum; Beth Janson, executive director, Tribeca Film Institute; Daniel Loría, overseas editor, BoxOffice; Mike Maggiore, programmer, Film Forum; Paco de Onís, filmmaker; Anita Reher, executive director, Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; Julia Solomonoff, filmmaker; Maria-Christina Villaseñor, film curator and writer.
2013 Nominating Committee:
Cecilia Barrionuevo, programmer, Mar del Plata Film Festival, Argentina; Raúl Camargo, programmer, Valdivia Film Festival, Chile; John Campos Gómez, director, Transcinema Film Festival, Peru; Inti Cordera, director, DocsDF Film Festival, Mexico; Christine Davila, programmer, Sundance, Los Angeles Film Festival, Ambulante USA; Eugenio del Bosque, director, Cine Las Américas, USA; Raciel del Toro, Cinergia, Costa Rica; Vanessa Erazo, film programmer and journalist, indieWIRE/LatinoBuzz, Remezcla, USA; Lisa Franek, programmer, San Diego Latino Film Festival, USA; Robert A. Gomez, film journalist, Cinemathon, Venezuela; Jaie Laplante, director, Miami Film Festival, USA; Agustín Mango, film journalist, Hollywood Reporter, Argentina; Jim Mendiola, programmer, CineFestival, San Antonio, USA; Luis Ortiz, director, Latino Public Broadcasting, USA; Rafael Sampaio, programmer, Sao Paulo Latin American Film Festival, Brazil; Eva Sangiorgi, programmer, Ficunam, Mexico; Gerwin Tamsma, programmer, Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands.
The winners of the 4th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards will be announced at a special event at The New York Times Company headquarters in New York City in late January, 2014.
The nominees for this year’s Cinema Tropical Awards were selected by a nine-member jury panel from a list of Latin American and U.S. Latino feature films of a minimum of 60 minutes in length that were premiered between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013 (January 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, for U.S. Latino productions). The list was culled by a nominating committee composed of 17 film professionals from Latin America, the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
The Cinema Tropical Awards are presented in partnership with Voces, Latino Heritage Network of The New York Times Company. Media Sponsors: LatAm Cinema and Remezcla. Special thanks to Mario Díaz, Andrea Betanzos, and Tatiana García.
Best Feature Film
- Gloria (Sebastián Lelio, Chile/Spain, 2013)
- No (Pablo Larraín, Chile/USA/France/Mexico, 2012)
- Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Germany/Netherlands, 2012)
- Tanta Agua | So Much Water (Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay/Germany/Mexico, 2013)
- VIolA (Matías Piñeiro, Argentina, 2012)
Best Director, Feature Film
- Sebastián Silva, Crystal Fairy (Chile, 2013)
- Pablo Larraín, No (Chile/USA/France/Mexico, 2012)
- Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux (Mexico/ France/ Germany/ Netherlands, 2012)
-Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Tanta Agua | So Much Water
(Uruguay/ Germany/ Mexico, 2013)
- Matías Piñeiro, Viola (Argentina, 2012)
Best Documentary Film
- El Alcalde | The Mayor (Emiliano Altuna, Carlos F. Rossini, Diego Osorno, Mexico, 2012)
- La Chica Del Sur | The Girl from the South (José Luis García, Argentina, 2012)
- La Gente Del RÍO | The River People (Martín Benchimol and Pablo Aparo, Argentina, 2012)
- El Huaso (Carlo Guillermo Proto, Chile/Canada, 2012)
- El Otro DÍA | The Other Day (Ignacio Agüero, Chile, 2012)
Best Director, Documentary Film
- José Luis García, La Chica Del Sur | The Girl from the South (Argentina, 2012)
- Priscilla Padilla, La Eterna Noche De Las Doce Lunas | The Eternal Night of the Twelve Moons (Colombia, 2013)
- Martín Benchimol, Pablo Aparo, La Gente Del RÍO | The River People (Argentina, 2012)
- Mercedes Moncada, Palabras MÁGICAS (Para Romper Un Encantamiento) | Magic Words (Breaking a Spell) (Mexico/Guatemala, 2012)
- Ignacio Agüero, El Otro DÍA | The Other Day (Chile, 2012)
Best First Film
- Carne De Perro | Dog Flesh (Fernando Guzzoni, Chile/France/Germany, 2012)
- El Limpiador | The Cleaner (Adrián Saba, Peru, 2012)
- Melaza | Molasses (Carlos Díaz Lechuga, Cuba/France/Panama, 2012)
- Tanta Agua | So Much Water (Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay/Germany/Mexico, 2013)
- Los Salvajes | The Wild Ones (Alejandro Fadel, Argentina, 2012)
Best U.S. Latino Film
- American Promise (Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, USA, 2013)
- Filly Brown (Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos, USA, 2012)
- Mosquita Y Mari (Aurora Guerrero, USA, 2012)
- Reportero (Bernardo Ruiz, USA, 2012)
- Wonder Women! The Untold Story Of American Superheroines (Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, USA, 2012)
2013 Jury:
Chris Allen, founder and director, UnionDocs; Melissa Anderson, film critic, Artforum; Beth Janson, executive director, Tribeca Film Institute; Daniel Loría, overseas editor, BoxOffice; Mike Maggiore, programmer, Film Forum; Paco de Onís, filmmaker; Anita Reher, executive director, Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; Julia Solomonoff, filmmaker; Maria-Christina Villaseñor, film curator and writer.
2013 Nominating Committee:
Cecilia Barrionuevo, programmer, Mar del Plata Film Festival, Argentina; Raúl Camargo, programmer, Valdivia Film Festival, Chile; John Campos Gómez, director, Transcinema Film Festival, Peru; Inti Cordera, director, DocsDF Film Festival, Mexico; Christine Davila, programmer, Sundance, Los Angeles Film Festival, Ambulante USA; Eugenio del Bosque, director, Cine Las Américas, USA; Raciel del Toro, Cinergia, Costa Rica; Vanessa Erazo, film programmer and journalist, indieWIRE/LatinoBuzz, Remezcla, USA; Lisa Franek, programmer, San Diego Latino Film Festival, USA; Robert A. Gomez, film journalist, Cinemathon, Venezuela; Jaie Laplante, director, Miami Film Festival, USA; Agustín Mango, film journalist, Hollywood Reporter, Argentina; Jim Mendiola, programmer, CineFestival, San Antonio, USA; Luis Ortiz, director, Latino Public Broadcasting, USA; Rafael Sampaio, programmer, Sao Paulo Latin American Film Festival, Brazil; Eva Sangiorgi, programmer, Ficunam, Mexico; Gerwin Tamsma, programmer, Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands.
- 1/8/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Now that a new year is upon us let's reflect back on 2013. Something like a year in Latino film. Latin American filmmakers continued to kill it on the international film festival circuit. Chile, in particular, has been conquering the world one film festival award at a time.
Sadly, American Latino filmmakers were mostly absent from big name festivals like Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, and Cannes. Normally, the major Latino film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Diego offer a home to these overlooked films. The surprising collapse of the New York International Latino Film Festival this past summer and with the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival barely recovering from financial difficulties, the exhibition of American Latino indies remains in a precarious position.
