10th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
April 19 – 26, 2007

The 10th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival will take place April 19 through April 26. Festival passes are now available for purchase at www.cinelasmaericas.org.

Opening night is Thursday, April 19, with a screening of Francisco Vargas Quevedo’s award winning drama EL VIOLIN (Mexico, 2006) at the historic Paramount Theater in downtown Austin. EL VIOLIN won the Knight Grand Jury Prize for Ibero-American Cinema at the Miami International Film Festival in 2007, where it was called “a perfect film, perfectly realized.” The film also won three Ariel awards in Mexico in 2007, as well as the prize for best actor (Prix d'Interprétation Masculine Un Certain Regard) at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

“In the past few years,” says Festival Director Eugenio del Bosque, “Cine Las Americas has been working towards making Austin a destination for Latin American and indigenous films and filmmakers. Austin offers unique benefits to the film industry, including diverse audiences, government support that hopefully will soon include more incentives for more films to be made in town, and a well-nurtured population of industry professionals and film buffs. Austin is already on the map, and our objective is to keep building support so we can generate business opportunities at the event while supporting artistic excellence through our program.”

“Provocative and inspiring are two words that describe this year’s festival program,” says Director of Programming Jacqueline Rush Rivera. “We are honored to have many filmmakers and industry professionals in attendance this year. Audiences can expect to enjoy new cinema, fun special events and a close connection with the international filmmaking community.”

The eight-day festival will feature competitive categories for Narrative Features, Documentary Features, Narrative Shorts, Documentary Shorts, and Youth Films, Local and National Premiers, the Emergencia Youth Film Day, special guests, Q&A sessions and special events.

In 2007 Cine Las Americas introduces New Visions/Works in Progress, a special section of the program designed to present quality work by filmmakers who are looking for production or completion funds.

This year’s program will include new films from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Spain, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the United States with a strong representation of Ibero-American, Afro-Latino and indigenous cultures.

In addition to the Paramount Theater, films will also screen at The Regal Metropolitan 14, Tte Alamo Drafthouse South, the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum IMAX theater, the George Washington Carver Museum, and the Hideout Theater.

Guest of honor Lucia Murat will present two of her films, ALMOST BROTHERS (2004) and THE FOREIGN EYE (2006). Considered one of Brazil’s most respected journalists and filmmakers, Murat’s works draw from her experiences as a guerrilla and as a political prisoner during Brazil’s dictatorship in the 1980’s.

Other special guests include filmmakers Larry Blackhorse Lowe, Rodrigo Bellot, Beto Gómez, Tania Hermida, Hector Galan, as well as industry professionals Ben O'Dell (Panamax Films), Bird Runningwater (Sundance Institute), Peter Marai (Condor Media) and more. Local and regional filmmakers presenting their works include Marcy garriott, Bennie Klain, Pablo Veliz, Miguel Alvarez, and John Fiege.

The 10th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival is honored to have the City of Austin and American Airlines as premiere sponsors. This project is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.