Hollywood titles gobbling up Mexican cinemas

Theater chains in Mexico are enjoying a record-breaking year in admissions, yet homegrown fare continues to struggle at the box office.

Exhibitors here expect to close out the year with 191 million tickets sold, which positions Mexico as the world’s fifth largest exhibition market in terms of attendance figures, according to an annual report by the National Film Chamber. The report ranks Mexico fifth behind India, the U.S., China and France.

Film of the week: “Post Mortem”

Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s last film, Tony Manero, followed an obsessive Saturday Night Fever fan/John Travolta impersonator, whose absurd passion for disco dancing turned to extreme violence and even murder – all against a backdrop of Pinochet’s repressive and equally murderous regime. It was disturbing, dark and satirical masterpiece of modern Latin American cinema. Its star, Alfredo Castro, was intense and quietly dangerous – seemingly born to play the sociopathic lead role.
Now, two years later, both the director and star have reunited for Post Mortem.
If Sofia Coppola is going to be accused of re-making the same film,

Latest News: Havana Film Festival Awards

During 11 days of retracing their steps through the streets of Havana in search of the best selections — in the drizzle, cold or sun — Cuban movie buffs enjoyed a worldwide panorama on celluloid.
We found ourselves in solidarity with an unemployed Brazilian father of a desperate family (perhaps that solidarity was stronger than ever given the concreteness of the issue these days),

Today at the Atlanta 25th Annual Latin American Film Festival

 

Northless

Northless
October 29, 2010, 8 p.m.
Film Forward reviewer Kent Turner praised Rigoberto Perezcano’s tale of illegal immigration as ”the most surprising film,“ in the Lincoln Center/MoMA series, ”New Directors/New Films.“ It centers on Andres, a farmer from Oaxaca, who is caught crossing the border illegally and ends up stranded in Tijuana. There, killing time before he tries crossing again, he finds a job helping out at a bodega and becomes involved with both its owner and her friend, two women left behind by men like Andres. ”What may start out as a message movie . . .

D Street enters Latin American film market

U.S. and Germany-based D Street Media Group has acquired Argentine film production and sales company Americine as the distribution and production house pushes into Latin America.
D Street founder and CEO Dexter Davis said he plans to build Americine’s Latin American-focused catalog to offer a global selection of titles; step up production and co-productions in Latin America and Europe via

Mexico’s Televisa to focus on U.S. market

Broadcaster Televisa is betting on the U.S. Hispanic market for growth after reaching a new royalty deal with partner Univision and is sending plans to enter Mexican mobile phone market to the backburner for now.
Grupo Televisa said earlier this month it was investing $1.2 billion in debt-laden broadcaster Univision, a long-time partner that uses the Mexican company’s programs to fill in most of its prime time slots.

Cinema Tropical Awards Tonight at the IFC Center

 

Three of Argentinian Director Lucrecia Martel's films will be honored as part of Cinema Tropical AWARDS presentation today in New York. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

“Latin American cinema has reinvented itself once again” said Carlos Gutierrez, co-founding director of Cinema Tropical. Throughout the last ten years, Latin American filmmakers have established themselves as ambitious and clearly discernable voices in the cinematographic landscape.
This was the reason, according to Gutierrez, for bringing to life the first ever Cinema Tropical AWARDS that will be presented today at the TimesCenter in New York City. The presentation will honor ten distinguished film productions from the region.
Gutiérrez believes this is truly an exciting moment for Latin American cinema. An extensive list of young filmmakers has emerged from and gained international acclaim for their diverse, artistic, and innovative work. New York based Cinema Tropical—an established purveyor of Latin American cinema—hopes this cutting edge event will have international impact and will help draw even more attention to the creative output from Latin America.
This October, Cinema Tropical has organized a series of events celebrating Latin American cinema that kicked off last week with an insightful panel discussion with Chilean director Sebastián Silva (The Maid). It also includes the publication of a book of essays about the nominated films, a product of a special partnership between Cinema Tropical and Jorge Pinto Books.
The highlight of the ten-day program will be tonight’s AWARDS ceremony, with Triple nominated Lucrecia Martel from Argentina and Mexican director Carlos Reygadas to attend.

UNRELEASED FILMS AND INTERNATIONAL GUESTS MAKE CINEBH A WINDOW OF THE INDEPENDENT BRAZILIAN CINEMA TO THE WORLD

 

El Boanerense

Minas Gerais state capital event exhibits national and international unreleased films in Brazil and invites international professionals to get to know and discuss the Independent Brazilian Cinema and International Coproduction
As a closure for the 2010 season of the Cinema Sem Fronteiras program (which also includes the Tiradentes and Outro Preto Exhibits), CineBH Exhibit reassures, in its fourth edition, its goal to become one of the main windows of the independent Brazilian cinema to the international market, proposing dialogues with this foreign coproduction through the exhibition of some of the main films released in the great international festivals and with the presence of renowned professionals from the USA, Europe and Latin America who will have a chance to meet the new harvest of the Brazilian audiovisual production in Belo Horizonte and also debate and exchange experiences with its producers and filmmakers.
The whole program holds 78 national and international films, being 31 features, a media-film and 46 short-films, divided into 59 sessions during the six days of program offered for free to the public. This year there’s also the Brasil CineMundi – 1st International Coproduction Meeting, and intense programming of debates and

25 best action films of all time by The Guardian: n.6 “City of God”

 

City of God (Cidade de Deus).

This ground-level report on gang life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro exploded with thrilling and terrible force. An electrifying piece of cinema packed full of visual invention and dazzling set-pieces, it owes a debt to Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and audaciously pays it off. Though it unfolds at an exhilarating pace and crackles with danger, the film never allows itself to become seduced by the abundant violence of favela life. Instead, it keeps its lens trained on the attendant horrors, which mount up as the narrative jumps forward in time. What is most horrifying of all is how those caught up in the violence – victims and perpetrators alike – keep getting younger and younger.

Mexico’s drug wars captured in film comedy named Hell

Story of El Infierno follows cartel foot soldier capable of ‘insane levels of brutality’ and is tipped to be a box office hit
A black comedy taking Mexican cinema audiences on a rollercoaster ride through the horrors of the country’s drug wars is set to become one of the year’s big box office hits, even in areas worst affected by the violence.
El Infierno, or Hell, tells the story of a well-meaning middle-aged deported migrant called El Benny as he transforms into a drug cartel foot soldier capable of insane levels of brutality.
The film has been doing well in cities across the country for a month now, and was released in Ciudad Juárez this weekend. So far this year more than 2,400 people have been killed in drug war linked violence in and around the border city.
“The cinema was unusually busy and the audiences came out laughing and repeating scenes from the film,” Juárez usher Armando Martínez said in a phone interview. His own opinion? “It’s funny, but it’s hard too.”
The film’s director and co-writer, Luis Estrada, says his initial inspiration came from