Still, there is much to celebrate. Starting in the early part of the year, at Sundance, Chilean director Sebastian Silva joined a very elite club of filmmakers -- those who have premiered two films at the same festival. His mescaline-fueled odyssey Crystal Fairy won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award and the psychological thriller Magic, Magic starring Michael Cera went on to play Director's Fortnight in Cannes.
The Berlinale, in February, brought the much anticipated world premiere of Sebastian Lelio's fourth film Gloria and the charming Uruguayan family comedy Tanta Agua. Cementing 2013 as the year of Chile, actress Paulina Garcia won the Silver Bear for her dazzling and dynamic performance as a middle-aged divorcee in Gloria.
Mid-year, Mexican filmmakers took Cannes by storm again, winning the Best Director prize for the second year in a row. In 2013, the victor was Amat Escalante for his feature film Heli. The year prior Carlos Reygadas took home the prize for Post Tenebras Lux.
In the fall, Toronto spoiled us with Latin American riches. The gargantuan fest showcased more than 300 films from 70 different countries including the Mexican documentary El Alcalde, Venezuela's Pelo Malo (Bad Hair), Peruvian black comedy El Mudo (The Mute), the Brazilian drama O lobo atras da porta (A Wolf at the Door), and the world premiere of Fernando Eimbcke's Club Sandwich. Costa Rica made a first-time appearance at the Toronto Film Festival with Por las plumas (All About the Feathers) and the Dominican Republic showcased Cristo Rey.
Over Labor Day weekend, Eugenio Derbez, a Mexican actor most Americans had never heard of released his sleeper hit Instructions Not Included. Totally ignored by mainstream film critics, the Spanish-language family comedy went on to shatter box office records. It beat out Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine and critical darling 12 Years a Slave making it the top grossing indie film of the year. It also became the highest grossing Spanish-language film ever in the United States. A few weeks later, when Instructions opened in Derbez's home country, it became the most-watched Mexican film of all time.
Despite being snubbed by the Academy Awards (no Latin American productions made the shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film), Latino films ended the year on a high note. The triumph of our films abroad coupled with a Spanish-language box office hit at home bodes well for the Latino films of 2014.
In case you were living under a rock this past year and missed it all, we've got you covered. Thankfully, there are professionals who get paid to keep track of what Latino movies are receiving accolades, have the most buzz, and got picked up for distribution. LatinoBuzz went straight to the experts, film programmers, to ask, "What are your top 5 Latino films of 2013?"
Christine Davila, Director of Ambulante California
There is no shortage of original and compelling Us Latino writer/directors working across different genres out there, and this list proves it. These confident artists have captured fresh and mighty perspectives far too underrepresented, and they are storming through the cluster neck of homogeneity that continues to reign in film content.
Water & Power (Richard Montoya, USA)
Los Wild Ones (Elise Salomon, USA)
Delusions of Grandeur (Iris Almaraz, Gustavo Ramos, USA)
Sleeping with the Fishes (Nicole Gomez Fisher, USA)
The House that Jack Built (Henry Barrial, USA)
Marcela Goglio, Programmer at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
No special criteria in these choices, just some of the many accomplished Latin American films that, in my opinion, create universes or make statements in beautiful, original and/or powerful ways.
Viola (Matias Pineiro, Argentina)
El alcalde (Emiliano Altuna/Carlos Rossini/Diego Osorno, Mexico)
La eterna noche de las doce lunas (Priscilla Padilla, Colombia)
El futuro (Alicia Scherson, Chile)
Gloria (Sebastian Lelio, Chile)
Carlos A. Gutierrez, Co-founder and Executive Director of Cinema Tropical
For practical purposes, my list features five Latin American films (my area of expertise) that I highly recommend, and that screened in the U.S. in 2013 (in alphabetical order):
El Alcalde / The Mayor (Carlos F. Rossini, Emiliano Altuna and Diego Osorno, Mexico)
El otro dia / The Other Day (Ignacio Aguero, Chile)
Los mejores temas / Greatest Hits (Nicolas Pereda, Mexico)
Tanta Agua / So Much Water (Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay)
Viola (Matias Pineiro, Argentina)
Lucho Ramirez, Founder & Executive Director of Cine+Mas Sf, presenter of the Cm San Francisco Latino Film Festival
There are so many works by Latino and Latin American filmmakers that merit the public and the tastemaker's attention. Compiling a list of 5 is difficult for me as a festival director because each film that we program is beloved. In addition, there are the other films I see at other fests or at theaters, particularly the bigger ones replete with distribution, celebrity, and marketing budgets. It's hard for independent, quality films to break through and that's part of the reason I seek those out. I believe there is an audience for artisanal films with substance, creativity, and diversity.
I went on memory for this list. Included are films that I saw this year that really stuck with me long after watching them. What's important to me is seeing images of Latinos by Latinos on the screen. This doesn't mean sanitized. Bless Me, Ultima is an important literary work. It was a huge accomplishment to get this on the screen for all us non-readers. Sex, Love, & Salsa packs all the punch of a big romantic comedy in very local and Latino way; Tlatelolco is a historical drama that's really well done, revisiting a chaotic time in Mexico's history but interpreted in a narrow sliver of a relationship that can't be; Porcelain Horse mixes sex, drugs, and rich-kid problems and really does something different with a crime-drama; Delusions of Grandeuer is purely Latino hipster fun.
Bless Me, Ultima (Carl Franklin, USA)
Sex, Love, & Salsa (Adrian Manzano, USA)
Tlatelolco, Summer of 68 (Carlos Bolado, Mexico)
Porcelain Horse (Javier Andrade, Ecuador)
Delusions of Grandeur (Iris Almaraz, Gustavo Ramos, USA)
Glenn Heath Jr., Artistic Director of the San Diego Latino Film Festival
De Jueves a Domingo is a fascinating and subtext-heavy debut from director Dominga Sotomayor Castillo about a family road trip that could be the beginning of the end. In Viola Shakespeare is reinvented, it's art house cinema meets the off-note pacing of jazz. My Sister's Quinceañera is an honest and poignant look at the complexities of family and identity in small town America. Aqui y Alla is riveting in its acute understanding of how the mundane adds up to something grand. Fecha de Caducidad is dark comedy at its finest.
De Jueves a Domingo (Dominga Sotomayor Castillo, Chile)
Viola (Matias Pineiro, Argentina)
My Sister's Quinceanera (Aaron Douglas Johnston, USA)
Aqui y Alla (Antonio Mendez Esparza, Mexico)
Fecha de Caducidad (Kenya Marquez , Mexico)
Diana Vargas, Artistic Director at the Havana Film Festival New York
In Gloria Paulina Garcia's performance is unforgettable and the way the director talks about the middle life crisis of a woman that seems unremarkable until she finds out she can make her own choices and maybe to be single is not that bad, haha. La Sirga portrays the crude reality of the Colombian conflict without showing explicit violence, through impeccable cinematography. In a cinema verite style, La jaula de oro shows 3 Guatemalan adolescents experiencing the harshness of the journey of those who want to immigrate to U.S. 7 Cajas, the biggest Paraguayan box office hit, is as entertaining as well done. With an impeccable screenplay and Guarani dialogues, the film shows a country that usually don't have a strong representation in the festivals around the world. Sibila de Teresa Arredondo (Chile). Sibila Arguedas is the widow of one of the most iconic public figures in Peruvian literature. She's also Chilean and a political prisoner, accused of being a Sendero Luminoso collaborator. This documentary made by Sibila's niece brings to light one of the most fascinating, enimagtic and contradictory characters of the last century.
