THE RIVIERA MAYA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 APRIL 23RD – 29TH
More than 70 Films from Around the World, Including the Critically Acclaimed ‘Burying the Ex’ and Asia Argento’s ‘Incompresa,’ Have Been Selected To Screen During the 2015 Riviera Maya Film Festival
The Riviera Maya Film Festival (RMFF) today announced its official program of domestic and international films to be screened at this year’s annual event (April 23rd–29th). Continuing its mission to promote and distribute the most outstanding productions of the global film industry, the fourth edition of the RMFF will feature three Mexican-production world premieres, 53 international premieres in Mexico, a wide variety of Latin American premieres and about 200 free screening sessions compose our program.
The competitive sections of the Festival are Mexican Platform, in which the jury bestows two Kukulkan Awards endowed with 300,000 MXN each and a Kukulkan Youth Jury Award, endowed with 100,000 MXN; the RivieraLAB/Co-production Forum, where two selected projects will receive a financial incentive of 200,000 MXN each; and the RivieraLAB/Work in Progress, where two selected projects will receive a financial incentive of 100,000 MXN each. In total, the Festival grants 1,300,000 MXN in awards and prizes.
"We are constantly trying to create a festival that has what is important: a solid program with guests that represent it. We will have 70 films, from which 53 are premiering nationwide. Thus, RMFF brings an added value to the people and visitors of Riviera Maya", said Paula Chaurand, director of the festival.
"What is important about festivals, film shows and events that promote national film production, is not for them to be numerous, but to have an identity of their own,” said Cristina Prado Arias, Director for Cultural Film Promotion. “That is the match point of this festival –RMFF, as it was born with an identity that has respected and reinforced.”
"The importance of RivieraLAB lies in the fact that, through its activities, incentives and support for creators, it has achieved to get films released in and out of the country.” Said Sandra Gómez, RivieraLAB chief coordinator.
The Riviera Maya Film Festival will take place in Cancun, Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum, from April 23rd to the 29th.
Below you can find a selection of the films which will be shown at the 2015 Riviera Maya Film Festival:
GALAS
· Burying the Ex (2014, United States) Director: Joe Dante
· Elvira, te daría mi vida pero la estoy usando (2014, Mexico) Director: Manolo Caro
· Incompresa (2014, Italy / France) Director: Asia Argento
MEXICAN PLATFORM
The board composed by Maximiliano Cruz, Fernando del Razo and Claudio Zilleruelo has chosen 14 films from a total of 71 national films entering the call. All corresponding screenings will include special guests. The selected films are:
· Alexfilm (2015, Mexico) Director: Pablo Chavarría
· El regreso del muerto (2014, Mexico) Director: Gustavo Gamou
· El señor de las 3 caídas (2015, Mexico) Director: Roberto Olivares Ruiz *World Premiere
· El silencio de la princesa (2014, Mexico) Director: Manuel Cañibe
· Ícaros (2015, France / Mexico) Director: Pedro González Rubio
· Juanicas (2014, Canada / Mexico) Director: Karina García Casanova
· La maldad (2015, Mexico) Director: Joshua Gil
· Los muertos (2014, Mexico) Director: Santiago Mohar Volkow
· Lucifer (2014, Belgium / Mexico) Director: Gust Van den Berghe
· Me quedo contigo (2014, Mexico) Director: Artemio Narro
· Memoria oculta (2014, Mexico) Director: Eva Villaseñor
· Muchachas (2015, Mexico) Director: Juliana Fanjul
· Noche de resurrecciones (2015, Mexico) Director: Raúl Rico *World Premiere
· Plan sexenal (2014, Mexico) Director: Santiago Cendejas
PLANETARIUM
The selected films deal with the juncture issues of today’s social structure. Planetarium takes a stand before aspects of the world: political, cultural, historical, social and environmental. The selected films are:
· Atlas (2014, France) Director: Antoine d'Agata
· La obra del siglo (2015, Argentina/Cuba/Switzerland/Germany) Director: Carlos Machado Quintela
· Of Men and War (2014, France Switzerland/United States) Director: Laurent Bécue-Renard
· Over the Years (2015, Austria) Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
· The Postman's White Nights (2014, Russia) Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
· Violencia (2015, Colombia / México) Director: Jorge Forero *Screening will be attended by special guests
WIDE AUDIENCE
A showcase of diverse outlooks aimed to mass audiences. Films arriving from diverse territories proffer ways, perhaps unheard, to entertainment. The selected films are:
