Chile’s Growing Film Festival Scene: SANFIC Announces Lineup
The thirteenth edition of Santiago International Film Festival, SANFIC (August 20–27, 2017), the largest film festival in Chile, will present more than 100 international and Chilean films, including productions shown and awarded in festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Venice. Among the feature films will be 7 world and 14 Latin American premieres.
SANFIC (Santiago International Film Festival) is opening the festival to international press this year with Variety Dailies and important international guests for their SANFIC Industry section. Guest attending include Kim Yutani (Sundance programmer), Javier Martin (Berlinale delegate), Molly O ́Keefe (Tribeca Film Institute — fiction features) and Estrella Araiza (Industry director of Guadalajara IFF), to name a few. Matt Dillon is its special guest along with the renowned director of photography Rainer Klausmann.
The opening film of the festival will be the most recent film of Argentine director Santiago Mitre The Summit/ La Cordillera (2017), which world-premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.
The entire program will include the opening ceremony, special guests, complimentary family screenings, industry section and the exhibition of nearly 100 international and national productions — including both feature and short films to be screened at CineHoyts, — official festival venue since its inception — in two locations of Parque Arauco and La Reina, with additional screenings at CorpArtes Foundation, National Cinematheque and Radicales Cinema.
Retrospectives and special guests
On the occasion the festival announces the renowned American actor and director Matt Dillon as a special guest of SANFIC 13, an Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG and Donostia Award Nominee, who has worked with well-known directors, such as Francis Ford Coppola, Arthur Penn, Cameron Crowe, Anthony Minghella and Gus Van Sant, to name a few; And among his most prominent performances are films such as Rumble Fish (1983), Drugstore Cowboy (1995), To Die For (1995), with Nicole Kidman, There’s Something About Mary (1998), Wild Things (1998), The City of Ghosts (2002, a film that he wrote, directed and starred in) and Crash (2006). This year he appeared in the comedy Going in Style, alongside Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Christopher Lloyd, among others and in the soon-to-premiere latest film from Lars Von Trier The House That Jack Built, featuring also Riley Keough, Uma Thurman and Bruno Ganz. During his visit, SANFIC13 will present a retrospective of well-known titles of his filmography and also a master class: Space CA — SANFIC, in which the actor will talk about his cinematographic career.
Another previous announcement is the visit of renowned director of photography Rainer Klausmann, who will be part of the International Competition jury; This outstanding professional has worked alongside renowned filmmakers such as Werner Herzog and Fatih Akin. Rainer Klausmann will present Akin’s latest feature film, In the Fade that premiered and was awarded this year at the Cannes Film Festival. In addition SANFIC13 will show a retrospective of Klausmann’s most praised collaborations, including Fitzcarraldo, Downfall, The Dark Glow of the Mountains, Lessons of Darkness, Head-On, The Edge of Heaven and Soul Kitchen.
Competition sections and juries
As is tradition, SANFIC13 will have two feature film competitions — International Competition and Competition of Chilean Cinema, as well as the National Talent Short Film Competition.
The International Competition features nine titles: Autumn, Autumn (South Korea) by Jang Woo-jin; The Family (Venezuela-Chile-Norway) by Gustavo Rondón Córdova; The Desert Bride (Argentina-Chile) by Valeria Pivato and Cecilia Atan; The territories (Argentina-Brazil) by Ivan Granovsky; Makala (France) by Emmanuel Gras; In the intense now (Brazil) by João Moreira Salles; Porto (Portugal-United States-France-Poland) by Gabe Klinger, Ressurecting Hassan (Chile-Canada) by Carlo Guillermo Proto; Summer 1993 (Spain) by Carla Simón. The jury will be composed of Rainer Klausmann (Germany), Nathalia Videla (Argentina), founder of Magma Cine, and the film, theater and TV actress Aline Kuppenheim (Chile).