Gloria (Sebastian Lelio, Chile)
La Sirga (William Vega, Colombia).
La jaula de oro (Diego Quemada-Diez, Mexico)
7 Cajas (Tana Schembori, Juan Carlos Maneglia, Paraguay)
Sibila (Teresa Arredondo, Chile)
Juan Caceres, Director of Programming at the New York International Latino Film Festival
2013 was a great year for Latin American films. Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala and Paraguay, countries with no real infrastructure for filmmaking, all were present in festivals. Chile in particular showed no sign of slowing down their own presence on the festival circuit, taking home prizes at the major festivals. I think it's no coincidence that they share this wonderful genuine camaraderie where there is a support system that includes producing each others projects to simply rooting for one another when it comes to award nominations (you can go to all their Fb pages and occasionally they have each others films as their cover pics! It's uber dope). It's as real as it gets and I think it's something lacking here in the Us. So my list is the Chilean films you should not miss.
Gloria, (Sebastian Lelio, Chile)
No (Pablo Larrain, Chile)
Il Futuro / The Future (Alicia Scherson, Chile)
El verano de los peces voladores / The Summer of Flying Fish (Marcela Said, Chile)
Las cosas como son / Things The Way They Are (Fernando Lavanderos, Chile)
Marlene Dermer, Director/Programmer at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
It has been really hard to narrow it to five I have to say. I find Latino cinema and its creators in a wonderful period. It’s alive and beats like a heart. There is so much talent in our communities and they are doing some of the most interesting work in world cinema. It's thought provoking or personal and universal. It's also tough to include U.S. works with Latin American work because there are many more countries and many with support. This year in our festival we had the largest showcase of U.S.A. films which was very exciting to see. As a programmer for 22 years I find it stimulating to discover all these new voices coming up in our community and truly sharing the screens at festivals and theaters around the world. There is a new generation in every country, that is very exciting and promising for the future of cinema, our community and the audio visual world.
Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico)
Pelo Malo (Mariana Rondón, Venezuela)
Gloria (Sebastian Lelio, Chile)
O lobo atras da porta (Fernando Coimbra, Brazil)
Tanta Agua / So Much Water (Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay)
Written by Vanessa Erazo. LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.
Sadly, American Latino filmmakers were mostly absent from big name festivals like Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, and Cannes. Normally, the major Latino film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Diego offer a home to these overlooked films. The surprising collapse of the New York International Latino Film Festival this past summer and with the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival barely recovering from financial difficulties, the exhibition of American Latino indies remains in a precarious position.
Still, there is much to celebrate. Starting in the early part of the year, at Sundance, Chilean director Sebastian Silva joined a very elite club of filmmakers -- those who have premiered two films at the same festival. His mescaline-fueled odyssey Crystal Fairy won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award and the psychological thriller Magic, Magic starring Michael Cera went on to play Director's Fortnight in Cannes.
The Berlinale, in February, brought the much anticipated world premiere of Sebastian Lelio's fourth film Gloria and the charming Uruguayan family comedy Tanta Agua. Cementing 2013 as the year of Chile, actress Paulina Garcia won the Silver Bear for her dazzling and dynamic performance as a middle-aged divorcee in Gloria.
Mid-year, Mexican filmmakers took Cannes by storm again, winning the Best Director prize for the second year in a row. In 2013, the victor was Amat Escalante for his feature film Heli. The year prior Carlos Reygadas took home the prize for Post Tenebras Lux.
In the fall, Toronto spoiled us with Latin American riches. The gargantuan fest showcased more than 300 films from 70 different countries including the Mexican documentary El Alcalde, Venezuela's Pelo Malo (Bad Hair), Peruvian black comedy El Mudo (The Mute), the Brazilian drama O lobo atras da porta (A Wolf at the Door), and the world premiere of Fernando Eimbcke's Club Sandwich. Costa Rica made a first-time appearance at the Toronto Film Festival with Por las plumas (All About the Feathers) and the Dominican Republic showcased Cristo Rey.
Over Labor Day weekend, Eugenio Derbez, a Mexican actor most Americans had never heard of released his sleeper hit Instructions Not Included. Totally ignored by mainstream film critics, the Spanish-language family comedy went on to shatter box office records. It beat out Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine and critical darling 12 Years a Slave making it the top grossing indie film of the year. It also became the highest grossing Spanish-language film ever in the United States. A few weeks later, when Instructions opened in Derbez's home country, it became the most-watched Mexican film of all time.
Despite being snubbed by the Academy Awards (no Latin American productions made the shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film), Latino films ended the year on a high note. The triumph of our films abroad coupled with a Spanish-language box office hit at home bodes well for the Latino films of 2014.
In case you were living under a rock this past year and missed it all, we've got you covered. Thankfully, there are professionals who get paid to keep track of what Latino movies are receiving accolades, have the most buzz, and got picked up for distribution. LatinoBuzz went straight to the experts, film programmers, to ask, "What are your top 5 Latino films of 2013?"
Christine Davila, Director of Ambulante California
There is no shortage of original and compelling Us Latino writer/directors working across different genres out there, and this list proves it. These confident artists have captured fresh and mighty perspectives far too underrepresented, and they are storming through the cluster neck of homogeneity that continues to reign in film content.
Water & Power (Richard Montoya, USA)
Los Wild Ones (Elise Salomon, USA)
Delusions of Grandeur (Iris Almaraz, Gustavo Ramos, USA)
Sleeping with the Fishes (Nicole Gomez Fisher, USA)
The House that Jack Built (Henry Barrial, USA)
Marcela Goglio, Programmer at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
No special criteria in these choices, just some of the many accomplished Latin American films that, in my opinion, create universes or make statements in beautiful, original and/or powerful ways.
Viola (Matias Pineiro, Argentina)
El alcalde (Emiliano Altuna/Carlos Rossini/Diego Osorno, Mexico)
La eterna noche de las doce lunas (Priscilla Padilla, Colombia)
El futuro (Alicia Scherson, Chile)
Gloria (Sebastian Lelio, Chile)
Carlos A. Gutierrez, Co-founder and Executive Director of Cinema Tropical
For practical purposes, my list features five Latin American films (my area of expertise) that I highly recommend, and that screened in the U.S. in 2013 (in alphabetical order):
El Alcalde / The Mayor (Carlos F. Rossini, Emiliano Altuna and Diego Osorno, Mexico)
El otro dia / The Other Day (Ignacio Aguero, Chile)
Los mejores temas / Greatest Hits (Nicolas Pereda, Mexico)
Tanta Agua / So Much Water (Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay)
Viola (Matias Pineiro, Argentina)
Lucho Ramirez, Founder & Executive Director of Cine+Mas Sf, presenter of the Cm San Francisco Latino Film Festival
There are so many works by Latino and Latin American filmmakers that merit the public and the tastemaker's attention. Compiling a list of 5 is difficult for me as a festival director because each film that we program is beloved. In addition, there are the other films I see at other fests or at theaters, particularly the bigger ones replete with distribution, celebrity, and marketing budgets. It's hard for independent, quality films to break through and that's part of the reason I seek those out. I believe there is an audience for artisanal films with substance, creativity, and diversity.
