7th Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival

A wonderful festival in a miraculous city. You never know whether to enjoy the city and to miss films or to see films and to miss the city. (At least you can enjoy the parties at night in a tent at the Copacabana beach.) Films are not so much shown as celebrated: it’s a joyful experience to see how enthusiastic the public reacts to Brazilian films shown in the central festival cinema, the downtown Odeon. Fest director Ilda Santiago managed to make the festival the first place to premiere Brazilian features and docs. And then there’s “the rest”, over 400 films altogether, finding an open-minded young public — the panorama of world cinema or, in particular, the series of Latin American films. Rio: a feast for the cinema.

Also, a place for discussions. FIPRESCI and the Festival invited to a well attended conference on documentary films (with Miguel Littin, José Padilho, Joel Pizzini and Joao Luiz Vieira). And we launched a new prize, for the best Latin American film of the year, to be — from 2006 onward — decided by the critics of the continent, and presented at the Rio Festival, for the first time at next year’s edition. At the presentation of this new prize, Fernando Solanas, the legendary Argentinean filmmaker, received our lifetime achievement award. (k.e.)