From Soccer Dreams to Horror Tales: 5 Must-See Movies at Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York
The second edition of the Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York, EFFNY: One Ecuador! is hoping to build on last year’s inaugural outing by yet again showcasing the strong filmmaking work coming from the Latin American country. Presented by Maravilla, the New York-based organization dedicated to raising awareness of Latin America through films and the arts, EFFNY will be showcasing ten feature-length and 17 short films this year. The diversity of projects to be screened are a perfect example of the burgeoning growth the country’s cinema industry has experienced in the past decade.
If you need a reminder: Ecuador produced a total of four features in the ’90s. But ever since 2006, the government has made inroads to increase production and now they boast an average of 10-12 films a year, many of them traveling the world in festivals and championing a new voice in Latin American cinema. Darío Aguirre’s Cesar’s Grill, for example, played the Hamburg Film Festival, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, and the Milwaukee Film Festival, before landing at last year’s EFFNY and winning the Jury Award for Best Film as well as the Audience Award; while the flick that tied Aguirre’s for the Jury Award — Tito Molina’s Silence in Dreamland — was eventually chosen as Ecuador’s Oscar submission in 2014, only the fourth film ever submitted by the country for that elusive golden statue.
Even with a competition lineup that may seem entirely modest in size compared to the larger festivals that play New York City, we figured you’d want to know the highlights of what you should catch at this year’s EFFNY. We’ve put together a list of Remezcla’s Top Picks that run the gamut from inspiring soccer docs to teenage coming of age tales.
The Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York runs June 2-5, 2016.