I went on memory for this list. Included are films that I saw this year that really stuck with me long after watching them. What's important to me is seeing images of Latinos by Latinos on the screen. This doesn't mean sanitized. Bless Me, Ultima is an important literary work. It was a huge accomplishment to get this on the screen for all us non-readers. Sex, Love, & Salsa packs all the punch of a big romantic comedy in very local and Latino way; Tlatelolco is a historical drama that's really well done, revisiting a chaotic time in Mexico's history but interpreted in a narrow sliver of a relationship that can't be; Porcelain Horse mixes sex, drugs, and rich-kid problems and really does something different with a crime-drama; Delusions of Grandeuer is purely Latino hipster fun.
Bless Me, Ultima (Carl Franklin, USA)
Sex, Love, & Salsa (Adrian Manzano, USA)
Tlatelolco, Summer of 68 (Carlos Bolado, Mexico)
Porcelain Horse (Javier Andrade, Ecuador)
Delusions of Grandeur (Iris Almaraz, Gustavo Ramos, USA)
Glenn Heath Jr., Artistic Director of the San Diego Latino Film Festival
De Jueves a Domingo is a fascinating and subtext-heavy debut from director Dominga Sotomayor Castillo about a family road trip that could be the beginning of the end. In Viola Shakespeare is reinvented, it's art house cinema meets the off-note pacing of jazz. My Sister's Quinceañera is an honest and poignant look at the complexities of family and identity in small town America. Aqui y Alla is riveting in its acute understanding of how the mundane adds up to something grand. Fecha de Caducidad is dark comedy at its finest.
De Jueves a Domingo (Dominga Sotomayor Castillo, Chile)
Viola (Matias Pineiro, Argentina)
My Sister's Quinceanera (Aaron Douglas Johnston, USA)
Aqui y Alla (Antonio Mendez Esparza, Mexico)
Fecha de Caducidad (Kenya Marquez , Mexico)
Diana Vargas, Artistic Director at the Havana Film Festival New York
In Gloria Paulina Garcia's performance is unforgettable and the way the director talks about the middle life crisis of a woman that seems unremarkable until she finds out she can make her own choices and maybe to be single is not that bad, haha. La Sirga portrays the crude reality of the Colombian conflict without showing explicit violence, through impeccable cinematography. In a cinema verite style, La jaula de oro shows 3 Guatemalan adolescents experiencing the harshness of the journey of those who want to immigrate to U.S. 7 Cajas, the biggest Paraguayan box office hit, is as entertaining as well done. With an impeccable screenplay and Guarani dialogues, the film shows a country that usually don't have a strong representation in the festivals around the world. Sibila de Teresa Arredondo (Chile). Sibila Arguedas is the widow of one of the most iconic public figures in Peruvian literature. She's also Chilean and a political prisoner, accused of being a Sendero Luminoso collaborator. This documentary made by Sibila's niece brings to light one of the most fascinating, enimagtic and contradictory characters of the last century.
Gloria (Sebastian Lelio, Chile)
La Sirga (William Vega, Colombia).
La jaula de oro (Diego Quemada-Diez, Mexico)
7 Cajas (Tana Schembori, Juan Carlos Maneglia, Paraguay)
Sibila (Teresa Arredondo, Chile)
Juan Caceres, Director of Programming at the New York International Latino Film Festival
2013 was a great year for Latin American films. Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala and Paraguay, countries with no real infrastructure for filmmaking, all were present in festivals. Chile in particular showed no sign of slowing down their own presence on the festival circuit, taking home prizes at the major festivals. I think it's no coincidence that they share this wonderful genuine camaraderie where there is a support system that includes producing each others projects to simply rooting for one another when it comes to award nominations (you can go to all their Fb pages and occasionally they have each others films as their cover pics! It's uber dope). It's as real as it gets and I think it's something lacking here in the Us. So my list is the Chilean films you should not miss.
Gloria, (Sebastian Lelio, Chile)
No (Pablo Larrain, Chile)
Il Futuro / The Future (Alicia Scherson, Chile)
El verano de los peces voladores / The Summer of Flying Fish (Marcela Said, Chile)
Las cosas como son / Things The Way They Are (Fernando Lavanderos, Chile)
Marlene Dermer, Director/Programmer at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
It has been really hard to narrow it to five I have to say. I find Latino cinema and its creators in a wonderful period. It’s alive and beats like a heart. There is so much talent in our communities and they are doing some of the most interesting work in world cinema. It's thought provoking or personal and universal. It's also tough to include U.S. works with Latin American work because there are many more countries and many with support. This year in our festival we had the largest showcase of U.S.A. films which was very exciting to see. As a programmer for 22 years I find it stimulating to discover all these new voices coming up in our community and truly sharing the screens at festivals and theaters around the world. There is a new generation in every country, that is very exciting and promising for the future of cinema, our community and the audio visual world.
Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico)
Pelo Malo (Mariana Rondón, Venezuela)
Gloria (Sebastian Lelio, Chile)
O lobo atras da porta (Fernando Coimbra, Brazil)
Tanta Agua / So Much Water (Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay)
Written by Vanessa Erazo. LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.
- 1/1/2014
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
Rekindling the magic of the cinematic art form, 2013 was a year that shined for the numerous outstanding performances and films that will go down as timeless classics. From Science Fiction to period pieces and everything in between, acclaimed veteran directors like Scorsese and Woody Allen or fresh voices like Ryan Coogler and Destine Cretton together made for an unforgettable year in the filmmaking realm. The following list includes an eclectic mix of Oscar-hopeful studio films, foreign art house gems, indie standouts, and the occasional oddball.
In order to make the list as accurate as possible I have only included titles that were released this year in the U.S. Therefore, films like Gloria and many others that I absolutely loved from the Foreign Language Academy Award submissions will have a spot in next year’s list. On that same note, films that were in festivals in 2012 but which opened early 2013 are included here (Lore, No). A year’s end list that includes 30 films might seem excessive to some. However, given the fact that hundreds of them were released, and that I personally watched close to 200, this amount barely scratches the surface of the vast works critics and audiences were able to witness. Here are, in this writer’s humble opinion, the 30 best films of the year. Please let us know what you think were the best.
30. Drinking Buddies
Dir. Joe Swanberg
It’s hard to say if this film will revolutionize the occult craft beer industry. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic tiny film about very real people and their complex relationships. Its small scope allows the brilliant cast to shine in every scene. This micro-analysis of love reaches grandeur via tons of heart, and gallons of mood altering beverages.
29. Dallas Buyers Club
Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée
Jared Leto is completely unrecognizable as the drug-addicted yet charming Rayon, while McConaughey brings to life an HIV-infected man who is willing to risk it all to save his life and that of others in his situation. The film is simultaneously a showcase of masterful acting, and a lesson in humanity.
28. Much Ado About Nothing
Dir. Joss Whedon
Following an outlandish blockbuster like The Avengers with an independent re-imagining of a William Shakespeare play testifies of Joss Whedon's absolute command of the cinematic language. In his witty adaption, the classic characters take on new lives when placed in the present. Irresistibly intelligent, elegant, and superbly acted, the film is a perfect small gem.