· 3 Hearts (2014, France/Germany/Belgium) Director: Benoît Jacqot
· Among the Living (2014, France) Directors: Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury
· Buzzard (2014, U.S.A.) Director: Joel Potrykus
· Caprice (2015, France) Director: Emmanuel Mouret *Screening will be attended by special guests
· Cub (2014, Belgium) Director: Jonas Govaerts
· Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 (2014, Hong Kong/China) Director: Johnnie To
· Fires on the Plain (2014, Japan) Director: Shin'ya Tsukamoto
· Girlhood (2014, France) Director: Céline Sciamma *Screening will be attended by special guests
· Goodnight Mommy (2014, Austria) Directors: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz *Screening will be attended by special guests
· Los hongos (2014, Colombia/France/Argentina/Germany) Director: Óscar Ruiz Navia *Screening will be attended by special guests
· Queen and Country (2014, Ireland/France/Rumania) Director: John Boorman
· Results (2015, EEUU) Director: Andrew Bujalski *Screening will be attended by special guests
· The Golden Era (2014, China/Hong Kong) Director: Ann Hui
· The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq (2014, France) Director: Guillaume Nicloux
· The Midnight After (2014, Hong Kong) Director: Fruit Chan
· Tokyo Tribe (2014, Japan) Director: Sion Sono
· Victoria (2015, Germany) Director: Sebastian Schipper *Screening will be attended by special guests
· Slow West (2015, United Kingdom-New Zeland) Director: John Maclean
AUTHOR PANORAMA
A film panorama for international film creators. The section exhibits alternative ways to tell stories, produce films and approach film language and diverse film genres. The selected films are:
• Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories (2015, Vietnam/France/Germany/Holland) Director: Phang Dang Di
• Fort Buchanan (2014, France/Tunisia) Director: Benjamin Crotty *Screening will be attended by special guests
• Heaven Knows What (2014, United States) Directors: Joshua and Ben Safdie *Screening will be attended by special guests
• Hide and Seek (2014, United Kingdom/United States) Director: Joanna Coates
• In the Basement (2014, Austria) Director: Ulrich Seidl
• Iris (2014, United States) Director: Albert Maysles
• La mujer de los perros (2015, Argentina) Directors: Laura Citarella and Veronica Llinás
• Le Paradis (2014, France) Director: Alain Cavalier
• Lulú (2014, Argentina) Director: Luis Ortega *Screening will be attended by special guests
• Mar (Chile / Argentina) Director: Dominga Sotomayor
• Meurtre à Pacot (2014, Haiti/France/Norway) Director: Raoul Peck *Screening will be attended by special guests
• Near Death Experience (2014, France) Directors: Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern
• Red Amnesia (2014, China) Director: Wang Xiaoshuai
• Saint Laurent (2014, France/Belgium) Director: Bertrand Bonello *Screening will be attended by special guests
• Taxi (2015, Iran). Director: Jafar Panahi
• The Forbidden Room (2015, Canada) Directors: Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson *Screening will be attended by special guests
• The Kindergarten Teacher (2014, Israel/France) Director: Nadav Lapid *Screening will be attended by special guests
• The Smell of Us (2014, France) Director: Larry Clark *Screening will be attended by special guests
RivieraLAB PRESENTS
A showcase for films that went through former editions of RivieraLAB, as projects. This fourth edition outstands the world premiere of the Mexican documentary Los días no vuelven, directed by Raúl Cuesta. The selected films are:
• Adventure (2014, Kazakhstan) Director: Nariman Turebaev
• El tiempo nublado (2014, Switzerland/Paraguay) Director: Arami Ullón
• Feguibox (2015, Equatorial Guinea/Spain) Directors: Rubén Monsuy and Gabriel Amdur
• La princesa de Francia (2014, Argentina) Director: Matías Piñeiro
• Los días no vuelven (2015, Mexico) Director: Raúl Cuesta. * World Premiere *Screening will be attended by special guests
• Ruined Heart! Another Love Story Between a Criminal & a Whore. (Philippines/Germany) Director: Khavn De la Cruz *Screening will be attended by special guests
• The Iron Ministry (2014, China) Director: J. P. Sniadecki
SELECTION - RivieraLAB 2015
RivieraLAB is the project laboratory and the production incentive platform of the Riviera Maya Film Festival. It presents, in its two sections, Coproduction Forum and Work in Progress, film projects in stage of development and post-production, accordingly. In addition to pursuing coproduction, sales agency, international funding, distribution and alternative financing, the chosen projects compete for economic and in-kind support.
