Winners of FICUNAM 2012

International Feature-Film Competition

The Jury of the International Feature-Film Competition was made up by:
Hans Hurch (President of the Jury). Austria. Director of the Viennale Festival, Vienna.
Adrian Martin. Australia. Film Critic.
Denis Côté. Canada. Filmmaker.
Paula Astorga. Mexico. Director of the National Film Archive (Cineteca Nacional).
Rigoberto Perezcano. Mexico. Fimmaker.

FICUNAM Competition Jury Awards genral remark 
"It was a fascinating and salutary experience for the Jury members to encounter such a wide range of cinematic forms, from fiction to documentary, from essay to collage, from animation to found-footage. The International Competition selection by FICUNAM programmers reflects the striking diversity of traditions and experiments in contemporary world cinema. Our awards speak for the values of originality and surprise in filmmaking and film culture today. It was an honour for us all to be invited to Mexico City, where we have encountered such warmth and hospitality".

"The film is the portrait of the everyday life of a community. Humorous, rigorous and vital, it unfailingly finds the right distance from which to film its subjects and their actions".
The Winner of the Silver Puma Award for Best Film is Yatasto, directed by Hermes Paralluelo Fernández.

"This film tells a strong and tragic real-life story in a surprising, unsentimental way. The film’s form, original and inventive, allows an approach to the material that would be impossible in conventional fiction or documentary".
The Winner of the Silver Puma Award for Best Director is Anca Damian for Crulic – The Path To Beyond.

Audience Award: Crulic- Drumul Spre Dincolo /Crulic: The Path to Beyond, by Anca Damian | Rumania – Poland | 2011

Feats. International Film Schools Gathering

Feats Award Best Short Film ($35,000 pesos M.N.)
Juku, by Mauricio Quiroga Russo

The Jury was made up by:
Tatiana Hueso. Mexico. Filmmaker.
Yulene Olaizola. Mexico. Filmmaker.
Paolo Moretti. Italy. Programmer, Orizzonti, Venice Film Festival

Plane ticket to participate in the Festival Cinélatino. 24èmes Recontres de Toulouse

The Foreign Affairs Ministry (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores) grants a plane ticket to: Alberto Resendiz Gómez for his short film RÉQUIEM PARA LA ETERNIDAD. The winner will travel to the city of Toulouse, France, to show his short film and participate in professional reunions within the frame of the Latino Film Festival: Cinélatino, 24èmes Recontres de Toulouse.

The lodging will be provided by the Latino Film Festival: Cinélatino. 24èmes Recontres de Toulouse.

The Festival will be held at the city of Toulouse, France, from March 23 to April 1, 2012.
 

Section Mexico Right Now!

TV UNAM Selection. Best Film (50,000 pesos, M.N., in exchange for the broadcasting rights at TV UNAM during the following 18 months for a maximum of two emissions). Los Últimos Cristeros, by Matías Meyer.

LCI-Insurance Selection. Special discount in the hiring of an insurance for the producer and the director of a film included in this Section..
Memorias del Futuro, by Rodrigo Reyes

FICUNAM Lab Award

Allan Deberton for the short film: Doce De Coco, produced by the Universidad Federal Fluminense, Cinema & Video Department.

Jhasua Camarena Romero for the short film: La Otra Emma, produced by the Universidad de Guadalajara, Image & Sound Department.

Miguel Salgado for the short film: Muñecas, produced by the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica.

We want to thank all the FICUNAM team, our sponsors, the media covering the event, and particularly the people who assisted to the Festival as members of the audience and who participated, recommended, and gave their opinions on the events planned for them. See you next year!
 

Course: “Screening Artists’ Cinema”

Cooming 

Akram Zaatari: El molesto asunto

Akram Zaatari: El molesto asunto
Co-produced with the MUSAC (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain).
28.01.2012 / 10.06.2012
Cycle 2010-2011: Phantoms of freedom

(The Uneasy Subject)

Since the mid 90's, Akram Zaatari has addressed issues in his work on the importance of images as a means of transmitting reality, essentially from the use of photography, film and video. Interested in the treatment of thematic images through the historical, political and social, co-founded in 1997, the Fondation Arabe pour l'image, whose primary purpose is to collect, restore, preserve and study the artistic, commercial and popular photographic heritage in his country besieged by war, as well as in all Arab countries.