27. Lore
Dir. Cate Shortland
The Australian director’s bold feature focuses on the children of the Nazi perpetrators during WWII, and the interchangeable nature of guilt and innocence.A thought provoking, captivating, and relevant film, which dream-like imagery of disillusionment will endure the test of time, and will surely move many viewers
26. Post Tenebras Lux
Dir. Carlos Reygadas
Although it follows the lives of an affluent Mexican family living in the countryside, the film disregards preconceived notions of cinema, and wisely chooses powerful imagery over narrative clarity. Reygadas’ latest is a perfectly created, nightmarish collection of existential concerns. Powerful stuff indeed.
25. Only God Forgives
Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
Hated by many due to its lack of narrative coherence and wrongly compared to Winding Refn and Gosling's previous venture together, the Danish auteur's latest is a hypnotic dance of color, ethereal sounds, gushing blood, depraved sexual innuendo and lots of intriguing commentary about morality. Some will accuse Refn of making a pretentious vehicle to showcase brutality with no substance. Let them, as this is a self-indulgent piece, but there is as much existential debate here as there is gore and style.
24. Fruitvale Station
Dir. Ryan Coogler
Poignant and honest, Coogler's debut feature recounts the last hours in the life of Oscar Grant, a young African American man killed by a policeman in the Bay Area on New Year's Eve 2008. Added to Michale B. Jordan's heartfelt performance, the filmmaker skillfully portrays Grant as normal man never crucifying nor praising him as a hero. His film truly proves the power of images as catalyst for social change.
23. Frances Ha
Dir. Noah Baumbach
Modest in its conception, this Black-and-White study on friendship, purpose, and life itself through the eyes of an aspiring dancer in New York is simply brilliant. Penned by both Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, who also plays the main role fantastically, this is an original and amusing work, which is certain to surprise and captivate audiences.
22. The Wind Rises
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
No one makes animated films like Miyazaki. His latest, and tentatively his last, is a full-blown historical drama set against the backdrop of WWII. It follows Jiro an aircraft designer who has dreams of creating an airplane unlike any other, while also falling in love with an ill young woman he meets during his travels. Gorgeous visuals and the Japanese master's signature mixture of realism and fantasy make for the best animated film of the year.
21. The Hunt
Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
As one of the founding fathers of the cinematic movement known as Dogme 95, Vinterberg has an affinity for thought-provoking stories. His latest work is an unsettling drama about the destructive power of an evil lie on a man’s life. Furthermore, Mads Mikkelsen is outstanding and undoubtedly gives one of the most affecting and unforgettable performances in recent memory.
20. Blue Jasmine
Dir. Woody Allen
Cate Blanchett is completely engrossing in this elegant drama by the veteran New Yorker. As a wealthy woman who loses it all after her husband is taken to prison for fraud, the actress exposes her characters' insecurities in a naturalistic fashion. Going from a radiant, cultured socialite to a broken, unstable woman at the edge of her sanity the actress displays her immeasurable talent helped by the storytelling genius of the auteur.
19. Stoker
Dir. Park Chan-wook
Korean director Park Chan-wook, better known for his gory thriller OldBoy, returns with the story of a dysfunctional family with a morbid secret, which is in turn his first English-language film. Completely surpassing the language barrier, this visionary filmmaker creates a film that is at once perversely beautiful, and disturbingly hypnotic.
18. Prisoners
Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Driven by any parent’s worst nightmare the story is a thriller about the abduction of two young girls,but it plays out like a moral exposé that takes both the characters and viewers into some of the darkest shades of the human psyche.Working from the terrific screenplay by Aaron Guzikowski, director Villeneuve crafts an astonishing film proving that his captivating measure of suspense and brilliant acting didn’t get lost from the art house field to the mainstream.
17. No
Dir. Pablo Larraín
Starring the great Mexican actor Gael García Bernal , Chilean director Pablo Larrain's Oscar-nominated film
is an evocative film that uses a peculiar style to tackle the importance of the media in social change. It is an extremely entertaining work that seamlessly juxtaposes the visual aesthetic of the 80′s with contemporary cinematic language. More significantly, it is the testimony of a nation fighting for a better future against all odds.
16. Nebraska
Dir. Alexander Payne
Continuing with his explorations on the unseen side of the United States, Alexander Payne takes on the Midwest with a charming family tale. Veteran actor Bruce Dern plays a man seeking to cash in on a fictitious prize. His estrange son, played by Will Forte, will join the senile elder in his seemingly pointless journey. Payne knows how to create profound stories out of the mundane. Nebraska is endearing, smart, and full of great performances.
15. To the Wonder
Dir. Terrence Malick
This is a one of a kind experience, more than a narrative film, it's an attempt to translate the irrational qualities of love into cinema. To express the hate, anxiety, fear, and uncontrollable urge for connection experiencd by someone in love. Malick's approach is only comparable to that of a religious leader trying to explain divinity to mortals. Moreover, it is possible to count with the fingers on one hand all other films that will even get close to this in terms of gorgeous imagery – the other films are probably Malick’s too.
14. The Wolf of Wall Street
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Drugs, money, and debauchery permeate the new joined project from Scorsese and DiCaprio. Despite all the excess, acting takes the center stage here. 3 hours of dark comedy and intense commentary on the country's obsession with status and material wealth, are fertile ground for the leading man to show why he is one of the best actors of his generation. Entertaining and completely deranged.
13. Blancanieves
Dir. Pablo Berger
A Black-and-White silent retelling of Snow White set in Spain, the film reignites the true significance of film as a visual medium in its most essential form. Director Pablo Berger not only reinvents a literary classic to make it irreverently Spanish, but he does so using a beautifully original stylistic approach. This is the work of someone whose passion for filmmaking goes beyond the surface, which creates a unique and timeless work of blissful cinematic magic.
12. The Place Beyond the Pines
Dir. Derek Cianfrance
Cianfrance's ambitious and profound film stands out for its great performances and meditative beauty. The director set out to create a piece of monumental, even mythical proportions in every aspect. Having Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling in equally heartbreaking roles makes for one of the most impressive American dramas of this or any other year. Fatherhood is in full view here as the most defining role in a man’s life – to leave a legacy or a curse
11. American Hustle
Dir. David O. Russell
A prodigious con artist meets his demise when he falls in love wit an equally disturbed woman in David O. Russell's sexy and fun 1970s "dramedy". Every cast member is at the top of the game, being Amy Adams the standout performer. Classic filmmaking combined with an audacious and intelligent screenplay bring to life a colorful and uncompromising story about very likeable criminals.
10. Gravity
Dir. Alfonso Cuarón
With its opening sequence Cuaron's space drama throws out any preconceptions of what a Science fiction film could be. Mesmerizing and compelling, the film reassures the power of the medium and provides a breathtaking experience. Sandra Bullock is simply marvelous. She carries the film with nothing but her desperation to survive and the infinite emptiness around her, and that is more than enough. The Mexican director utilized all the technology available to bring to the screen the most powerful, realistic, and unforgettable outer space tale ever made. It's hard to think it could be outdone.
9. Inside Llewyn Davis
Dir. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
The legendary directing duo returns with a musically driven character study of a man who is essentially not very likeable, stubborn, selfish, but undeniably human. Visually ethereal and imbedded with quirkiness and delightful wit, the film is a fascinating homage to folk music via a relatable antihero. Oscar Isaac gives a career propelling performance both acting and singing with admirable truthfulness. Once again the Coens take a chance and venture into something special and evocative, yet authentically their own. This is by far one of the best films of the year, and one of the most memorable works of their career.
