Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016

Top 10 Cinema Festivals in Latin America

Jonathan Blum

In the last years, Latin American cinema has experienced a golden age in international festivals throughout the world, it has been prominent and it has received accolades and awards.”[1]; Cinema festivals are commonplace in Europe and the US; but are we familiar with Latin America’s cinema festivals?

There is a wide variety of Latin American festivals taking place all year long, in the continent’s most representative cities.

The following is the Top 10 of the most important and representative festivals in Latin America, some are still open to participate. Who’s interested?

1. Festival Internacional de Cine Documental de Buenos Aires (FIDBA)– The first international festival dedicated to documentary films in Argentina.  Date:  July 25th to August 4th.

2. Festival de Cine de Lima PUCP-Peru. Its purpose is to showcase the best in Latin American and world cinema. It celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2016. It is organized by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Peru.   Date: August 5th – 13th.

3. Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine (SANFIC)-It is a cinematographic, cultural, artistic, industrial and learning platform. An event that symbolizes the city and the country. This. Date: August 23rd to 28th.

4. Festival de Cine Verde de Barichara (Festiver)- It seeks to generate environmental awareness and to take care of natural resources using cinema and audiovisual media as a tool.Date: September 21st to 25th.

5. Festival de Cine de Bogota– Colombia. This festival is the most important cinematographic event of the city. In 2016 it will celebrate its 33rd uninterrupted year Date: October 18th to 26th.

6. Festival Internacional Pachamama Cinema de Fronteira– Brazil.This festival has multiple objectives, which include contributing with the elimination of the gap between non-commercial cinematographic works and the audience (created by the traditional film industry), and creating and motivating exhibition platforms in regions that are away from the traditional distribution and exhibition circuit. Date: November 19th to 26th.

7. Festival de Cortos de Bogota BOGOSHORTS-Colombia.Back in 2013, In Vitro Visual, one of the most successful alternative cinematographic exhibition projects in Colombia came to an end, but it paved the way for Festival de Cortos de Bogota, BOGOSHORTS; which continued the shared objective of creating a movement around short film as a vital expression of cinematography.  Date: December 6th to 13th.

8. Festival Internacional Del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano– Cuba. This festival disseminates cinematographic works that contribute to enrich and reaffirm Latin American and Caribbean cultural identity. The movies that participate are a wide and representative sample of contemporary cinema from around the world. Date: December 8th to 18th.

9.Festival Internacional de cine de Cartagena (FICCI)– Colombia. FICCI celebrates its 56th edition , it promotes the production and filming of Latin American and Ibero American movies, highlighting the work conducted by producers, directors, actors, actresses and members of the industry throughout the region. Date: March 1st to 6th, 2017.

10. Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente(BAFICI)-Argentina. The largest and most prestigious event for independent cinema in Latin America.  This festival is organized by The Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires, and it takes place every year in April. This year marked its 16th edition. Date: April 2017.

I leave you with a quote from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, famous writer and Nobel Laureate:

“Our final objective is to integrate Latin American cinema. As simple as that, and as out of proportion as that”.