Latin American Films to Watch Out For at the 76th Cannes Film Festival

This content was published on May 13, 2023 – 10:21

13 mayo 2023 – 10:21

nerea gonzalez

Paris, May 13 (EFE).- The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which will begin next Tuesday, will have the Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz among the candidates for the Palme d’Or and his name leads the Latin American imprint this year in La Croisette, which will also premiere films from Mexico, Argentina and Chile.

Born in the city of Fortaleza and of Algerian descent, Aïnouz will present “Firebrand”, a historical drama about Catherine Parr -the sixth and last wife of the King of England, Henry VIII- whose cast includes Alicia Vikander and Jude Law as the couple real.

The Brazilian director, who already won the Un Certain Regard award in 2019 for “The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão”, will not have it easy, as he will compete with around twenty films including heavyweights such as Wes Anderson, Aki Kaurismäki, Ken Loach or Nanni Moretti.

Their chances of victory will be decided by a jury headed by the Swedish and double winner of the festival Ruben Östlund, and which also includes the Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifron.

Another Brazilian returning to Cannes this year is Kleber Mendonça Filho, with a documentary, “Ghost Portraits”, in which the director of “Aquarius” (2016) examines his native Recife and the ins and outs of its society.

Also within the official selection but outside the race for the Palme d’Or, the new works by the Argentine Lisandro Alonso, “Eureka”, and the Mexican Amat Escalante, “Lost at night”, will be screened within the Cannes Premiere section.

Alonso’s previous film, “Jauja”, had already participated in the Un Certain Regard section in 2014 and this time he once again has Viggo Mortensen to tell the story of Murphy, a father looking for his daughter.

Set in 1870, “Eureka” is divided into four episodes in different parts of the world and also has French actress Chiara Mastroianni, daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni, in its cast.

Escalante, who already presented “Blood”, “Los Bastardos” and “Heli” on La Croisette, with a directing award for the latter title in 2013, will take a film to Cannes Première with a script by the Mexican director himself, born in Barcelona.

“Lost at Night” tells the story of Emiliano in search of those responsible for the disappearance of his mother, an activist against the large international mining companies in a small Mexican town.

CHILE, ARGENTINA AND A CRY FROM THE AMAZON

The Un Certain Regard section will also have a large Latino participation, with the first feature film by Chilean Felipe Gálvez, “Los Colonos”; with the Chilean-Argentine co-production “Los Delincuentes”, by Rodrigo Moreno, and with a look at the survival of the Amazon in the documentary “Crowra”, by the Portuguese João Salaviza and the Brazilian Renée Nader Messora.

Brazil will also be represented among the feature films selected by Critics’ Week, a parallel section of the festival, with “Levante”, by Lillah Halla.

In the short films, Cannes did not stop looking at Latin America either and selected to compete for the Palme d’Or corresponding to the Franco-Colombian co-production “La Perra”, by Carla Melo Gampert, and the Spanish-Argentinean “Nada de todo esto”, by Patricio Martínez and Francisco Canton.

In the short duration format, Critics’ Week, the Mexican short film “Arkhé” by Armando Navarro was also selected in competition.

In addition, for its 62nd edition, this parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival will once again count -as it has done since 2005- with the Mexican Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) as a guest to present a session of four short films out of competition.

And without being a Latin American production but with a Chilean-born superstar among its protagonists, Pedro Pascal, the new short film by Pedro Almodóvar, “Extraña forma de vida”, will also premiere in Cannes.

In this “gay western” by the Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker, Pascal – who will not be on the red carpet – co-stars with Ethan Hawke in one of the festival’s special sessions. EFE

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