15th Cinefantasy celebrates genre cinema and consolidates the southern hemisphere as the ‘cradle of the world’

O Cinefantasy (International Fantastic Film Festival) is celebrating its 15th edition with a program that includes 110 films from 20 countries, in addition to the four corners of Brazil, with the best of current fantastic cinema, as well as a tribute to the producer Rodrigo Teixeira and training activities.

Started last Saturday, 2nd, the event runs until December 9th, at the MIS (Museum of Image and Sound) and at Cinema Satyros Bijou, with free entry. A selection of the program will be available online, until December 11th, on Spcine streaming.

The program features 14 competitive shows, divided into feature films and short films, in the following categories: Amateur, Animation, Fantastic Brazil, Fantastic Spain, Student, Fantasy, Fantasteen, Fantastic Black Power, Fantastic Diversity, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantastic Women, Little Fantastics.

Curation

The curatorship of the competitive feature film exhibition was in the hands of Eduardo Santana, Javier Fernández Cuarto It is Filippo Pitanga. Although the picture seems little different, Pitanga assured that “these names are not the only ones” that participated in the process.

“There are several collaborations. Sometimes, these collaborations do not necessarily want, or ask, not to have an official credit, because they are in other departments, competing in other notices, with other legal formats”, explained the film critic in an interview The Rolling Stone Brazil.

He highlighted that Monica Trigo — president of ABRAFAN (Brazilian Association of Fantastic Film Festivals) and the FANTLATAM (Latin American Alliance of Fantastic Film Festivals) — is part of the festival’s management and also contributes to the curation process.

“We were the first fantastic film festival in Brazil — perhaps in Latin America — to have specific directorial categories for black representation, such as Fantastic Black Power, Mulheres Fantásticas, for female directors, and Fantástica Diversidade, with LGBTQIAPN+ representation behind”, he recalled. Filippo.

The curators of the competitive short film exhibition seem very well suited to each session for which they were responsible. In addition to being representative, they are important because they place productions that “perhaps would not naturally fit in” on the public’s radar. Cinefantasy.

Uniting and propagating Latin American cinema is also among the festival’s concerns. One of the initiatives proposed by Wheatfor example, was the invitation for the Argentine Javier Fernández Cuarto join the curators. “We have very serious deficits beyond the intersectional ones, gender, race and class”, he pointed out Pitanga. He made it clear, however, that there is no hierarchy of oppression, making reference to Audrey Lorde.

Streaming

Part of the program Cinefantasy is available on the Spcine streaming service until December 11th, in accordance with what Pitanga characterized as a “cultural necessity”, combined with “technological innovations that reached more people”. Nonetheless, Filippo advocated for the occupation of movie theaters and “that [ela] still be a cultural, social and collective activity, in times when, more than ever, we talk about loneliness”.

MIS itself, one of our exhibition venues, said just yesterday how happy he was to see some of our sessions absolutely packed, because he didn’t see the public returning to his cinema room, despite the exhibitions being very popular.

Pitanga also addressed a “predatory” aspect of streaming, which means that “films need to seek out platforms in order to survive post-festival circuits”. Services like Netflix, for example, were pointed out by the curator as, at times, “unfair”, as they are in a tug of war with cinema shows so that productions are “increasingly shown less and less at festivals and, when they reach the streaming, are more unreleased”.

Streaming is fighting hard against regional festivals with their monopoly. They don’t want films to reach certain territories and we have some distribution issues that are very severely affected because of that.

Poor cousin?

The expression “genre cinema” is used to categorize films such as fantasy, horror and science fiction. These productions, however, are not always seen as worthy of popular awards, such as the Oscar, or even of being taken seriously. Therefore, the Cinefantasy has played, for almost two decades, a very important role for this type of cinema, which “faces prejudice and the dismantling of public policies”, according to Filippo highlighted.

The festival needs to fight for space among shows that may be considered more important because they are not so specific, but the scenario has changed: “We were like cinema’s poor cousin. Today, genre cinema has more and more recognition”, pondered Pitanga.

International festivals

For Filippo, the only difference between international and national film festivals is the “monopoly of privileges, mainly in the northern hemisphere”. He associated these privileges with the “cultural monopoly of the English language” which confines plurality. “People restrict themselves to what they think they want to see, and this sometimes hinders access to other continents, other cultures, other languages, other aesthetics,” he said.

We know very well that the south is the cradle of the world, what generally generates the great wealth exported to the north and which is often appropriated.

Honored

The honoree of the 15th edition of Cinefantasy It is Rodrigo Teixeira, a producer who has taken Brazilian cinema to a global level. He is the founder of the production company RT Features — responsible for acclaimed feature films such as Frances Ha (2012), Call Me By Your Name (2017) and The Invisible Life (2019)—and collaborates with big names in Hollywood, such as Martin Scorsese It is Brad Pitt. Without leaving Brazil out, Teixeira has also been dedicated to partnerships in the country, such as with the producer Plastic Films and the director Gabriel Martinsin Vicentina Apologizes.

The relationship with the Rodrigo is admiration for the extreme diversification of the field of activity of the films and projects he chooses, for the good keen eye he has for new projects — so that he increasingly expands his scope, understanding that he also has a place of privilege and knowing how to share this place.