8. The Great Beauty
Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
In Paolo Sorrentino's love letter to Rome the amazing vistas, dazzling colors, and Toni Servillo's acting come together to create exuberant moving poetry that revels in the beauty of a city and the memories of a man. This feat for the eyes and the soul is a masterpiece of the higher caliber. Like the great Italian filmmakers of the past, Sorrentino enhances reality with pure beauty and contagious passion.
7. Spring Breakers
Dir. Harmony Korine
Deceiving the viewer by casting a squad of Pop stars as a gang of party-crazed teens, Korine's latest is a completely atmospheric film. The plot is not particularly complex, but the delivery is full of excess. Foggy, dream-like effects over the Girls-gone-wild-influenced scenes give the audience a sense of fragmented reality. Such overpowering and graphic style speaks of what pop culture irradiates today, and why it’s so disturbingly detrimental. As corrosive as the media's antics to alter the way the youth perceives and experiences life, Korine has created an in-your-face cinematic revolt otherwise impossible with a subtler aesthetic. Spring Breakers not only takes a song by Britney Spears and transforms it into an artful musical statement, but it also shows James Franco in his most daring role to date. A definitive piece of filmmaking for this generation.
6. The Act of Killing
Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer
This astonishing documentary is not a political film. It is rather about the failure of a political system in Indonesia. A system that allowed, and even ordered, the execution of more than a million people and which hails the executioners as national heroes who are above the law. Chilling and very hard to watch, yet almost morally unacceptable not to, because the impunity of their atrocities must not remain unknown. On the other hand, the psychological investigation into these characters’ minds makes for the most truthful horror film of them all, in which the real mass murderers are given freedom to reinterpret their heinous acts for the world to see. Unmissable.
5. Short Term 12
Dir. Destin Cretton
Spearheaded by Brie Larson, who delivers one of the best performances of the year, this film about kids in a foster-care facility shows that in filmmaking story overpowers anything else. No embellishment can save a bad idea, and likewise, simplicity can’t diminish great writing. Few films can successfully weave so many stories into a cohesive unit about love and the meaning of family as Cretton's latest. Its blunt depiction of the characters troubles hits like a tender blow that is hard to forget. Teary eyes are allowed, laughter is encouraged, and heart-warmth is inevitable.
4. 12 Years a Slave
Dir. Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen’s magnum opus is the most vivid retelling of a time that is not often discussed, but that lingers in the subconscious like the most stubborn scar in the American collective memory. Needless to say the director elicited miraculous performances from his impeccable ensemble cast, from which Chiwetel Ejiofor stands out giving the best male leading performance of the year. To not watch this film is at once depriving oneself from a masterful work of art, but it is also an irresponsible act against the memory of those stripped of their humanity, many of whom died waiting to know freedom. McQueen is fearless and shows violence never in a gratuitous manner but with the intention to expose the viewer to an experience that serves no one's interest but the Truth. No sugar-coating or artificial euphemisms are in place here, not in language or in imagery. Its entrancingly beautiful cinematography collides with the crude reality of not only racial relations but also horrifying dehumanizing behavior making it the defining film about slavery.
3. Before Midnight
Dir. Richard Linklater
Simply magical. That’s the best way to describe a film like this. Departing from a flawlessly crafted screenplay the two leads and their director set out to create the latest chapter in the most honest series of films about love. Is as if Delpy and Hawke have been born only to play these roles. As if for the past 18 years they lived as Jesse and Celine continuously just waiting for the next installment. There is not a single false move in Before Midnight, every line of dialogue, gesture and timing is genius, perfectly arranged to seem effortless and for that, all the more effective. The simplicity of its premise and the profound magnitude of its message make it an utter delight. Linklater and his two longtime artistic companions are the authors of one of the greatest trilogies in the history of film, and the only one that is undeniably riveting relying only on two superbly memorable characters.
2. Blue is the Warmest Color
Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche
The Franco-Algerian director’s latest film could be described as one of intimate ambition. It follows its characters for over a decade expanding 179 minutes of evocative imagery, which flies by on the screen with incredible fluidity, never giving the audience any indication of its length. Instead, the incarnations -- since such great takes mustn’t simply be called performances -- by the two leading actresses are so tremendously captivating that it is impossible to look away or not to be submerged into their passionate relationship. Blue is undoubtedly the work of an auteur. Even after all the scandalous accusations and discomfort towards the film, there is no denying this is a riveting piece of filmmaking. Every move and every touch is carefully planned to create a realistic yet dreamy account of two women who are consumed by ravaging love, who suffer through it, and who survive it. No one in cinema has ever gotten closer to conveying the mix of torturous anguish and insane joy of what it means to be in love as have Kechiche and his fearless protagonists.
1. The Past
Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Comparing the Academy Award-winning A Separation to Asghar Farhadi’s French-language film The Past, his first film outside of his native Iran, is like comparing two equally beautiful diamonds cut differently by the same master jeweler. The only reasonable way to put them on the same ground is to note the masterful caliber of storytelling achieved once again by the Iranian auteur. It is hard to think of any other working writer/director that has such a perfectly calibrated talent for creating tension out seemingly ordinary circumstances. Days after watching his latest work, its powerful themes and even more riveting mystery still linger refusing to be forgotten. Continuing with his fervent interest in failed relationships Farhadi proves that in his stories, just like many times in life, the end is actually only the beginning.
He crafted a story about the past entirely told in the present. Refusing to use flashbacks or to fully reveal the events that lead to what unfolds on screen, his drama reaches higher stakes as the characters faults are revealed one by one in an inconspicuous manner. Plagued with red herrings and half-truths there is no clear villain or unquestionable motivation. Written with full knowledge and command of the human condition, the director has scored another masterpiece of grand emotional value and keeps on pushing the boundaries of storytelling. His subjects are never left unaccountable for their actions or free of consequences, yet, for all the terrible outcomes of their past mistakes Farhadi offers them a new redemptive chance. He allows them to forgive, but not to forget. Definitely this writer's absolute favorite film of the year.
In order to make the list as accurate as possible I have only included titles that were released this year in the U.S. Therefore, films like Gloria and many others that I absolutely loved from the Foreign Language Academy Award submissions will have a spot in next year’s list. On that same note, films that were in festivals in 2012 but which opened early 2013 are included here (Lore, No). A year’s end list that includes 30 films might seem excessive to some. However, given the fact that hundreds of them were released, and that I personally watched close to 200, this amount barely scratches the surface of the vast works critics and audiences were able to witness. Here are, in this writer’s humble opinion, the 30 best films of the year. Please let us know what you think were the best.
30. Drinking Buddies
Dir. Joe Swanberg
It’s hard to say if this film will revolutionize the occult craft beer industry. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic tiny film about very real people and their complex relationships. Its small scope allows the brilliant cast to shine in every scene. This micro-analysis of love reaches grandeur via tons of heart, and gallons of mood altering beverages.
29. Dallas Buyers Club
Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée
Jared Leto is completely unrecognizable as the drug-addicted yet charming Rayon, while McConaughey brings to life an HIV-infected man who is willing to risk it all to save his life and that of others in his situation. The film is simultaneously a showcase of masterful acting, and a lesson in humanity.
