Fotograma de la película brasileña They’ll Come Back. Film still from the Brazilian movie “They’ll Come Back.” Photo Courtesy San Francisco Film Society

The biggest and longest running film festival of the nearly 80 that take place in San Francisco each year will begin April 25.

Organized by the SF Film Society, The 56th edition of the International Film Festival of San Francisco will showcase over 150 films.

Four of the ten films selected to compete in the category of “New Directors Prize” (for a first or second feature film) were done by Latino directors.

The strong presence of Latin films represents the high quality of film production Latin America is currently enjoying.

In the category “Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary,” Mexican filmmaker Pedro Gonzalez Rubio, who won the “New Director Prize” three years ago with his film “Alamar,” stands out. This time, Gonzalez Rubio will present “Inori,” a film that was shot and produced in Japan.

Also in the documentary category, the Spanish film “The Search for Emak Bakia” will be exhibited. Shot by the Basque director Oskar Alegría, it explores the legendary Man Ray’s avant-garde film.

Out of competition, films and shorts from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Portugal will also be shown. The presence of films from Chile, where there has been an explosion of good movies similar to that of Argentina in the ‘90s, deserves particular mention.

There will be two weeks of film in abundance to satisfy the feed the cinephile hunger of our cosmopolitan city.

—Translation Chris Alias

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Film still from the Brazilian movie “They’ll Come Back.” Photo Courtesy San Francisco Film Society

 

Latino interest films
2013 SF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

NEW DIRECTORS PRIZE OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
(NARRATIVE FEATURES)
“The Cleaner” (Adrián Saba, Perú)
“Habi, the Foreigner” (María Florencia Álvarez, Argentina/Brasil)
“La Sirga” (William Vega, Colombia/Francia/México)
“They’ll Come Back” (Marcelo Lordello, Brasil)

GOLDEN GATE AWARDS OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
(DOCUMENTARY FEATURES)
“Inori” (Pedro González-Rubio, Japón)
“The Search for Emak Bakia” (Oskar Alegría, España)

OUT OF COMPETITION
“Crystal Fairy” (Sebastián Silva, Chile)
“Il Futuro” (Alicia Scherson, Italia/Alemania/Chile/España)
“Night Across the Street” (Raúl Ruiz, Francia/Chile)
“After Lucía” (Michel Franco, México/Francia)
“Mai Morire” (Enrique Rivero, México)
“The Artist and the Model” (Fernando Trueba, España)
“Chaika” (Miguel Ángel Jiménez Colmenar, España/Georgia/Rusia/Francia)

All films with English subtitles. SF International Film Festival runs April 25–May 9 at theaters in San Francisco and Berkeley. For more information, visit www.sffs.org.