Festivals

The 69th Cannes Film Festival kicked off  with Woody Allen’s Café Society which has its morning press screening in advance of the evening gala and the customary glitz of the montée des marches. The 80 year-old director, a festival favorite, climbed the red-carpeted steps of the Palais du Cinema along with his cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kirsten Stewart, Blake Lively and Corey Stoll (Steve Carell and Parker Posey also play in the film but did not make the trip to the Croisette).

When 69th Cannes International Film Festival opens tomorrow with the gala premiere of Woody Allen’s latest, the period comedy Café Society, it will follow closely a tradition that began with its very first edition: its deep connection with the world at large, beyond the Croisette and beyond cinema itself. In 1946, when the project of an international film festival, proposed 15 years earlier by France's Minister of National Education, finally came into being, Cannes emerged from the shadows of the Second World War, offering art as succor for a deeply wounded world.

Dos producciones españolas, el largometraje Psiconautas, los niños olvidados de Pedro Rivero y Alberto Vázquez, y el cortometraje Alike, de Daniel Martínez Lara y Rafa Cano Méndez, consiguieron sendos premios en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Animación de Stuttgart (Alemania). El primero consiguió el premio al mejor largometraje, el llamado Tricksy con la forma de un caballito juguetón, mientras que el segundo obtuvo el premio Tricks for Kids, escogido por y para niños al mejor cortometraje.

It is “magico” said one of the organizers. And that may be the most apt description for the Film Festival in La Paz and Todos Santos in Baja California, Mexico.

A generous selection of 20 titles (against last year’s 19 and 2014’s 18) with a mix of festival perennials, first-timers and exciting segues by recent buzz-worthy filmmakers sets the tone for this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.  The announcement of the 2016 edition of the event – its 69th- was made this morning in Paris by festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux and festival president Pierre Lescure.

They’re nine intense days during which film, music, and even food take over a hotel and cinema complex located in one Prague’s busiest areas.   Everything comes together on the vast red carpet positioned right in front of the doors of the CineStar Andel, where both local and international stars will pass nightly as they travel to their designated premiere or event.

“This film festival is my baby,” says Tiina Lokk, director and founder of the Tallinn Black Nights International Film Festival (POFF). 2016 year marks the 20thanniversary since its inception, and since 2014 it stands alongside such established and prestigious 'A' status festivals as Venice, Berlin and Cannes.

With a keynote q&a with President Obama and the usual dizzying array of offerings in its multiple film/ TV, music and new/interactive media sections, the 29th edition of the South By Southwest festival launches this Friday, March 11, in Austin, Texas. With a massive lineup that includes 89 world premieres in the film section, this year’s SXSW will run until March 20.

En el marco de la 66 Edición del Festival Internacional de Cine de Berlín (Berlinale), el pasado martes, 16 de febrero, el Instituto Cervantes de Berlín, el Instituto Iberoamericano de Berlín y la Unidad Técnica del Programa Ibermedia organizaron una serie de eventos en la capital alemana, con el propósito de celebrar la alta participación de películas iberoamericanas en el Festival, explorar la percepción que tienen los propios cineastas y productores de la industria regional y debatir sobre como traspasar las fronteras nacionales y dar el salto a la distribución internacional ante la exuberancia y pluralidad de miradas del cine iberoamericano. Un debate que invitaba a reflexionar sobre si es la profusión de representaciones e imágenes lo que complica su acceso al mercado y sobre como hacer que las plataformas cinematográficas sirvan para dar mayor visibilidad al fértil cine iberoamericano.