28. Much Ado About Nothing
Dir. Joss Whedon
Following an outlandish blockbuster like The Avengers with an independent re-imagining of a William Shakespeare play testifies of Joss Whedon's absolute command of the cinematic language. In his witty adaption, the classic characters take on new lives when placed in the present. Irresistibly intelligent, elegant, and superbly acted, the film is a perfect small gem.
27. Lore
Dir. Cate Shortland
The Australian director’s bold feature focuses on the children of the Nazi perpetrators during WWII, and the interchangeable nature of guilt and innocence.A thought provoking, captivating, and relevant film, which dream-like imagery of disillusionment will endure the test of time, and will surely move many viewers
26. Post Tenebras Lux
Dir. Carlos Reygadas
Although it follows the lives of an affluent Mexican family living in the countryside, the film disregards preconceived notions of cinema, and wisely chooses powerful imagery over narrative clarity. Reygadas’ latest is a perfectly created, nightmarish collection of existential concerns. Powerful stuff indeed.
25. Only God Forgives
Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
Hated by many due to its lack of narrative coherence and wrongly compared to Winding Refn and Gosling's previous venture together, the Danish auteur's latest is a hypnotic dance of color, ethereal sounds, gushing blood, depraved sexual innuendo and lots of intriguing commentary about morality. Some will accuse Refn of making a pretentious vehicle to showcase brutality with no substance. Let them, as this is a self-indulgent piece, but there is as much existential debate here as there is gore and style.
24. Fruitvale Station
Dir. Ryan Coogler
Poignant and honest, Coogler's debut feature recounts the last hours in the life of Oscar Grant, a young African American man killed by a policeman in the Bay Area on New Year's Eve 2008. Added to Michale B. Jordan's heartfelt performance, the filmmaker skillfully portrays Grant as normal man never crucifying nor praising him as a hero. His film truly proves the power of images as catalyst for social change.
23. Frances Ha
Dir. Noah Baumbach
Modest in its conception, this Black-and-White study on friendship, purpose, and life itself through the eyes of an aspiring dancer in New York is simply brilliant. Penned by both Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, who also plays the main role fantastically, this is an original and amusing work, which is certain to surprise and captivate audiences.
22. The Wind Rises
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
No one makes animated films like Miyazaki. His latest, and tentatively his last, is a full-blown historical drama set against the backdrop of WWII. It follows Jiro an aircraft designer who has dreams of creating an airplane unlike any other, while also falling in love with an ill young woman he meets during his travels. Gorgeous visuals and the Japanese master's signature mixture of realism and fantasy make for the best animated film of the year.
21. The Hunt
Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
As one of the founding fathers of the cinematic movement known as Dogme 95, Vinterberg has an affinity for thought-provoking stories. His latest work is an unsettling drama about the destructive power of an evil lie on a man’s life. Furthermore, Mads Mikkelsen is outstanding and undoubtedly gives one of the most affecting and unforgettable performances in recent memory.
20. Blue Jasmine
Dir. Woody Allen
Cate Blanchett is completely engrossing in this elegant drama by the veteran New Yorker. As a wealthy woman who loses it all after her husband is taken to prison for fraud, the actress exposes her characters' insecurities in a naturalistic fashion. Going from a radiant, cultured socialite to a broken, unstable woman at the edge of her sanity the actress displays her immeasurable talent helped by the storytelling genius of the auteur.
19. Stoker
Dir. Park Chan-wook
Korean director Park Chan-wook, better known for his gory thriller OldBoy, returns with the story of a dysfunctional family with a morbid secret, which is in turn his first English-language film. Completely surpassing the language barrier, this visionary filmmaker creates a film that is at once perversely beautiful, and disturbingly hypnotic.
18. Prisoners
Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Driven by any parent’s worst nightmare the story is a thriller about the abduction of two young girls,but it plays out like a moral exposé that takes both the characters and viewers into some of the darkest shades of the human psyche.Working from the terrific screenplay by Aaron Guzikowski, director Villeneuve crafts an astonishing film proving that his captivating measure of suspense and brilliant acting didn’t get lost from the art house field to the mainstream.
17. No
Dir. Pablo Larraín
Starring the great Mexican actor Gael García Bernal , Chilean director Pablo Larrain's Oscar-nominated film
is an evocative film that uses a peculiar style to tackle the importance of the media in social change. It is an extremely entertaining work that seamlessly juxtaposes the visual aesthetic of the 80′s with contemporary cinematic language. More significantly, it is the testimony of a nation fighting for a better future against all odds.
16. Nebraska
Dir. Alexander Payne
Continuing with his explorations on the unseen side of the United States, Alexander Payne takes on the Midwest with a charming family tale. Veteran actor Bruce Dern plays a man seeking to cash in on a fictitious prize. His estrange son, played by Will Forte, will join the senile elder in his seemingly pointless journey. Payne knows how to create profound stories out of the mundane. Nebraska is endearing, smart, and full of great performances.
15. To the Wonder
Dir. Terrence Malick
This is a one of a kind experience, more than a narrative film, it's an attempt to translate the irrational qualities of love into cinema. To express the hate, anxiety, fear, and uncontrollable urge for connection experiencd by someone in love. Malick's approach is only comparable to that of a religious leader trying to explain divinity to mortals. Moreover, it is possible to count with the fingers on one hand all other films that will even get close to this in terms of gorgeous imagery – the other films are probably Malick’s too.
14. The Wolf of Wall Street
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Drugs, money, and debauchery permeate the new joined project from Scorsese and DiCaprio. Despite all the excess, acting takes the center stage here. 3 hours of dark comedy and intense commentary on the country's obsession with status and material wealth, are fertile ground for the leading man to show why he is one of the best actors of his generation. Entertaining and completely deranged.
13. Blancanieves
Dir. Pablo Berger
A Black-and-White silent retelling of Snow White set in Spain, the film reignites the true significance of film as a visual medium in its most essential form. Director Pablo Berger not only reinvents a literary classic to make it irreverently Spanish, but he does so using a beautifully original stylistic approach. This is the work of someone whose passion for filmmaking goes beyond the surface, which creates a unique and timeless work of blissful cinematic magic.
12. The Place Beyond the Pines
Dir. Derek Cianfrance
Cianfrance's ambitious and profound film stands out for its great performances and meditative beauty. The director set out to create a piece of monumental, even mythical proportions in every aspect. Having Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling in equally heartbreaking roles makes for one of the most impressive American dramas of this or any other year. Fatherhood is in full view here as the most defining role in a man’s life – to leave a legacy or a curse
11. American Hustle
Dir. David O. Russell
A prodigious con artist meets his demise when he falls in love wit an equally disturbed woman in David O. Russell's sexy and fun 1970s "dramedy". Every cast member is at the top of the game, being Amy Adams the standout performer. Classic filmmaking combined with an audacious and intelligent screenplay bring to life a colorful and uncompromising story about very likeable criminals.
10. Gravity
Dir. Alfonso Cuarón
With its opening sequence Cuaron's space drama throws out any preconceptions of what a Science fiction film could be. Mesmerizing and compelling, the film reassures the power of the medium and provides a breathtaking experience. Sandra Bullock is simply marvelous. She carries the film with nothing but her desperation to survive and the infinite emptiness around her, and that is more than enough. The Mexican director utilized all the technology available to bring to the screen the most powerful, realistic, and unforgettable outer space tale ever made. It's hard to think it could be outdone.
