The Cartagena International Film Festival (FICCI) has announced the films that will be competing in the official sections of this year's festival, which will take place on March 2-7. Eight fictional feature films, ten documentaries, ten Colombian productions and 20 short films will be battling it out for an India Catalina statue and over US$100,000 in prizes.

This edition of FICCI—the most prestigious film festival in Colombia and the longest-running one in Latin America—celebrates the creative boom Colombian cinema is currently experiencing and recalls the long road it has traveled to garner the international acclaim it now enjoys. FICCI Artistic Director Diana Bustamante made a heartfelt appeal to those present at the press conference.“Out of the love and respect we all have for cinema, I invite you to see all the films on our program, for more than a number, these are seconds, minutes and hours of experiences, of world visions and rewritings of history that open new doors in terms of narrative and format.” 
 
A diverse bunch of films will be competing in the various categories of FICCI 56, reflecting the number of original, quality productions the last year has gestated. “Each of our selections, from short films, films by new creators and Colombian and Ibero-American feature films to international fiction films and documentaries, plus a fine selection of retrospectives, promises to make this year’s edition of FICCI a moving, sensual one full of nostalgia; one that will be remembered and that will consolidate ours as a festival in constant evolution,” added Bustamante.

Competing in the Official Fiction category will be Aquí no ha pasado nada by Alejandro Fernández (Chile), recently selected for the Sundance Festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition; Oscuro animal by Felipe Guerrero (Colombia, Argentina, Holland, Germany, Greece), which was an official selection of the Rotterdam Film Festival; and Historias de dos que soñaron by Andrea Bussmann and Nicolás Pereda (Mexico, Canada), which will be making its world premiere in the Forum section of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival. These three productions will be celebrating their Ibero-American premiere at FICCI. Accompanying them will be Boi neon by Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil), which will be screened for the first time in Colombia after winning the Critics’ Prize at the Hamburg Film Festival; El movimiento by Benjamín Naishtat (Argentina, South Korea), selected for the Filmmakers of the Present category of the Locarno Film Festival; Te prometo anarquía by Julio Hernández Cordón (Mexico), winner of the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Latin American Film at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival; and Mate-me por favor by Anita Rocha Da Silveira (Brazil), nominated for Best Picture in the Orizzonte section of the Venice Film Festival. La academia de las musas by José Luis Guerín (Spain), winner of Best Picture at the Seville Festival of European Cinema, will be making its Latin American premiere. For this Competition, two more films are going to be announced next week.

The Official Documentary Competition will feature Aracati by Aline Portugal and Julia De Simone (Brazil); El mundo de Carolina by Mariana Viñoles (Uruguay); El viento sabe que vuelvo a casa by José Luis Torres Leiva (Chile), which recently premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival; Paciente by Jorge Caballero Ramos (Colombia), which participated in IDFA 2015; and Tempestad by Tatiana Huezo (Mexico), which has been selected for the Forum section of the 2016 Berlin Film Festival. All these productions will be making their Ibero-American premiere at FICCI 56, while La balada del Oppenheimer Park by Juan Manuel Sepúlveda (Mexico, France), which participated in RivieraLab, will be making its world premiere. Last but by no means least, Casa Blanca by Aleksandra Maciuszek (Cuba, Mexico, Poland), winner of the Coral Prize for Best Documentary at Havana; El rastreador de estatuas by Jerónimo Rodríguez (Chile); O futebol by Sergio Oksman (Spain, Brazil), which made its world premiere at Locarno; and Todo comenzó por el fin, Colombian director Luis Ospina’s latest film, will all be screened for the first time in Colombia.

Making its international premiere in the Colombian Cinema section will be Juan Sebastián Quebrada’sDías extraños, which was selected for the 2015 BAFICI international competition, while Los Nadie byJuan Sebastián Mesa, Sin mover los labios by Carlos Osuna and the documentary Home–el país de la ilusión by Josephine Landertinger Forero will all be celebrating their world premieres. Audiences can also see the Ibero-American premieres of Jacques Toulemonde’s Anna, which participated in the Latin Visionssection of the Stockholm Film Festival; Felipe Guerrero’s Oscuro animal; Jorge Caballero’sPaciente and Siembra, a first film by Santiago Lozano and Ángela Osorio, winners of the Boccalino independent critics’ prize at Locarno. Rounding off this section is Luis Ospina’s Todo comenzó por el fin, which will be making its national premiere, and Nicolás Rincón Guillé’s Noche herida, which received an Honorable Mention in the SCAM section of the Cinéma du Réel documentary film festival.

The Official Short Film Competition includes Quintal by André Novais Oliveira (Brazil), Entre la tierra by Sofía Quirós (Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile), La impresión de una guerra by Camilo Restrepo (Colombia, France), Locas perdidas by Ignacio Juricic (Chile), Marea de tierra by Manuela Martelli (Chile, France),Noite sem distância by Lois Patiño (Portugal), O teto sobre nós by Bruno Carboni (Brazil), Tarântula by Aly Muritiba and Marja Calafange (Brazil), Un cuento de amor, locura y muerte by Mijael Bustos Gutiérrez (Chile) and Víctor XX by Ian Garrido (Spain), which will all be shown for the first time in Colombia. Bunker by Sandro Aguilar (Portugal), El Edén by Andrés Ramírez Pulido (Colombia), Iceberg by Juliana Gómez (Cuba), L’homme de ma vie by Melanie Deloye (France, Colombia), El buzo by Esteban Arrangoiz (Mexico) and Tisure by Adrian Geyer (Venezuela) will be celebrating their Ibero-American premieres, while the selection continues with the world premieres of De barrio by Sebastián Galvis Forero (Colombia), No hay bestias by Agustina San Martín (Argentina) and Santiamén by William Vega (Colombia), and the international premiere of 24º51º latitud norte by Carlos Lenin Triviño (Mexico).

Click HERE for the full list of these and films in other sections announced at the press conference.