The Chilean Film Competition will present eight feature films, including four world premieres and four national premieres. World premieres: the documentaries In Transit (Constanza Gallardo Vásquez, Jaar), The Lament for Images (Paula Rodriguez Sickert), Stealing Rodin (Cristóbal Valenzuela) and the fiction Frog (Juan Pablo Ternicier). The national premieres participating in this competition are: The color of the chameleon (Andrés Lübbert), The mother, the Son and the Grandmother (Benjamín Brunet), My Father’s Memory (Rodrigo Bacigalupe Lazo) and Kingdoms (Pelayo Lira). The jury will include Francisca Gavilán, Chilean film, theater and TV actress, Iván Trujillo, Mexican director of the Guadalajara Film Festival, and Víctor Gaviria, Colombian film director, screenwriter, poet and writer.
The National Talent Short Film Competition includes 21 shorts: A tres asaltos (Raúl Pinto), Après la Nage (Jonathan Alvan Prado), Bilateral (Andrea Castillo), De Toro (Zacarías Iglesias Santi), El Amor (Nicolás Guzmán), El camino de los perros (Sebastián Cuevas), Ana’s dream (José Luis Torres Leiva), Shadowboxing (Iara Acuña), Here’s the Plan (Fernanda Frick), El Hombre (Juan Pablo Arias Muñoz), Hombre eléctrico (Alvaro Muñoz), Home (Nicolás Acuña), Il Discobolo (Diego Escobar), La Duda (Juan Cáceres), La rima de la última fila (Claudio Figueroa), Lecciones de vuelo (Patricio Pino), Máquina (Tomás Samael), Newentün (Tomás González), Premonition (Leticia Akel Escárate), Problemas con el sonido (Bernardo Quesney), I’m still here (Tana Gilbert). The judges for this competition are: Carla Simón (Spain), film director and writer Maike Mia Höhne (Germany), curator of the Berlinale Shorts section, and film and TV director Oscar Godoy (Chile).
SANFIC Industry
The new edition of SANFIC INDUSTRY will be held between August 21 and 25, continuing to develop and strengthen relationships that began five years ago, with activities that allow networking between various film industry professionals, Including directors, producers, distributors, sales agents, programmers of national and international festivals and representatives of film funds, among others.
This sixth version, made possible thanks to the co-financing of the Program for support of the International Encounters in Chile 2016–2017, of the Audiovisual Promotion Fund, has important strategic alliances at national and international level, working this year with the Fundación SGAE (General Society of Authors and Editors of Spain) and its Crossing Frontiers program, through which Santiago Lab for the first time opened its call to Latin America. To this are added also institutions such as the Direction of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile (DIRAC), the Chilean Film Commission (FCCh), Tribeca Film Institute, Sundance Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival Industry, DocsMX, Chemistry Cinema, Blood Window, Embassy of Argentina in Chile, LatamCinema, among others.
The main activities of SANFIC INDUSTRY are: Work in Progress Latam, Santiago Lab, SANFIC NET and Kinêma Award presented by the Chilean Film Commission.
Non-competition sections
The new initiative SANFIC Educates, which brings Oscar and festival awarded films to young audiences will joins sections SANFIC Family, Masters of Cinema, Visions of the World, Spanish Focus and Shoot the Shooter, the latest including works by artist Yoko Ono.
Films for the entire family
SANFIC Family — SANFIC Educates, a program organized by CorpArtes, will bring films from countries such as Germany, Austria, France and Norway for children and young viewers. SANFIC Educates, a program that debutes in the festival, will be presented between August 22nd and 25th, while SANFIC Family will be held between the 21st and 27th of the same month. There is a total of six films to be exhibited in both categories: The Red Turtle, My Life As a Zucchini, At Eye Level, Phantom Boy and Kick It! In addition, this new initiative of CorpArtes will offer activities for children and teens through art, educational and creative workshops.
