Now in its 12th year, Miami Encuentros is presented through the VeoMiami industry program which runs parallel to Miami Dade College’s Miami International Film Festival. One winning project will receive a $10,000 cash prize presented by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The purpose of Miami Encuentros is to facilitate completion of feature films that are currently in postproduction, produced partially or entirely by Ibero-American based production companies, or from U.S. Hispanic filmmakers. The program aims to propel these projects towards their eventual debuts on the international stage after completion, supporting the filmmakers through a blend of exposure at the Festival and awards to the most meritorious project as selected by a jury of international film professionals. In addition to the $10,000 cash prize, the winning project will also receive a DCP Mastering Service package from Madrid’s Aracne Digital Cinema valued at 5,000.
The five selected Miami Encuentros projects this time around are:
—The Apostate (El apóstata) (Spain / France / Uruguay, produced by Guadalupe Balaguer Trelles, Fernando Franco, and Federico Veiroj, directed by Federico Veiroj). Veiroj has had two previous films in Miami International Film Festival’s Official Selection: Acné at the 2009 Festival and A Useful Life (La vida útil) at the 2011 Festival.
—Lost North (Sin norte) (Chile, produced by Luis Cifuentes and Francisca Urrutia, directed by Fernando Lavanderos). Lavanderos has previously directed the feature film Things the Way They Are (Las cosas como son) (2012), an award winner at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Cifuentes also produced In the Grayscale (En las gamas de gris), which is world premiering in Miami International Film Festival’s Official Selection this year as part of the Lexus Ibero-American Opera Prima Competition.
—My Friend from the Park (Mi amiga del parque) (Argentina / Uruguay, produced by Nicolás Avruj, Diego Lerman and Ana Katz, directed by Ana Katz). Katz has previously directed three feature films, including A Stray Girlfriend (Una novia errante), which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Avruj and Lerman have had one previous film in the Miami International Film Festival’s Official Selection, Lerman’s The Invisible Eye (La mirada invisible) at the 2011 Festival.
—Strange Days (Dias extraños) (Argentina / Colombia, produced by Juan Villegas, Rodrigo Moreno and Juan Sebastián Quebrada, directed by Juan Sebastián Quebrada). This is Quebrada’s debut feature film. Villegas has had two previous films in Miami International Film Festival’s Official Selection, as executive producer of Celina Murga’s A Week Alone (Una semana solos) at the 2009 Festival and Gonzalo Tobal’s Villegas at the 2013 Festival.
—Wounded Man (Te prometo anarquÃa) (Mexico / Germany, produced by Sandra Gómez, Maximiliano Cruz and Julio Hernández Cordón and directed by Julio Hernández Cordón). Hernández Cordón has had three previous films in Miami International Film Festival’s Official Selection, Gasoline (Gasolina) at the 2009 Festival, Dust (Polvo) at the 2013 Festival, and Marimbas from Hell (Marimbas del infierno) at the 2011 Festival, which also won that year’s Knight Ibero-American Grand Jury Prize.
The program was curated by Diana Sanchez, an influential expert on Latin American cinema, who created the program for Miami International Film Festival in 2003 with then-director Nicole Guillemet.
