The 20th Film Festival premieres ten feature films and 12 short films in competition
As recognized by the director of the film event, Luis Miranda, despite the fact that the time span in the selection of films has been extended, this decision has not affected, except for a title, the competitive sections or the Panorama section, for which a different program than the one conceived for 2020 has been designed.
Miranda recognizes that digital and technological advances have been of great importance to be able to mount a unique edition, but at the same time, the teleworking condition of many of the sales agents or producers has slowed down the process and forced to double efforts. Even so, the programming team has overcome the obstacles and has managed to close an edition that fulfills the vision that this Festival defends: designing itineraries and routes that show the diversity of paths, authors and nationalities that converge at the event.
The official feature film section brings together ten works that, despite the health crisis, are seeing the light of day at festivals such as Sundance, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Marseille and Miami.
The Real Thing (Japan, 2020, 228 min.) Passed through the French festival, a work by Koji Fukada who also visited the Tokyo Film Festival as part of a tribute to the director of Hospitalité (2010) or Harmonium (2016), the latter Audience Award at the Gran Canaria event and Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes.
From Japan also comes A Balance (2020, 153 min.) A disturbing title in which the balance can result, according to the specialized press after passing through Berlin, Busan or Singapore, “unexpected and effective”. Of a very personal nature is Fire in the Mountains by Ajitpal Singh (India, 2021, 83 min.) "A powerful feminist message" according to Variety published after passing through Sundance.
Despite the crisis, the titles have seen the light in events such as Sundance, Miami or Rotterdam
Sundance was also the setting on which El perro que no calla (2020, 73 min.) By Argentina's Ana Katz was shown. The filmmaker, a regular at the San Sebastian Festival, visited Rotterdam and Miami with this singular and experimental work. FID Marseille featured another of the titles that the Gran Canaria Festival will show in competition: Goodbye Mister Wong by Kiyé Simon Luang (France, Laos, 2020, 100 min.), A title that conveys the beauty of the landscape of this Southeast Asian country and its colonial architecture while dwelling on the present through a love dispute.
Fiction is the path through which Ángeles Cruz captures harsh and questionable realities for women in rural Mexico. Nudo Mixteco (Mexico, 2021, 96 min.), The director's second feature film, presents three stories that intersect as a complaint. The poetry and aesthetic beauty of Exemplary Behavior prompted the Festival to maintain its claim to exhibit it at the contest. The film by Audrius Mickevicius and Nerijus Milerius (Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Italy, 2019, 85 min.) Is the only one to reappear on the official list after being scheduled in 2020.
This same creative boom can be observed in the selection of non-fiction works that compete in the Official Feature Films Section. Films like No Kings (Brazil, USA, Italy, 2020, 88 min.), An endearing work based on the observation signed by Emilia Mello; Radiograph of a Family (Iran, Norway, Switzerland, 2020, 80 min), personal essay by the poet and director Firouzeh Khosrovani in which she addresses her vital conflict between tradition and modernity; and This Rain Will Never Stop by Alina Gorlova (Ukraine, Germany, Latvia, 2020, 103 min.), a black and white documentary with the war as a backdrop; are three extraordinary documentaries that will be able to be seen in the twentieth edition of the festival.
