23rd Toulouse Latin American Film Festival

The “Rencontres Cinémas d’Amérique Latine”, founded 23 years ago by a small group of fans of Latin American cinema around the “Cinémathèque de Toulouse”, is one of the most important festivals for South American movies outside of the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. Toulouse, the pleasant and cozy university town in the south-west of France, with its characteristic red bricks and its special open and relaxed atmosphere, is an important meeting point for filmmakers, actors, critics, producers and distributors, and not least for a mainly young audience with an obvious enthusiasm for cinema.

15 feature films were presented in the official competition for the main award “Coup de coeur” (Heartbeat), and the prize was given to Las marimbas del infierno from Guatemala. Seven documentaries competed for the “Le prix Signis du documentaire”, the winner was Impunity from Columbia. Additionally, seven short movies were in competition for the “Courtoujours métrage” award.

It was a strong year for Mexican cinema with young Mexican filmmakers having a strong participation in all sections; while homages to Damián Alcazar and Gabino Rodriguez, and retrospectives of Frida Kahlo and “Cinéma Fantastique” (Mexican fatastic cinema), added to the festival’s Mexican focus.

Two days were dedicated to the 19th edition of “Cinéma en Construction”, the “work in progress forum” initiative, with seven projects: two from Argentina, three from Chile and one each one from Brazil and Uruguay. The winner in this section was Bonsai from Chile, directed by Cristian Jimenez

Toulouse Latin American Film Festival: www.cinelatino.com.fr