Zaatari's work is inseparable from the cultural and political background of the geographical setting, making one of the vertebral axis of his work is his personal memoir, the Palestinian presence in Lebanon, the impact of Syrian control, the struggles between different political factions in his own country, or the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

The exhibition also includes a video program consisting of short and medium films directed by him, which will be screened on a weekly basis in the Lecture room of the MUAC.

Program:

Friday 12:00 hrs. and 16:00 hrs. / Saturday 17:30 hrs. / Sunday 16:00 hrs.

- Crazy for You, 1997. Video color and sound. Dur. 26’.

- Red Chewing Gum, 2000. Video color and sound. Dur. 10’.

- Her + Him, Van Leo, 2001. Video color and sound. Dur. 32’.  

FICUNAM 2012 | Opening

The Second Edition of the UNAM International Film Festival (FICUNAM) began with the screening of the feature film Wuthering Heights.

On Thursday, February 23, at about seven in the evening, our national and international guests, together with the members of the press and the audience, gathered at the Miguel Covarrubias Theater of the University Cultural Center (CCU). Those present heard the opening words of the renowned personalities who presided the ceremony; Guadalupe Ferrer, Director of the UNAM Film Archive; Marina Stavenhagen, Director of the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE); Armando Casas, director of the University Film School (CUEC); Eva Sangiorgi, Director of FICUNAM; and the Dean of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), José Narro Robles.

Ferrer invited the audience to participate in a Festival that was born out of many a positive intention but which has the main goal of allowing the audience to enjoy its program. As she said, UNAM has established “a long love relationship with cinema.” On the other hand, Stavenhagen congratulated the University for this initiative and then came the speech by the Director of the Festival.

Sangiorgi talked about the various films to be shown in the FICUNAM Sections, she welcomed the panel of judges and the guests of honor and then she thanked those who made the Festival possible and pointed that “cinema is education as well as entertainment.”

Finally, the voice of Dr. Narro Robles was heard extending his recognition to the effort of those organizing the Festival and stressing the continuing support of the University towards the project.

“Without any further protocol, let’s the film begin.” The screen then began showing the images of Wuthering Heights, a 2011 feature film based on the novel by Emily Brontë and directed by British director Andrea Arnold.

Thus, the FICUNAM Second Edition was officially opened. The Festival will feature over 115 films, as well as lectures, workshops, courses, and discussion tables, from February 23 to March 1.

Eve Heller | 'Behind This Soft Eclipse'

Eve Heller (United States, 1961) is an independent filmmaker who works with film footage to re-signify it and find new poetic associations in it.

Born from a German father and an Austrian mother, she received a BA in German Literature and Interdisciplinary Studies from Hunter College and an MFA in Filmmaking from Bard College. Her work has been broadly exhibited and awarded in spaces such as the Whitney Museum, the New York Film Festival, the Pacific Film Archives, the Toronto Cinémathèque, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Louvre Museum, and the Filmmuseum in Austria.

This year, FICUNAM offers a section, Eve Heller | Behind this Soft Eclipse dedicated to the screening of the short films Last Lost (1996), Astor Place (1997), Her Glacial Speed (2001), Behind this Soft Eclipse (2004), Ruby Skin (2005), and Self-Examination Remote Control (2010). The Festival will also count with the presence of the director who will give a workshop to facilitate the needed theoretical tools and practical knowledge for the manual processing and intervention of film footage to the participants.

The workshop “Handmade Films. The Art of Exposure and Contact Printing” will be given on Monday, February 27, from 10:00 to 19:00, at the UNAM Film Archive (Filmoteca de la UNAM) as a part of the academic activities of FICUNAM, 2012.

