June 11, 2019
>>> The exhibition will be held in Paris and will feature the showcasing of ten major productions that represent part of the best Chilean cinema of the last decade. The directors Sebastián Lelio and Fernando Guzzoni will be presenting the films and conversing with the audience. After this, the “Chilean Film Week” will arrive in Berlin, where it will be accompanied by the director Dominga Sotomayor and the actor Alejandro Goic .
Ten years have passed since the birth of CinemaChile , a public-private entity created by ProChile and the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (APCT ), a period which has been in charge of bringing all the national film and television production beyond borders, representing as a brand the audiovisual industry of our country; the one that has grown by leaps and bounds, getting hundreds of prizes since 2009, selections in class A festivals, as well as financing and applause in international premieres.
All these reasons prompted CinemaChile to create a special anniversary celebration to account for the sustained growth that, particularly, fiction films of our country have had, approaching the international audience for the first time.
Constanza Arena, executive director of CinemaChile tells us about the birth of this initiative: “How did we select the 10 films that represent the best of Chilean cinema of the last 10 years? We decided to invite 10 international programmers, of high prestige and curators responsible for the most important festivals of world class like Berlin, San Sebastian, Sundance, etc., who joyfully accepted choosing these films, voting for one in each of the years of CinemaChile’s life. This is how we came to this great program and now we are very happy to share it with the audience in theaters. Our work has always been on another level: in film markets, in hundreds of meetings, working in formal industry instances, and with professionals from the film and television world. However, we wanted to challenge ourselves and go further: directly to the public, to those people who choose to go to the movies and decide to watch a Chilean movie because they know it will be good “.
This selection of films makes up the “Chilean Cinema Week” which, since last week, is touring Europe. On Sunday it arrived at the Golem cinema in Madrid, with Tando and the presence of Paulina García (“Gloria”) , Daniela Vega (“Una Mujer Fantastica”) , Antonia Zegers (“No”, “El Club”) and Alfredo Castro (“No”, “El Club”), who presented several of the titles and talked with the public after the exhibitions. And this week it will be Paris’ turn at the French Cinematheque, and then we’ll travel to Berlin between June 20 and 23, in the mythical Cine Babylon.
The French Cinematheque will open tomorrow this great show that will be on the bill until Sunday, June 16. Here the presentations will be in charge of the directors Fernando Guzzoni (“Jesus “) and Sebastián Lelio (“Gloria”, “Una Mujer Fantastica”), who will participate in a Q&A session with the attendees after each screening. It should be noted that precisely two programmers of the French Cinematheque, Caroline Maleville and Bernard Payen, were part of the 10 professionals who selected the titles of the “Chilean Film Week”.
The complete program consists of the productions La nana (2009), by Sebastián Silva; Lucia (2010) by Nilles Atallah ; Violeta went to heaven (2011) by Andrés Wood; No (2012), by Pablo Larraín; Gloria(2013), by Sebastián Lelio; Kill a man (2014), by Alejandro Fernández Almendras; The club (2015), by Pablo Larraín; Jesús (2016), by Fernando Guzzoni ; A fantastic woman (2017), by Sebastián Lelio and Too late to die young (2019) by Dominga Sotomayor.
All the films chosen have had an important national and international tour, where they have achieved multiple recognitions, both for the creative/technical and acting team. Among some of the distinctions awarded to these films are:
La Nana was premiered in 2009 at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Grand Jury Prize and a Special Jury Prize for actress Catalina Saavedra. From there, the film won more than twenty international awards, including the Colón de Oro at the Ibero-American Film Festival of Huelva for Best Film, as well as Best Direction and Best Actress. It also received the Critics Award and Best Actress at Festival de Cartagena de Indias, among many others; was nominated for the Ariel Awards and was the first Chilean film nominated for the Golden Globes in the Best Film in Non-English Language category.
The film Lucia, released in 2010, won the FIPRESCI prizes – Special Jury Prize – and the so-called «Discovery Award of the French Criticism» in Toulouse. It also won prizes at the Court-Bouillon festival in France, the first prize for Best International Feature Film at the Animation Festival Baden, Switzerland; the “Grand Prix Wooden Wolf Prize “at the Estonian Tallinn animation festival, among many others.
For its part, the 2011 film Violeta went to heaven received the Best Direction and Best Actress awards at the Huelva Film Festival; the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival and the Audience Award at the Toulouse Festival. In addition, Wood’s film was nominated for the Goya Awards for Best Ibero-American Film.
After its premiere in 2012, the film No, was awarded a Phoenix Prize and a Platinum Award for Best Screenplay; and it marked a milestone in the history of national cinema: in January 2013 it became the first Chilean film to be nominated for Best Foreign Film.
In 2013 the movie Gloria was released, obtaining the Silver Bear for Best Actor given to Paulina García, in addition to Various Platinum Awards, including Best Latin American Film, Best Female Performance, Best Screenplay and Best Direction. Gloria also won Best Ibero-American Film at the Ariel Awards and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Award.
Killing a Man , released in 2014, won the Best Film Award in the World Cinema category of the Sundance Film Festival the same year as its premier, it also won the Grand Prix of Feature Film City of Lisbon, the most important of the IndieLisboa Festival , in Portugal; and the Bigscreen Critics Award at the Rotterdam Festival, among others.
The Club, premiered in the Official Competition of the Berlin Film Festival and received the Silver Bear, Grand Prize of the Jury, in the German contest. It also received the Best Film awards at the Festival of Havana, four awards at the Fénix Awards ceremony; it won Best Screenplay and Best Actor at the Mar del Plata Festival, three other awards at the Chicago Film Festival, four awards at the Ceará Festival, and many others. In addition, El Club became the second Chilean film to be nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Film in Non-English Language.
The feature film Jesus, which premiered in 2016, acquired great recognition after receiving the Best Act at the Torino Festival and also receiving the Best Actor and Best Edition award at FICSUR.
Released in 2017 at the Berlinale, A fantastic woman received its first recognition in the German contest, winning the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and also the Teddy Award. Then, the film won a series of awards at festivals such as San Sebastián, Lima and Havana; and received the awards: Independent Spirit to the Best Foreign Film, the Goya Award for the Best Ibero-American Film, Ariel Award for the Best Ibero-American Film; and Best Ibero-American Fiction Film, Best Direction and Best Filmmaking at the Pla tino Awards . In February 2018, A fantastic woman makes history in the national cinematography by getting an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
In 2018 Too late to die young is released, a film that also marked a milestone for national cinema by winning the Golden Leopard for Best Direction at the Locarno Film Festival, award that for the first time in the history of the contest was awarded to a woman, being received by the Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor. Since then, the film continued to receive multiple awards such as the Best Direction and Best Photography awards at the Gijón Festival (Spain) and the KNF Award at the Rotterdam Festival, awarded by the Circle of Dutch Journalists of Cinema as the best feature film co -produced with the country of the event.