From Cuba to New York
Catalan cinema tops off a year of maximum international projection
02/12/2011
The final stretch of 2011 has two important dates in store for the Catalan film industry: the International Festival of New Latin-American Cinema in Havana, Cuba, and the prestigious Spanish Cinema Now Festival, hosted by the Lincoln Center of New York.
In both cases, Catalan cinema has made its way to centre stage. The Cuban event, which will be held 1st - 11th December, has selected Días con Matilde by Teresa Arredondo - which was born out of the UAB's M.A. programme in Creative Documentary - to take part in the official short documentary competition. Also competing, yet in the Operas Primas section, is Girimunho, an Eddie Saeta production that premiered in the Orizzonti section at the last Venice Film Festival.
Alongside these two titles are another eight films that will be participating in the Spanish Cinema section, an assorted selection of genres ranging from auteur cinema including Pa negre / Black Bread, Mil cretins / A Thousand Fool, Amador and Blog, to comedy, as embodied by ¿Para qué sirve un oso? / What‘s a Bear Good For?.
Meanwhile, the last two days of the Cuban festival will be marking the start of Spanish Cinema Now, which will be running from 9th to 22nd December. This year, the festival's artistic director Richard Peña has put together an extremely tight schedule featuring the following Catalan titles: Los pasos dobles / The Double Steps by Isaki Lacuesta, which walked off with the Golden Shell at the recent San Sebastian Film Festival; Las Olas / The Waves, directed by Alberto Morais and honoured as the Best Feature Film at the Moscow Festival; Jaume Balagueró's Mientras duermes / Sleep Tight, which recently premiered in Sitges; and Barcelona abans que el temps ho esborri / Barcelona Socialites, a documentary directed by Mireia Ros that has been playing in Barcelona theatres for nine straight months.
The Lincoln Center, the official headquarters of Spanish Cinema Now, has also scheduled a special screening of Agustí Villaronga's Pa negre / Black Bread, a film that continues in its pursuit of an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film. Catalan Films & TV and the Ramon Llull Institute have joined forces with this event to ensure the maximum participation of the cast and crew of the selected films.
More Catalan cinema in New York
The Lincoln Center will moreover be the backdrop of the international conference titled (S) Movies: Spanish Cinema Now (from 12th to 17th December), hosted by the Film Society and the University of Valencia, with the cooperation of the Ramon Llull Institute. This event, held in commemoration of the twenty-year anniversary of the Spanish Cinema Now Film Series, will be featuring lectures on cinema by Agustí Villaronga, Isabel Coixet and Albert Serra, as well as the participation of filmmakers such as Pere Portabella, José Luis Guerín, Isaki Lacuesta and Lluís Miñarro.