9. Inside Llewyn Davis
Dir. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
The legendary directing duo returns with a musically driven character study of a man who is essentially not very likeable, stubborn, selfish, but undeniably human. Visually ethereal and imbedded with quirkiness and delightful wit, the film is a fascinating homage to folk music via a relatable antihero. Oscar Isaac gives a career propelling performance both acting and singing with admirable truthfulness. Once again the Coens take a chance and venture into something special and evocative, yet authentically their own. This is by far one of the best films of the year, and one of the most memorable works of their career.
8. The Great Beauty
Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
In Paolo Sorrentino's love letter to Rome the amazing vistas, dazzling colors, and Toni Servillo's acting come together to create exuberant moving poetry that revels in the beauty of a city and the memories of a man. This feat for the eyes and the soul is a masterpiece of the higher caliber. Like the great Italian filmmakers of the past, Sorrentino enhances reality with pure beauty and contagious passion.
7. Spring Breakers
Dir. Harmony Korine
Deceiving the viewer by casting a squad of Pop stars as a gang of party-crazed teens, Korine's latest is a completely atmospheric film. The plot is not particularly complex, but the delivery is full of excess. Foggy, dream-like effects over the Girls-gone-wild-influenced scenes give the audience a sense of fragmented reality. Such overpowering and graphic style speaks of what pop culture irradiates today, and why it’s so disturbingly detrimental. As corrosive as the media's antics to alter the way the youth perceives and experiences life, Korine has created an in-your-face cinematic revolt otherwise impossible with a subtler aesthetic. Spring Breakers not only takes a song by Britney Spears and transforms it into an artful musical statement, but it also shows James Franco in his most daring role to date. A definitive piece of filmmaking for this generation.
6. The Act of Killing
Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer
This astonishing documentary is not a political film. It is rather about the failure of a political system in Indonesia. A system that allowed, and even ordered, the execution of more than a million people and which hails the executioners as national heroes who are above the law. Chilling and very hard to watch, yet almost morally unacceptable not to, because the impunity of their atrocities must not remain unknown. On the other hand, the psychological investigation into these characters’ minds makes for the most truthful horror film of them all, in which the real mass murderers are given freedom to reinterpret their heinous acts for the world to see. Unmissable.
5. Short Term 12
Dir. Destin Cretton
Spearheaded by Brie Larson, who delivers one of the best performances of the year, this film about kids in a foster-care facility shows that in filmmaking story overpowers anything else. No embellishment can save a bad idea, and likewise, simplicity can’t diminish great writing. Few films can successfully weave so many stories into a cohesive unit about love and the meaning of family as Cretton's latest. Its blunt depiction of the characters troubles hits like a tender blow that is hard to forget. Teary eyes are allowed, laughter is encouraged, and heart-warmth is inevitable.
4. 12 Years a Slave
Dir. Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen’s magnum opus is the most vivid retelling of a time that is not often discussed, but that lingers in the subconscious like the most stubborn scar in the American collective memory. Needless to say the director elicited miraculous performances from his impeccable ensemble cast, from which Chiwetel Ejiofor stands out giving the best male leading performance of the year. To not watch this film is at once depriving oneself from a masterful work of art, but it is also an irresponsible act against the memory of those stripped of their humanity, many of whom died waiting to know freedom. McQueen is fearless and shows violence never in a gratuitous manner but with the intention to expose the viewer to an experience that serves no one's interest but the Truth. No sugar-coating or artificial euphemisms are in place here, not in language or in imagery. Its entrancingly beautiful cinematography collides with the crude reality of not only racial relations but also horrifying dehumanizing behavior making it the defining film about slavery.
3. Before Midnight
Dir. Richard Linklater
Simply magical. That’s the best way to describe a film like this. Departing from a flawlessly crafted screenplay the two leads and their director set out to create the latest chapter in the most honest series of films about love. Is as if Delpy and Hawke have been born only to play these roles. As if for the past 18 years they lived as Jesse and Celine continuously just waiting for the next installment. There is not a single false move in Before Midnight, every line of dialogue, gesture and timing is genius, perfectly arranged to seem effortless and for that, all the more effective. The simplicity of its premise and the profound magnitude of its message make it an utter delight. Linklater and his two longtime artistic companions are the authors of one of the greatest trilogies in the history of film, and the only one that is undeniably riveting relying only on two superbly memorable characters.
2. Blue is the Warmest Color
Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche
The Franco-Algerian director’s latest film could be described as one of intimate ambition. It follows its characters for over a decade expanding 179 minutes of evocative imagery, which flies by on the screen with incredible fluidity, never giving the audience any indication of its length. Instead, the incarnations -- since such great takes mustn’t simply be called performances -- by the two leading actresses are so tremendously captivating that it is impossible to look away or not to be submerged into their passionate relationship. Blue is undoubtedly the work of an auteur. Even after all the scandalous accusations and discomfort towards the film, there is no denying this is a riveting piece of filmmaking. Every move and every touch is carefully planned to create a realistic yet dreamy account of two women who are consumed by ravaging love, who suffer through it, and who survive it. No one in cinema has ever gotten closer to conveying the mix of torturous anguish and insane joy of what it means to be in love as have Kechiche and his fearless protagonists.
1. The Past
Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Comparing the Academy Award-winning A Separation to Asghar Farhadi’s French-language film The Past, his first film outside of his native Iran, is like comparing two equally beautiful diamonds cut differently by the same master jeweler. The only reasonable way to put them on the same ground is to note the masterful caliber of storytelling achieved once again by the Iranian auteur. It is hard to think of any other working writer/director that has such a perfectly calibrated talent for creating tension out seemingly ordinary circumstances. Days after watching his latest work, its powerful themes and even more riveting mystery still linger refusing to be forgotten. Continuing with his fervent interest in failed relationships Farhadi proves that in his stories, just like many times in life, the end is actually only the beginning.
He crafted a story about the past entirely told in the present. Refusing to use flashbacks or to fully reveal the events that lead to what unfolds on screen, his drama reaches higher stakes as the characters faults are revealed one by one in an inconspicuous manner. Plagued with red herrings and half-truths there is no clear villain or unquestionable motivation. Written with full knowledge and command of the human condition, the director has scored another masterpiece of grand emotional value and keeps on pushing the boundaries of storytelling. His subjects are never left unaccountable for their actions or free of consequences, yet, for all the terrible outcomes of their past mistakes Farhadi offers them a new redemptive chance. He allows them to forgive, but not to forget. Definitely this writer's absolute favorite film of the year.
- 1/1/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Reportedly, Post Tenebras Lux was met with a hail of boos by critics and audience members alike upon its premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, yet the Mexican director Carlos Reygadas was (to many, astonishingly) awarded the Director’s Prize by the Nanni Moretti headed jury. In hindsight, the split response is completely reasonable. Thanks to its surreal impulses and confusingly detached editing, the film might appear anything but a straightforward narrative. On its first watch, it may seem to be little more than a mish-mash of bleak ideology and half baked ideas, but Reygadas’ most personal work to date rewards with multiple viewings. With disjointed multiple timelines and ambiguously shifting character perspectives, Post Tenebras Lux weaves an austere narrative around the crumbling of family life in rural Mexico while dropping in autobiographical c(l)ues of Reygadas’ own upbringing in often breathtakingly beautiful moments of serene cinema.
If anything...
If anything...
- 12/31/2013
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
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