DZI CROQUETTES and CONTRACORRIENTE Awarded at Frameline

Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival announced the winners for their 34th edition that took place June 17-27. Peruvian film Contracorriente / Undertow (pictured) by Javier Pérez-León won the "Outstanding First Feature" Award whilst Brazilian production Dzi Croquettes by Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez was awarded the "Outstanding Documentary" Award. As it was just recently reported on TropicalFRONT, Dzi Croquettes will soon have its New York premiere as part of MoMA's Premiere Brazil! 2010 festival. Additionally, Latino director Héctor Ceballos won the Audience Award for his short film Remember Me in Red.

MoMA Announces Lineup for Premiere Brazil! 2010

The Museum of Modern Art has announced the official lineup for the eight edition of their annual film festival Premiere Brazil! 2010 presented in partnership with the Rio International Film Festival. This year's edition of the popular series will take place July 15-29 and will present 15 New York premieres as well as two classic Brazilian films from the 70s.

The festival will open with the local premiere of Lixo extraordinário / Waste Land (2010) by Lucy Walker and co-directed by João Jardim and Karen Harley. Other highlights include the local premieres of Marcelo Gomes and Karim Aïnouz's I Travel because I Have to, I Come Back because I Love You (2009); Dzi Croquettes (2009) by Raphael and Tatiana Issa (pictured); Esmir Filho's debut feature film Os famosos e os duendes da morte / The Famous and the Dead (2009); and Fabio Barreto's biopic Lula, o filho do Brazil / Lula, the Son of Brazil.

Premiere Brazil! 2010 will also feature new prints of two of Carlos Diegues' seminal films: Xica da Silva (1976) and Bye Bye Brazil (1979). A special edition of TropiChat with a conversation with Diegues and film programmer Fabiano Canosa, will take place on Monday, July 19 at the Americas Society.

Click here for the full Premiere Brazil! 2010 program.

Gen MEX: Eugenio Polgovsky and Pedro González-Rubio at UnionDocs

Mexican filmmakers Eugenio Polgovksy and Pedro González-Rubio, two of the country's most talented and representative up-and-coming directors, presented their debut feature documentaries at UnionDocs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last night. The program was co-presented with Cinema Tropical, the Flaherty Seminar and the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York. Polgovsky's Trópico de Cáncer / Tropic of Cancer opened the program which was followed by a conversation with the filmmakers. They both shared with their audience the impetus that fuels their work including the need to tell different stories that are not represented in the local mainstream media. Following the discussion González-Rubio introduced Toro Negro, which he co-directed with Carlos Armella saying "if you hate Toro Negro, you'll probably love Alamar. The films are like yin and yang." González-Rubio's award-winning film Alamar, opens July 14th for a limited theatrical release at Film Forum, distributed by Film Movement.

Pictured (from left to right): Film critic Dennis Lim, Flaherty Seminar's Mary Kerr, filmmaker Eugenio Polgovsky, UnionDoc's Steve Holmgren, filmmaker Pedro González-Rubio and Cinema Tropical's Carlos A. Gutiérrez.

Cinema Tropical Party for the Flaherty Seminar at Casa Mezcal

Cinema Tropical offered a party for directors Lisandro Alonso, Pedro González-Rubio, Eugenio Polgovksy and Alex Rivera, the four Latin American filmmakers that participated as guest artists in the 56th edition of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, which took place last week at Colgate University and was programmed by film critic Dennis Lim. The animated party took place at Casa Mezcal in the New York City's Lower East Side last Saturday and was attended by some of the seminar participants along with some special guests including directors Sandra Kogut, Antonio Campos and photographer Nan Goldin. More pictures of the party here.

Pictured (from left to right): Filmmakers Lisandro Alonso, Pedro González-Rubio and Eugenio Polgovsky.

Lisandro Alonso at MoMA

For the first time ever, The Museum of Modern Art opened its doors to present a New York retrospective on a filmmaker of the so-called New Argentine Cinema of the past decade. MoMA presented the films of celebrated Argentine director Lisandro Alonso this past weekend, showing his four feature films to date: La libertad (Liberty, 2001), Los muertos (2004, The Dead), Liverpool (2008) and the local premiere of Fantasma (2006). The filmmaker was in attendance for Q&A sessions after the screening of two of his films. The series continues for a couple of more days until June 30th.

Pictured (left to right): MoMA's Sally Berger, Lisandro Alonso, film critic Dennis Lim, and Mary Kerr, Executive Director of the Flaherty Seminar.

Standing Ovation for PRESUMED GUILTY in its New York Premiere

Presumed Guilty / Presunto culpable's filmmakers were welcomed with a standing ovation at the end of the film's sold-out screening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater last night. The Mexican documentary film had its New York premiere as closing night of the 21st edition of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.

With unprecedented access to the Mexican courts and prisons, the film follows the story of a young man wrongly accused of committing a murder and unmasks the legal structures that allows this kind of systematic irregularities in the country. During the Q&A session, co-director Roberto Hernández stressed the power of cinema in making evident the lack of accountability in the country's judiciary system, saying that if it weren't for the film, it would be highly likely that Toño would still be in jail.

Pictured (from left to right): Presumed Guilty filmmakers Layda Negrete (producer), Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith (co-directors), with John Biaggi, director of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Two Latin American Filmmakers Awarded New Director Prizes

Two Latin American filmmakers received awards as Best New Director in two separate film festivals in the East and West Coasts this past weekend. In its 13th edition, the Brooklyn International Film Festival gave its New Director Award to Uruguayan filmmaker Álvaro Brechner for his debut feature Mal día para pescar / Bad Day to Go Fishing. In similar news, the New Directors Competition Jury of the 36th Seattle International Film Festival decided to give a Special Jury Mention to Chilean filmmaker Alicia Scherson (pictured) for her feature film Turistas. In a statement, the jury composed by Marcus Hu (Strand Releasing); Michael Kananack (NeoClassics Films); and Christian Vesper (IFC and The Sundance Channel), stated that "for her wry and surprising screenplay and her terrific casting, we want to note the achievement of Alica Scherson for her film Turistas."

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES Sweeps the Condor de Plata Awards

Juan José Campanella's El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in their Eyes was the big winner at the 48th edition of the Condor de Plata (Silver Condor) Awards given by the Argentine Film Critics Association in Buenos Aires last night. The film, which also received the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, broke a local all time record winning 11 awards out of 13 nominations, including of course the prizes Best Film and Best Director. In its 48th edition, the Condor de Plata gave out special honorary awards to the five Argentinean people that have won an Academy Award: Luis Puenzo (La historia oficial / The Official Story, 1985), Luis Bacalov (The Postman / Il Postino, 1994), Eugenio Zanetti (Restoration, 1995), Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain, 2005 and Babel, 2006) and Juan José Campanella (El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in their Eyes, 2009). Campanella's film continues its successful theatrical run in the U.S., where it has grossed over four million dollars in the box office.