9th Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema

Three years on from the widely publicized administrative coup that saw former festival director Eduardo “Quintin” Antin replaced by Fernando Martin Peña, the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema remains alive and well, as even a cursory glance at the mammoth, 500-page catalogue quickly proves. As usual, this year’s selection was a treasure-trove of rarities (Carl Dreyer’s Master of the House, Budd Boetticher’s Decision at Sundown), retrospectives (including D.A. Pennebaker, Luc Moullet, Hugo Fregonese and the American avant-garde filmmakers Jem Cohen, Sadie Benning and Betzy Bromberg), special “focuses” on emerging directors (including Malaysia’s Ho Yuhang and Filipino wunderkind Raya Martin) and no less than five official competitive sections for new short and feature-length films from Argentina and from around the world. It was also a year that saw three generations of BAFICI directors reunited, with Quintin on hand as a festival blogger and founding director Andrés Di Tella on hand to present his new documentary, Photographs (Fotografías), which screened in the festival’s official Argentinean competition. (Scott Foundas)

The FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to the Cuban-French documentary The Sugar Curtain (El telón de azúcar) by Camila Guzmán Urzúa.

Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema:
www.bafici.gov.ar/es/home