BUENOS AIRES -- The 10th Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Film unspools April 8-20 with a new director and a competitive lineup that includes Chinese documentary "Up the Yangtze" and Sundance-laurelled suicide drama "Ballast."
Argentina's biggest festival in number of pics and second in international importance to Mar del Plata's FIAPF category A event, the fest will screen 427 films from more than 50 territories, down from 465 pics in 2007.
Many films are from rookies, reflecting the event's focus on discovering talent.
Fest has become a hot spot for co-producers, buyers and distributors to see the latest works out of Argentina, a leading production market in Latin America.
This edition will mark the debut of Sergio Wolf as director. Wolf was chief programmer under Fernando Pena, who ran the last three editions.
"The new programming of Bafici is that of a festival of discovery that seeks to show what's not known of the production of Argentine and world cinema," Wolf said at a press conference.
The event is bookended by Brazilian Eduardo Coutinho's docu "Jogo de cena" and French helmer Christophe Honore's musical "Love Songs," both out of competition.
Eighteen films will vie for awards -- film, director, actor, actress awards and special jury mention -- in the international competition, including three locals: Gabriel Medina's comedy "Los paranoicos," Celina Murga's closed community-set "Una semana solos" and Andres Tambornino's "S.O.S. Ex."
They are in competition against "El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia" (The Sky, the Earth and the Rain), a drama by Chilean Jose Luis Torres Leiva that won the Fipresci international critics' prize at Rotterdam, and the history docu "Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind," by American John Gianvito.
Other contenders are Greek director Thanos Anastopoulos' "Correction," the tale of ex-con following a young woman; Malaysian Seng Tat Liew's Rotterdam-prized family drama "Flower in the Pocket"; and Iranian helmer Naghi Nemati's "Those Three," a drama about a trio of disgruntled army conscripts.
Other entries include modern-day Haiti portrait "Mange, ceci est mon corps," from director Michelange Quay; "Wonderful Town," by Thai helmer Aditya Assarat; Mexican road adventure "Cochochi," by directors Israel Cardenas and Laura Amelia Guzman; and Mexican Yulene Olaizola's docu "Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo" (Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo), a triple award winner at the Mexico City Film Festival.
On the jury for the international competish are Fred Kelemen, Luciano Monteagudo, Caveh Zahedi, Jose Luis Cienfuegos and Luis Ospina.
Nine features will compete for film, director and the jury's special mention in a competish of pics from newer Argentine directors.
In the running are Nestor Frenkel's flooded-city docu "Construccion de una ciudad" and Enrique Pineyro's "Bye Bye Life," a docu about the last days of photographer-writer Gabriela Liffschitz.
Other contenders are Gustavo Fontan's "La orilla que se abisma," Mariano Llinas' "Historias extraordinarias" and Paulo Pecora's "El sueno del perro."
Directors to be highlighted include Abel Ferrara, Olivier Assayas, Werner Herzog, Michael Haneke, Gus Van Sant, Jia Zhang-Ke, Naomi Kawase, Raya Martin, Carlos Reygadas, Bela Tarr, Jose Luis Guerin and Pen-ek Ratanaruang.
Buenos Aires Lab, a mart for Europeans looking for Latin American co-production projects, will run April 10-13. In its fifth edition, eight projects from Argentina and Chile are in competition for a top prize of $8,000, and another dozen will seek co-production coin.
COMPETITION LINEUP
INTERNATIONAL
"Los paranoicos," Gabriel Medina, Argentina
"SOS Ex," Andres Tambornino, Argentina
"Una semana solos," Celina Murga, Argentina
"Up the Yangtze," Yung Chang, Canada
"El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia," Jose Luis Torres Leiva, Chile/Germany/France
"Night Train," Diao Yinan, China
"Andalucia," Alain Gomis, France
"Mange, ceci est mon corps," Michelange Quay, France/Haiti
"Correction," Thanos Anastopoulos, Greece
"Those Three," Naghi Nemati, Iran
"Flower in the Pocket," Seng Tat Liew, Malaysia
"Cochochi," Israel Cardenas, Laura Amelia Guzman, Mexico
"Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo," Yulene Olaizola, Mexico
"Yo," Rafa Cortes, Spain
"Wonderful Town," Aditya Assarat. Thailand
"Help Me Eros," Kang-sheng Lee, Taiwan
"Ballast," Lance Hammer, U.S.
"Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind," John Gianvito, USA
ARGENTINA
"Bye Bye Life," Enrique Pineyro
"Construccion de una ciudad," Nestor Frenkel
"Historias extraordinarias," Mariano Llinas
"Luego," Carola Gliksberg
"La orilla que se abisma," Gustavo Fontan
"Resfriada," Gonzalo Castro
"Suden," Gaston Solnicki
"El sueno del perro," Paulo Pecora
"Unidad 25," Alejo Hoijman
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com