Ver Cine Colombiano: Noticias | Proimágenes Colombia

In its closing ceremony, the 55th FICCI hosted the Latin American premiere of the latest film by Rodrigo García Barcha, Last Days in the Desert. This film features performances by Ewan McGregor, Tye Sheridan, Ayelet Zurer, Ciarán Hinds, and Susan Gray, and was screened in Cartagena following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. This screening provided an opportunity for the return to Cartagena of Rodrigo García Barcha, the winning director of Un Certain Regard at Cannes for Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000).
 
Also in this edition, the Festival paid tribute to three greats of world cinema. The first was Darren Aronofsky, producer, screenwriter and one of the most prominent directors in U.S. film, who arrived in Cartagena after serving on the jury at the 2015 Berlinale. In addition to the tribute and his conversations with filmgoers in Salón FICCI activities, Aronofsky’s first five films were screened: Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), The Wrestler (2008) and Black Swan (2010).
 
The second tribute was for Kim Ki-duk, one of the greatest representatives of the vanguard of South Korean cinema. Kim Ki-duk stands out as one of the few South Korean filmmakers who have managed to move beyond the borders of their continent. He has received multiple awards during his career, including a Silver Bear at Berlinale for his film Samaritan Girl (2004); four awards at the Locarno Film Festival and the Audience Award at the San Sebastian Festival for Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003); eight awards at the Venice Film Festival for 3-Iron (2004) and Pietà (2012); and many other accolades. The 55th FICCI paid tribute to Kim with a retrospective of these four films which built his reputation on the international circuit, along with The Isle (2000) and The Bow (2005).
 
This year’s third tribute was for Pablo Trapero, an essential name in New Argentinian and Latin American Cinema. Trapero gained the attention of international film festivals with his debut film Crane World (1999), which won him awards at festivals in Fribourg, Rotterdam, Venice, and Havana. In 2002, El bonaerense established him as an up-and-coming Latin American director; in 2004, with Rolling Family, he crossed dramatic comedy with road-movie and showed that New Argentinian Cinema could achieve registers other than social realism, idle moments, and the dramaturgy of everyday life. In 2006, he presented Born and Bred, followed by the films that took him to Cannes -- Lion's Den (2008), nominated for the Palme d’Or, and two films that participated in Un Certain Regard, Carancho (2010) and White Elephant (2012).
 
Another prominent guest was filmmaker and a photographer Raymond Depardon, member of the international photography agency Magnum Photos. Depardon is regarded as a key figure and a master in both fields. Nine of his documentaries were chosen from his extensive filmography as part of a retrospective: Delits Flagrants (Caught in the Act); 10th District Court, News Items; Reporters; 1974, une partie de campagne; Lest We Forget; Afriques, comment ca va avec la douleur (Africa, How are You with Pain?); and Journal de France. Depardon gave a Master Class as part of the Salón FICCI program.
 
Finally, U.S. producer Michael Fitzgerald was in Cartagena as part of the jury for the Fiction Official Competition. His works include Under the Volcano, nominated for an Oscar in 1984; The Penitent (1988); Mister Johnson (1990); Blue Danube Waltz by Miklós Jancsó; The Pledge, produced with Sean Penn; Colour Me Kubrick (2005); The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), which won Best Actor for Tommy Lee Jones and best screenplay for Guillermo Arriaga at Cannes; In the Electric Mist, directed by Bertrand Tavernier; Closer to the Moon (2013); Eco de la montaña (Echo of the Mountain) (2014); and The Homesman (2014). A retrospective with five of these major films was presented during the festival.