Season I
Chilean Film Festival
No, directed by Pablo Lorrain
No is a historical drama based on the unpublished play El Plebiscito, written by Chilean writer Antonio Skármeta. Mexican actor Gael García Bernal plays René, an in-demand advertising man working in Chile in the late 1980s. The film highlights how graphic design was used in the 1988 plebiscite, when the Chilean citizenry decided whether or not dictator Augusto Pinochet should stay in power for another eight years. At the 85th Academy Awards the film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
2012, Spanish with English subtitles
2 hrs
Machuca, directed by Andrés Wood
Set in 1973 Santiago during Salvador Allende's socialist government until shortly after General Augusto Pinochet's military coup in 1973, Machuca tells the story of two pupils: Gonzalo Infante comes from rich family with European background, while Pedro Machuca comes from an indigenous background and lives in very poor conditions. They meet at an elite, English-language Catholic school, where the director, Father McEnroe, is developing a social integration project. This film was nominated for the Ariel Award in 2005 in the category Best Iberoamerican Film. It won Most Popular International Film at the 2004 Vancouver International Film Festival.
2004, Spanish with English Subtitles
2 hrs
Violeta Went to Heaven, directed by Andrés Wood
Violeta Went to Heaven is a Chilean biopic about singer and folklorist Violeta Parra. The film is based on a biography by Violeta’s son Ángel Parra, who also collaborated on the film. It was awarded the World Cinema Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
2011, Spanish with English subtitles
1 hr 50 min
A Fantastic Woman, directed by Sebastian Lelio
A Fantastic Woman, directed by Sebastian Lelio, is a window into the reality of Marina, a transgender woman living in Chile, as she copes with the death of her older, cisgender boyfriend. A Fantastic Woman received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, and became the first Chilean film to win the award in this category.
2018, Spanish with English subtitles
1 h 44 min
Nostalgia for the Light, directed by Patricio Guzmán
Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light is a remarkable meditation on memory, history and eternity. Chile’s remote Atacama Desert, 10,000 feet above sea level, provides stunningly clear views of the heavens for astronomers. But it also holds secrets from the past: human remains, from pre-Columbian mummies to the bones of political prisoners “disappeared” during the Pinochet dictatorship.
2010, Spanish with English subtitles
1 h 30 min