Nine film projects will participate in the fourth iteration of Miami Encuentros, a filmmaker confab/minimart devoted to Latin American and Iberian projects.
Miami Film Festival director Nicole Guillemet introduced the market component to the historically consumer-oriented fest when she took the helm in Miami. She recruited Diana Sanchez as Encuentros director.
Three-day confab allows helmers and/or producers to present their projects to U.S. industry reps: producers, sales agents, TV outlets and distribs.
Last year, the number of projects grew from seven to nine.
The projects this year include, from Spain, Gabriel Velazquez's drama about family connections, "Amateurs (Angels Still Come to the Suburbs)," and Carles Bosch's "Septembers," about a prison karaoke competition; from Brazil, Lais Bodanzky's "Fraternal Love," set in a dance club for senior citizens in Sao Paolo; from Chile, Francisca Schweitzer's "Niebla," a love story between a 35-year-old woman and a boy of 14; Colombian Diego F. Ramirez's "Saudo," about an Afro-Colombian doctor who returns to his native village and finds it under the control of mysterious forces; and, from the U.S., Rene Simon Cruz Jr.'s "The Salted Earth," about a powerful Miami attorney who returns to Cuba at the behest of his father after the death of Castro.
Three projects are from debut helmers: "Bad Day to Go Fishing," from Uruguay's Alvaro Brechner, about a former wrestling champ; Tania Hermida's "How Far Are You Going," from Ecuador, about the travels of two twentysomething women along the Andes and the country's coast; and from Chile, Daniel Rodriguez's "The Watercolorist," about a young man who escapes his mundane life through painting.
The 23rd edition of the Miami Film Festival unspools March 3-12. Encuentros is held during the event.
Opening-night film is an Encuentros project from 2003, Eliseo Subiela's "Heartlift," about a plastic surgeon's midlife crisis.
Unspooling in the fest's Ibero-American cinema competition are two past Encuentros projects: "Madeinusa" and "7 Virgins."
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