In SANFIC 13 we will also enjoy the non-competition section Visions of the World with its several subsections. Visions of the World / Documentary, which features 76 minutes and 15 seconds with Abbas Kiarostami (Iran) directed by Seifollah Samadian, Havarie (Germany) directed by Philip Scheffner, Cheques Matta (Chile) directed by Leo Contreras Barahona, Chavela (United States –Mexico-Spain) directed by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi and The Orchid Seller (Venezuela-Mexico) by Lorenzo Vigas. Then Visions of the World / Drama will feature A House Without Roof (Germany — Switzerland), directed by Soleen Yusef, The Winter (Argentina — Chile) by Emiliano Torres, starring the outstanding Chilean actor, director and playwright Alejandro Sieveking, The Night Watch (Mexico) by Diego Ross, Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (Germany — France — Austria) by Maria Schrader, and Everything Else (Mexico) by director Natalia Almada. Visions of the World / Nuances of Humor is composed of Kissing? (Greece) by Yannis Korres, People That Are Not Me (Israel) by Hadas Ben Aroya and Stanley a Man of Variety (England) directed by Stephen Cookson and where renowned actor Timothy Spall plays 16 different characters. And lastly, Visions of the World / Pure Suspense, which includes Generation Wolf (Canada) directed by Christian de la Cortina, with the Chilean actor Sergio Hernández, and La posesión de Altair (Mexico) by Victor Dreyre and Benavidez’s Case (Argentina) by Laura Casabé.
One of the most awaited sections of SANFIC by cinephiles in each edition is Masters of Cinema, a section which premieres in Chile the latest works of renowned filmmakers, several of them awarded by major international film festivals, counting this year the presence of five of the most praised and talked about films in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival. In this section will be presented: The Other Side of Hope (Finland) by Aki Kaurismäki, The Beguiled (United States) by Sofia Coppola, The Salesman (France — Iran) by Asghar Farhadi, Good Time (USA) by Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie, Graduation (France — Romania — Belgium) by Cristian Mungiu; I Am Not Your Negro (United States) by Raoul Peck, In the Fade (Germany) by Fatih Akin, The Animal’s Wife (Colombia) by Víctor Gaviría, The Untamed (Mexico) by Amat Escalante, Paradise (Russia) by Andréi Konchalovski, Personal Shopper (France) by Olivier Assayas, Take Me Home (Iran) by Abbas Kiarostami; The Day After (South Korea), by Hong Sangsoo, the winner of the Palm D’Or this year in Cannes, The Square (Sweden — Germany — France — Denmark) by Ruben Östlund, and lastly A Quiet Passion (England) by Terence Davies.
Special Screenings present Amereida (Chile) by Javier Correa, Doomed Love: A Journey Through German Genre Films (Germany) by Dominik Graf and Johannes F. Sievert, the previously mentioned The Summit (Argentina — Chile) by Santiago Mitre, a documentary Nada pertenece a la memoria (Chile) by José Luis Torres Leiva featuring Chile’s iconic cinematographer Pedro Chaskel, and To Be a Teacher (Germany) by Jakob Schmidt.
Thanks to the aforementioned alliance with the SGAE Foundation, the festival will present a thematic showcase Spanish Focus featuring recent Hispanic films, with several Goya Award nominees and contenders: Pedro Aguilera’s Sister Of Mine, The Olive Tree by Icíar Bollaín, In the Same Boat by Rudy Gnutti, The Next Skin by Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo, and The Open Door by Marina Seresesky. In addition, thanks to the collaboration of the Cultural Center of Spain, this focus will also include a world cinematography classic: Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel.
And finally, SANFIC13 will present the Shoot the Shooter section, which will feature audiovisual works by renowned international artist Yoko Ono, framed within the exhibition Yoko Ono: Dream Come True, which is held at CorpArtes until October 22. Industry section (which in past supported projects such as Sebastian Lelio’s Gloria etc) and a retrospective of Matt Dillon, who will be our VIP guest. We will also host a retrospective of Rainer Klausmann (DOP of Werner Herzog & Fatih Akin), who will also present In the Fade; and La cordillera (Argentina), by Santiago Mitre (also attending), as the opening film of SANFIC 2017.
