The latest films by José Luis Torres Leiva and Celina Murga will respectively open and close Horizontes Latinos, the selection of the year’s features, not yet screened in Spain, from among all those produced totally or partially in Latin America, directed by filmmakers of Latin origin or which take Latin communities in the rest of the world as their backdrop or subject matter. Four of the fourteen feature films competing for the Horizontes Award were screened in WIP Latam (including last year’s winner) and two in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum  while another comes from the Ikusmira Berriak programme.

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José Luis Torres Leiva (Santiago de Chile, 1975) will open Horizontes Latinos with Cuando las nubes esconden las sombras / When Clouds Hide the Shadow, premiered at Jeonju Festival. In the film, the actress and director María Alché travels to the world’s southernmost point to shoot a film. Torres Leiva has shown his earlier works at festivals such as Rotterdam and Venice, and competed for the Golden Shell in San Sebastian with Vendrá la muerte y tendrá tus ojos / Death Will Come and Shall Have Your Eyes (2019), previously selected for the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum. He has also participated in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera with El viento sabe que vuelvo a casa / The Wind Knows That I’m Coming Back Home (2016), El sueño de Ana (2017) and Sobre cosas que me han pasado (2018).

El aroma del pasto recién cortado / The Freshly Cut Grass, earning Celina Murga (Paraná, 1973) Best Screenplay at the Tribeca Festival, tells the parallel story of two love affairs set in the university environment. The Argentinian moviemaker, who will close Horizontes Latinos with this film included in the Co-Production Forum in 2020, has shown a number of her earlier works in San Sebastian: Ana y los otros / Ana and the Others (Horizontes Selection, 2003), Una semana solos / A Week Alone (Films in Progress, 2007) and La tercera orilla / The Third Side of the River (Horizontes Latinos, 2014).

Lola Arias (Buenos Aires, 1976) will participate in Horizontes Latinos with Reas, selected last year for WIP Latam and premiered in the Forum section of the Berlinale, where she made her debut with Teatro de guerra / Theater of War (Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, 2018). In her second feature, winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Cinélatino-Toulouse, the Argentinian director reinvents the musical in a collective work where a group of performers dance and sing about their time in prison.  

Querido Trópico / Beloved Tropic, starring Paulina García and Jenny Navarrete, unravels the lonely souls of a woman with dementia and her carer. The first feature film by documentary filmmaker Ana Endara (Panama City, 1976) will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

The Argentinian Federico Luis (Buenos Aires, 1990), whose shorts have screened at festivals including Cannes, Toronto, BAFICI, Mar del Plata and IDFA (Amsterdam), won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Semaine de la Critique with his feature debut, Simón de la montaña / Simon of the Mountain, about a young mover’s helper who is determined to change his life and makes new friends he tries to emulate.

Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Úrsula Corberó star in El jockey / Kill the Jockey, with which Luis Ortega (Buenos Aires, 1980) will compete in Venice. The Argentinian filmmaker, who brought his debut, Caja negra / Black Box, to Made in Spanish (2002), previously participated in Horizontes Latinos con Monobloc (2005), while El ángel / The Angel (2018) was selected for Perlak following its premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. His latest work focuses on a jockey whose career falls to pieces as his addictions take over his life.

With Cidade; Campo, telling two tales of migration between the city and the countryside, Juliana Rojas (Campinas, 1981) won Best Director in the Encounters section of the Berlinale. The Brazilian filmmaker has shown his previous movies at events including the Semaine de la Critique and Un Certain Regard at Cannes, Locarno, Rotterdam and Mar del Plata, among others.

The Mexican directors and producers Astrid Rondero (Mexico City, 1989) and Fernanda Valadez (Guanajuato, 1981) won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance with Sujo, the story of a boy’s survival after the murder of his father, a hired killer. Solo, Rondero directed Los días más oscuros de nosotras / The Darkest Days of Us, nominated for two Ariel awards and winner of seven international accolades, while Valadez won the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize in the same section at Sundance with Sin señas particulares / Identifying Features (Horizontes Award and Cooperación Española Award, 2020), having previously received the Films in Progress Industry Award in San Sebastian.

The Venezuelan Mariana Rondón (Barquisimeto, 1966), winner of San Sebastian’s Golden Shell with Pelo malo / Bad Hair (2013), will participate in Horizontes Latinos with the world premiere of Zafari, a film selected for the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in 2019. The author of titles such as A la media noche y media / At Midnight and a Half (2000) and Postales de Leningrado / Postcards from Leningrad (2017) sets her latest movie in a dystopian world where a hippo’s arrival to the zoo sets conflicts ablaze.

The Peruvian Salvador del Solar (Lima, 1970) returns to Horizontes Latinos, where he presented his debut, Magallanes (2015), winner of the Films in Progress Industry Award in 2014. Ramón y Ramón, the title of his second feature screening as a world premiere, narrates the meeting between two men in Peru in the context of the Covid pandemic.

The Colombian Yennifer Uribe Alzate (Medellín, 1988) participated in the Forum section of the Berlinale with her debut, La piel en primavera / Skin in Spring, a film following the liberation process of a woman who works as a security guard in a shopping centre. In 2022 the film participated in the San Sebastian Festival’s WIP Latam section with the title of Sandra.

Dormir de olhos abertos / Sleep With Your Eyes Open is the title of a project about crossed stories with which Nele Wohlatz (Hannover, 1982) participated in the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme in 2018 and with which she landed the FIPRESCI Prize in the Encounters section of the Berlinale. With El futuro perfecto / The Future Perfect (2016) the German director living in Argentina won a number of awards including the Golden Leopard for Best First Feature in Locarno.

These titles join another two with Spanish production which were recently presented. On the one hand, debutant Iair Said (Buenos Aires, 1988) landed last year’s WIP Latam Industry Award and the Egeda Platino Industry Award for Best WIP Latam with Los domingos mueren más personas / Most People Die on Sundays, premiered in the ACID section of the Festival de Cannes. Said, with experience as a short filmmaker and actor, directs and stars in the existential crisis of a young middle-class Jewish boy who returns to Buenos Aires from Europe when his uncle dies.

On the other, Horizontes Latinos will also include the movie co-directed by Sofía Paloma Gómez (Santiago de Chile, 1985) and Camilo Becerra (Santiago de Chile, 1981), Quizás es cierto lo que dicen de nosotras / Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us, another of the projects shown in last year’s WIP Latam. The latest film from the moviemaking duo tells the tale of a successful psychiatrist visited by her elder daughter, who had been cut off from the world in a sect for a long time.

All of the films in the Horizontes Latinos section compete for the Horizontes Award, coming with 35,000 euros for the director and distributor of the film in Spain. The Horizontes Award Jury has the task of studying these titles and deciding the winner. First or second films by their director (in this case, Reas, Simón de la montaña, Ramón y Ramón, La piel en primavera, Dormir de olhos abertos and Los domingos mueren más personas) also compete for the DAMA Youth Award, decided by a jury of 150 students aged from 18-25 years.