RivieraLAB/ Coproduction Forum 2015:
From 94 projects entering the call from 20 countries, the members of the board, Sandino Saravia, Rebecca de Pas, Jorge Forero and Sandra Gómez, chose 9 projects in stage of development. The selected projects are:
• Am I Demon (United States) Director: Joel Potrykus
• Carroña (Mexico) Director: Sebastián Hiriart
• Tiempo vertical (Spain) Director: Lois Patiño
• Rojo (Argentina) Director: Benjamín Naishtat
• Nona (Chile) Director: Camila José Donoso
• Soy una estrella del rock (Mexico) Director: Raúl Fuentes
• Mis violentas flores (Mexico) Director: Tin Dirdamal
• Pistolero anónimo (Mexico) Director: Leo Marz, Angel Marz
• Mariana (Colombia) Director: Chris Gude
RivieraLAB / Work in Progress 2015:
From 93 projects that entered the call from 22 countries, the members of the board, John Campos, Gonzalo de Pedro, Susana Santos, Sandra Gómez and Maximiliano Cruz, chose 7 projects with a cut in post-production stage. The selected projects are:
• La balada del Oppenheimer Park (Mexico) Director: Juan Manuel Sepúlveda
• Lazar (Macedonia/Croatia/Bulgaria/France) Director: Svetozar Ristovski
• I, Olga Hepnarova (Czech Republic/Poland Slovakia/France) Directors: Petr Kazda and Tomas Weinreb
• El rastreador de estatuas (Chile) Director: Jerónimo Rodríguez
• ¿Dónde estás? (Mexico) Director: Maricarmen Merino
• Maquinaria Panamericana (Mexico) Director: Joaquín del Paso
• Silenciosa (Argentina) Director: Sofía Medrano
PENINSULAB: Training workshop for producers and directors of the Mexican Southeast
PENINSULAB was created by RivieraLAB to enable counseling and follow up for 3 projects selected from the CAI Audiovisual Itinerating Camp, given by lecturers and special guests of RivieraLAB 2015.
CAI is an initiative that promotes production and development of audiovisual projects for communities of the State of Oaxaca. The program arranges workshops, training, meeting, and exhibition of the projects.
PENINSULAB together with CAI share the purpose of contributing to decentralization of the film culture in Mexico. We believe that quality films can and should be accessible to everyone. Beyond technical effort and high budget, the most important aspect of filmmaking is the common language and the stories to be told.
TEACHINGS/RMFF 2015
In order to take the next step regarding the exchange between film creators and audiences, the Riviera Maya Film festival has created TEACHINGS/RMFF 2015, a program for gatherings, conversations and master classes that will be held on April 26 and 27 in Playa del Carmen.
It intends to bring the audience closer to the experience of filmmaking, through the teachings of important creators. TEACHINGS/RMFF 2015 brings a complete schedule of academic activities, lecturers and disciplines such as direction, performance, production, sound design or scriptwriting.
Among the lecturers that will be attending the event, we have: Asia Argento, Joshua Safdie, Gust van den Berghe, Pedro González Rubio, Evan Johnson and Nathalia Acevedo. The complete list of lecturers will soon be announced.
For further information please visit www.rmff.mx