“The Desert Bride” leads feature debuts vying for SANFIC Int’l Prize

PanARMENIAN.Net - “The Desert Bride”, starring the grande dame of Chilean cinema, Paulina Garcia, heads a stellar international competition lineup at Chile’s 13th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (SANFIC), which unspools Aug. 20-27, where first-time filmmakers of both fiction and docu features compete among more established filmmakers, Variety said.

The directorial feature debut of filmmakers Valeria Pivato and Cecilia Atan, the Argentine-Chilean co-production had its world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard this year. Drama centers on the travails and life-changing experience of a long-time maid in Argentina who is forced on a journey across the desert towards new employment.

Also vying for the international competition prize is Venezuelan tyro Gustavo Rondon’s directorial debut “The Family,” which had its world debut in Cannes’ Critics Week. The father-son drama is one of many notable films emerging from Venezuela despite the political and economic crisis roiling the country.

Argentine producer-thesp Ivan Granovsky vies for the big prize with his directorial debut, “The Territories,” a co-production between Brazil and Argentina. Documentary begins in post-Charlie Hebdo attack Paris where Granovsky embarks on a journey to sites of geo-political conflict in a bid to follow in his renowned journalist father’s footsteps. Docu world premiered at the Rotterdam Film Fest early this year.

Brazilian film critic/academic Gabe Klinger’s fiction feature debut, Portuguese-set “Porto,” stars the late Anton Yelchin in one of his last screen performances. Executive produced by Jim Jarmusch, the romantic drama world premiered at San Sebastian before making the rounds of international festivals, including Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, Torino, Guadalajara, South by Southwest and Buenos Aires’ Bafici. Romantic drama follows two strangers, an American and a French student, who have a brief affair.

Spanish newcomer Carla Simon brings her feature-length debut “Summer 1993” to compete at SANFIC after its win at the Berlinale’s Kplus Generation sidebar where it took Best First Work and the Grand Prix of the International Jury. Simon has also since been awarded best director at Bafici’s International Competition. Drama pivots on a six-year-old orphan who struggles with her new life in the Catalan countryside where she has moved to live with her aunt and uncle, her new legal guardians.

At a press conference, SANFIC director Carlos Nuñez announced that Chilean art director Natalia Videla, Chilean actress Aline Kuppenheim and Swiss cinematographer Reiner Klaussman have been confirmed as jurors and that Matt Dillon is this year’s special guest.