The Punta del Este International Film Festival opens Monday in the Uruguayan resort city with a program featuring about 60 titles, most of them Ibero-American and European movies.
The festival, which runs until Feb. 27, is in the 19th year of its second run and organizers plan to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the opening of the Festival Palace, a venue built in 1951 for the original film festival.
The opening session will honor George Hilton, born Jorge Hill Acosta y Lara in 1934 in Montevideo, Uruguay, who achieved fame in the 1960s as an actor in a number of “Spaghetti Westerns.”
On Monday, “Ausencia” (Absence), winner of the Gramado Festival in Brazil, will be screened.
On closing day, the program features “Mi amiga del parque” (My Friend from the Park), an Argentine-Uruguayan co-production directed by filmmaker Ana Katz that received an award at the Sundance Film Festival, a showcase for independent films in the United States.
At the Jan. 21-31 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, the jury granted a special award in recognition of the film’s script.
Films participating in the Punta del Este International Film Festival will compete in the categories of best movie, director and actor, with the winners to be selected by an international five-member jury. EFE
Photo: eldiario.com.uy
