30/03/2012 - Latin American creators are meeting professionals from the European film industry at the 24th Rencontres de Toulouse until Sunday

These days, between March 23 and April 1, Toulouse has transformed itself into a bridge between Latin American cinema and its distribution in Europe,. The Rencontres Cinémas d’Amérique Latine, now called the Cinélatino, Rencontres de Toulouse, are organised by ARCALT in collaboration with the MEDIA MUNDUS programme, the French CNC, the Cervantes Institute, as well as other local and regional institutions.

Besides its competitions for feature films, short films, and documentaries, and its good line-up in a Panorama section showing the region’s cinema over the last years, the event’s 24th edition has programmed sessions dedicated to deceased Franco-Chilean director Raúl Ruiz, to his fellow countryman Alejandro Jodorowsky, to Brasilian director of photography Walter Carvalho, and to comedies from Uruguay.

But Cinélatino’s professional platform wil also bring together a good number of professionals from the European film industry with Latin American directors and producers. These will meet during a number of events, including Cinema in Development, a day to present Latin American film projects, CinémaLab, workshops to promote Latin American cinema in Europe and whose American equivalent will be held at the Valdivia Film Festival in Chile this October, and Cinema under construction, for films almost completed, but encountering difficulties in post-production, organised twice a year in collaboration with the San Sebastián Film Festival. Results after 20 editions of this last activity included over 100 applications for its 21st edition, from which six films have been selected (half of which involve European participation) and presented yesterday and today with the 65th Cannes Film Festival (from May 16 to 28)’s imminent official selection in mind.

(Translated from Spanish)