Ver Cine Colombiano: Noticias | Proimágenes Colombia

The San Sebastián International Film Festival is the most important film festival of the Spanish speaking countries, as well as one of the longest and most prestigious of Europe. It is one of the few events that is class A accredited by the International Federation of Film Producer Associations along with festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin. This year, its sixty-seventh edition takes place from September 20 to 28, bringing together the international film industry around different projections, conferences, networking events, among others.

Five films make up the Latin Horizons section; a compilation of feature films produced partially or totally in Latin America, directed by Latin filmmakers or that address matters related to Latin communities around the world. All films in this section aim for the Horizons Prize, awarded with 35,000 euros for the director and distributer in Spain. First or second productions, credited to their director, shall also decide the TCM Youth Prize, awarded by a Jury made up of 300 young students between 18 and 28 years old.

Monos, the third feature film of the director Alejandro Landes, is part of the selection for this year. The film tells the story of a group of rebel youths in charge of a hostage and a dairy cow. When their mission is threatened, a trip begins that will place at risk the established order and their fraternity.

The feature film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it obtained the Jury’s Special Award in the International Dramatic Cinema Category, then it received the Audience Prize of the fifty-ninth Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival– FICCI – 2019; the prize for Best Original Music at the twenty-first BAFICI – Buenos Aires International Independent Cinema Festival; the CCAS Fiction Prize at the Toulouse Latin American Cinema Festival – Recontres de Toulouse; Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Actress at the Newport Beach Festival; Best Fiction Feature Film at the Montclair Film Festival; Best Film at the Transylvania Film Festival; and the Blue Angel prize at the Slovakia Art Film Fest. In addition, the film was part of the Panorama Section of the sixty-ninth Berlin Festival, the opening film at the Imagine Film Festival, Holland, and at the Curacao International Film Festival and, most recently, at the IndieBo Festival, The Santiago International Film Festival, SANFIC, the Lima Film Festival, the Odesa International Film Festival where it won the award for Best Director, amongst other participations.

La bronca is the third feature film from the brothers Daniel and Diego Vega, winners of the Jury’s Award Un Certain Regard with their début feature Octubre. The story takes place in the year 1992, a year of political disorder in Peru, when a young Peruvian travels to Canada to see his father after a long time. The film portrays an upper middle-class family living in a bubble and the domestic and collective wounds left by recent Peruvian history. The film was produced by Canadian Nicolas Comeau from 1976 Productions (La voz en off), Colombian Daniel García from Día Fragma Fábrica de Películas (Niña Errante), the Peruvian Miguel Valladares of Tondero Films and the Vega’s own producer, Maretazo Cine.

Films in Progress is a professional initiative that holds the San Sebastián Festival, Cinélatino and Recontres de Toulouse in order to promote Latin American cinema. Created in 2002, the biannual meeting has become a platform of international projection of new talents and a reference point for the audiovisual industry. The films selected by a committee of experts are screened before an international group of industry professionals able to contribute to the postproduction of the same. At the thirty-sixth edition of Films in Progress the following were selected: Las Vacaciones de Hilda by Agustín Banchero (Uruguay – Brazil), Madalena by Madiano Marcheti (Brazil), Nudo Mixteco by Ángeles Cruz (México), Os caminhos do me pa by Mauricio Osaki (Brazil – Poland), Sin señas particulares) by Fernanda Valadez (Mexico) and El árbol rojo by Joan Gómez (Colombia – Panama – France).

El árbol rojo, Joan Gómez’s debut feature, produced by the Colombian company, Big-Sur Películas, in coproduction with Viso Producciones (Colombia), Mass Media Communications (Panama), and In Vivo Films (France). The feature film has won the Ibermedia Incentive for Coproduction for Ibero-American Films and the Ibermedia Incentive for Projects in Progress. In addition, it has been in the selection of the International Meeting of Producers of the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival – FICCI- the Producers Workshop Premium of the Marche du Film of the Canes Film Festival, the SØRFOND Pitching Forum in Norway, the Rotterdam Lab-Cinemart of the International Rotterdam Festival, the Screenwriting Laboratory of Oaxaca in México, the Unedited Script competition of the La Habana Latin American International New Cinema Festival, The Bogotá Audiovidual Market – BAM, the Produier au Sud workshop of the Nantes 3 Continentes Festival and the Writers Fund of the Amiens International Cinema Festival, France, amongst others.