09/11/2023 - Co-productions between the two continents, such as Almamula, Upon Open Sky and The Buriti Flower, will be duking it out for the Golden Columbus at the festival from 10-18 November

The 49th edition of the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival will have 12 features on offer – besides a flurry of short films – which will be competing for the Golden Columbus in the Official Section, and which audiences will be able to enjoy from 10-18 November. The section is rounded off by another two movies showing out of competition and provides a representative snapshot of the current Ibero-American film landscape.

Standing out in this competitive line-up are three co-productions between the Old and the New Worlds: Almamula [+see also:
trailer
interview: Juan Sebastián Torales
film profile] by Juan Sebastián Torales (France/Argentina/Italy), selected in the Generation section of the Berlinale; Upon Open Sky [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Mexico/Spain) by siblings Mariana and Santiago Arriaga, presented in the Orizzonti section of Venice; and The Buriti Flower [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Salaviza and Renée Nad…
film profile], co-directed by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora (Portugal/Brazil), which unspooled in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, where it took home the Ensemble Prize.

Also set to be screened in this strand at Huelva are Power Alley [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lillah Halla
film profile] by Lillah Halla (Brazil/Uruguay/France), the winner of the FIPRESCI Award in the Cannes Critics’ Week and also victorious at Biarritz; Adolfo by Sofía Auza (Mexico/USA), winner of the Crystal Bear at the Berlinale; Boca Chica by Gabriella A Moses (Dominican Republic), rewarded at the Tribeca Film Festival; and Valentina or the Serenity by Ángeles Cruz (Mexico), selected for Toronto.

The official competition section is topped off by The Rescue: The Weight of the World by Daniela Goggi (Argentina/USA), selected within Orizzonti Extra at Venice; Prison in the Andes by Chilean playwright and filmmaker Felipe Carmona (a co-production between his home country and Brazil), which was presented at the BFI London Film Festival as well as at San Sebastián; Chronicles of a Wandering Saint by Tomás Gómez Bustillo (Argentina), which scooped the Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award at SXSW in Austin; La Suprema by Colombia’s Felipe Holguín; and Presencias by seasoned Mexican helmer Luis Mandoki.

The section comprises two more, out-of-competition features: Blondi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dolores Fonzi
film profile], directed by its lead actress, Dolores Fonzi, which took part in the Horizontes Latinos section of the most recent San Sebastián; and the documentary The Eternal Memory, which was awarded the Jury Prize at Sundance and was directed by Chile’s Maite Alberdi (The Mole Agent [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maite Alberdi
film profile]).

Furthermore, the 49th Huelva Film Festival will set up a space to train industry players, organising a number of master classes on various topics: on Saturday 11 November, two of these have been scheduled by the AISGE Foundation with actors Pedro Casablanc and Natalia de Molina, the winner of the Luz Award at this 49th edition, which will be moderated by the latter’s sister, Celia de Molina. Also, on Sunday 12th, a master class entitled “Sustainable Shoots” will be imparted by Montse Ogalla, while another one on “Financing and Production” will come courtesy of Belén Pérez Porras and Odile Antonio Báez.

Standing out among the meetings and encounters at the festival are the professional conference dedicated to Huelva-based producers, which will unfold on Tuesday 14th, and another one on the promotion and circulation of Spanish and Latin American films, which will see the involvement of Alba Díaz (co-director of Toulouse’s Cinespaña Festival), Estrella Araiza (director of the Guadalajara International Film Festival) and Wolfgang Martin Hamdorf, a German film critic.

The festival’s full line-up is available here.

(Translated from Spanish)