20th Toulouse Rencontres des Cinémas d'Amérique Latine

The real name of this festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is “encounters”. And it is the perfect name, since the “Rencontres Cinémas d’Amérique Latine”, in the southern-French city of Toulouse, is a true meeting point in all senses. Filmmakers, actors, festival directors, critics and people from all areas of the industry, as well as the amazing crew of over 300 enthusiastic volunteers that hold the festival together, all gather and socialize in a most friendly atmosphere.

This year’s anniversary allowed the festival to show not only recent productions from the continent in the feature fiction, documentary and short-film programs, but also to rediscover some of the titles that marked these past two decades.

Within the Rencontres, the 13th edition of “Cinéma en Construction”, the initiative that helps Latin American projects make their way through post-production, was another true “encounter”, where six projects (three from Chile, and the others from Mexico, Argentina and Brazil), chosen out of 101 submissions, were presented to a professional audience. During these two full-day work-sessions, the third edition of “Cinéma en Développement” allowed 14 other projects, still in a very early phase, to be pitched before the same audience who would later provide both feedback and possible partners.

The FIPRESCI jury, coming from Poland, Argentina and Chile, concentrated on the first-features section “Compétition Découvertes” and on the debuts included in “Coup de Coeur”. Our choice went to Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdena’s outstanding work Cochochi, which also won the festival’s official award. (Pamela Biénzobas)