The 15th edition of the BAFICI, Latin America's largest and most prestigious event dedicated to independent cinema, will be held April 10-21, 2013.
Around one hundred films will be presented in the six sections of the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (BAFICI), including fifteen majority French productions:
- 2 films in the International Competition: Coquillettes by Sophie Letourneur (whose previous film The Shady Sailor also features in the Panorama section) and My blue-eyed girl (screened in the presence of director Shalimar Preuss)
- 4 films in the Avant-Garde Competition (The Last Time I Saw Macao, Leviathan, Vers Madrid, Déjeuner chez Gertrude Stein)
- 6 in the Panorama section (Something in the Air Sexual Chronicles of a French Family, The Girl from Nowhere, The Shady Sailor, The Lebanese Rocket Society, Gebo and the Shadow)
- 2 in the Little BAFICI section and the Music section (Zarafa and Ingrid Caven, musique et voix)
The festival will close with a screening of Under the Rainbow held in the presence of Agnès Jaoui, the film's director and lead actress. Jaoui will also take part in the Vista exhibitors' convention held a few days later, at which she will introduce an 18-minute program of trailers with Spanish subtitles prepared by uniFrance Films, including a number of films scheduled for release in Argentina in the second half of 2013.
Every year, Vista gathers together exhibitors from all over Latin America for its international meeting. The situation for independent films in Argentina has become particularly difficult over the past three years. While good results were registered overall in 2012, as was the case in the majority of markets, independent films attracted a meager 30,000 spectators, when figures in the past were more often in the 100,000 admissions range. Many art house cinemas have closed down in recent years, added to which the government has introduced exchange restrictions that reduce opportunities for film acquisition.
However, the commitment of many industry professionals in this movie-loving country, allied with privately-led initiatives such as the reopening of one of Buenos Aires's legendary theaters with a focus on independent films, help to raise hopes that French films may still attract an audience in Argentina.
