Gijón 2007

"Cocochi" — winner of the FIPRESCI Prize

The annual Festival Internacional de Cine de Gijón began in this Spanish coastal city in 1963 as an event aimed at children. Over the years, the festival has modified its artistic focus and has developed into an eclectic international event featuring different competitive sections. This year's edition, the 45th.took place from November 22nd to December 1st.
   The competitive Official Section of feature films offered works by well known directors, such as the Spaniard Pere Portabella (Die Stille vor Bach — El silencio antes de Bach) and the Austrian Ulrich Seidl (Import/Export) and by lesser known filmmakers, such as the Belgian Nic Balthazar (Ben X). Also, the competing short films and feature films in the Official Section were having their Spanish premiere during the festival.
    Another competitive program was "Enfants Terribles", which showcased fifteen recent international features deemed appropriate for screening and discussion by schoolchildren and adolescents in an academic setting. This unusual program reflects the festival's roots as a cultural event aimed at children.
    This year's edition of the festival created a new competitive category — non-fiction feature films. In this competition, the best non-fiction feature was selected from amongst all the documentary films screened in all the sections of the festival.
    The festival program included several cycles that were not competitive. The "Esbilla Cycle" presented recent, important international shorts and features that for some reason (e. g. their previous appearance in other festivals) could not be featured in the Official Section. The non-competitive "Llendes Section" screened recent experimental work, such as films which occupy the fuzzy zone between fiction and documentary.
   Major retrospectives were included in this year's edition of the festival: the Lebanese filmmaker Danielle Arbid, the Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto, U. S. director Anna Biller, and Mexican cineaste Carlos Reygadas. (Dennis West)
 
Gijón International Film Festival, Spain, November 22 — December 1, 2007, www.gijonfilmfestival.com
FIPRESCI Prize: Cochochi by Israel Cárdenas & Laura Amelia Guzmán (Mexico). Details

Reports:

Dude, Where Is My Horse? The critics' prize went to Cochochi. Violeta Kovacsics underlines how the digital feature by Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán is a very satisfying opera prima with the directors in full control of their art.
Detecting the Signs of Life. The perennial nature of films to revise social history and highlight the dark side of human nature continues with this new work by Nicolas Klotz La question humaine which, according to Nil Basker, also serves well as a contemporary drama of capitalist alienation.
Three Important Documentary Features.  In the history of documentary filmmaking — at least since Nanook of the North —- perhaps no sub-genre has been more important than the documentary portrait. Dennis West looks at the format as represented in three examples.

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