Autocinema

In a moment

We Can't Go Home Again (Nicholas Ray, 1976-2011)

Comming soon 

Century of Brthing. Traces.

The film Century of Birthing (Lav Diaz, Philippines, 2011) is made by two stories with no apparent connection: On the one hand, Homer, a filmmaker, struggles and quits finishing his film and consequently has to deal with the pressure of the press, film festivals, and his girlfriend; but, mainly, he has to deal with his own procrastination. On the other hand, a Christian sect in a rural area is made up by women who are referred to as “virgins,” and who live under the rules of a charismatic religious leader.

Unlike the frustrated artist shown in his film, director Lav Díaz is a prolific and successful filmmaker, internationally praised, as in the 86th Venice Biennale, and considered as one of the most interesting filmmakers currently in the Philippines. Díaz is the author of Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004), Death in the Land of Encantos (2007) and has directed and written almost 20 features.  

Century of Birthing is a film which allows a reflection on the role of the artist and his work, on religious fundamentalisms and the destructive processes they imply. The film is part of the “Traces” section of FICUNAM. It will be screened on Sunday 26, at 12:00, in the theater Sala Julio Bracho.

The FICUNAM Second Edition will be held from February 23 to March 1, 2012. 

Peter Tscherkassky. Retrospective.

Peter Tscherkassky (Vienna, 1958) is a promoter, critic, cultural manager, theoretician and artist. His film work comprises over thirty avant-garde short films mainly made with stock material. Tscherkassky is also a curator for exhibitions and publications related to cinema and in particular to the Austrian experimental scene. He founded the distributing company SixPack Film and the Austrian Filmmakers Cooperative.

Ever since Tscherkassky work for developing aesthetic codes capable of offering sensory experiences, leaving all narrative ambitions aside. Out from a very large body of work, Manufraktur (1985), Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (35mm, CinemaScope, 2005, music by Dirk Schaefer) . CinemaScope Trilogy, made by L'Arrivée (1998), Outer Space (1999) and Dream Work (2001), and their latest masterpiece, Coming Attractions (2010). Peter Tscherkassky intervenes and restructures films by directors such as Len Lye and Joseph Cornell, adding artistic value to the medium as audiovisual expression.

The presence of the Austrian creator is a fundamental part of Retrospective, the section dedicated to exploring the body of work of filmmakers relevant to international cinema. Peter Tscherkassky’s films are a key reference for avant-garde cinema and FICUNAM offers in its Second Edition a comprehensive overview to the work of this artist, film critic, and theoretician.

The FICUNAM Second Edition will be held from February 23 to March 1, 2012. 

FICUNAM presents: “The Artists Cinema”

“Territories” is the section of the UNAM International Film Festival (FICUNAM) which offers a closer approach to the work of artists who have explored both the fields of cinema and the plastic arts, with the idea of allowing the audience to know their career from different perspectives.

For its 2012 Edition, FICUNAM presents “The Artists Cinema” in collaboration with The Independent Cinema Office and Lux, from London, at the premises of the Contemporary Art University Museum (MuAC).

The Independent Cinema Office is the national organization in charge of supporting and promoting the development and screening of independent films in the United Kingdom. LUX is a UK-based artist agency that supports and promotes the work of artists who use the moving image as their means of expression.

The program is made up by an annual international selection of artists who shoot in 35 mm and then insert their short films between adverts and feature films, in order to provoke a reaction and to reflect about the context of cinema. The selection includes films produced during the past year and also the best short films of previous years.

The short films to be screened at MuAC are directed by the following artists: Deimantas Narkevicius (Lithuania), Keren Cytter (Israel), Catherine Sullivan and Farhad Shamini (United States), Amar Kanwar (India), Aurélien Froment (France), Rosalind Nashashibi (United Kingdom), Yang Fudong (China), Miguel Calderón (Mexico), Mark Leckey (United Kingdom), Jimmy Robert, Manon De Boer (Begium) and Phil Collins (United Kingdom).

The FICUNAM Second Edition will take place from February 23rd to March 1st, 2012.