Editor

THE RIVIERA MAYA FILM FESTIVAL 2014 ANNOUNCES ITS PROGRAM, MARCH 9^th-15^th

Today, the Riviera Maya Film Festival announced its official program of domestic and international films to be screened at this year’s annual event (March 9^th-15^th). In its third edition, the Festival continues its mission of promoting and distributing quality cinema for a larger audience, as well as showcasing the state of Quintana Roo as a cultural and travel destination which attracts and supports film development throughout the world. This year’s festival to includes more than 50 feature films from 23 countries.

The competitive sections of the Festival are Mexican Platform, in which the jury bestows two Kukulkan Awards endowed with 300,000 MXN each and a Kukulkan Youth Jury Award, endowed with 100,000 MXN; the RivieraLAB/Co-production Forum, where two selected projects will receive a financial incentive of 200,000 MXN each; and the RivieraLAB/Work in Progress, where two selected projects will receive a financial incentive of 200,000 MXN each. In total, the Festival grants 1,500,000 MXN in prizes.

“In our 3^rd edition, we want to continue working towards the promotion and distribution of the film industry, bringing it to the largest possible audience,” stated Paula Chaurand, Director of the Festival. “Under the motto ‘Cinema Unites Us’ we would like to create a sense of appropriation that involves the residents of the Riviera Maya as well as its visitors.”

“Due to the quality level of the submissions, it was hard to narrow the number of participating projects this year,” said Maximiliano Cruz, Coordinator of the Mexican Platform. “The international committee chose projects that reflect the cinematic contrasts of various national cultures.”

“This year, 82 films from 18 countries have been submitted to the Co-production Forum and 71 films from 20 countries to the Work-in-Progress section. These competitive sections are made for film projects looking for international funding and co-production aid as well as for sale agents and distribution to begin their promotion,” said the RivieraLAB Director, Sandra Gómez.

The Riviera Maya Film Festival will take place in Cancun, Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum, from March 9^th to the 15^th.

Below you can find a selection of some of the films which will be shown at the 2014 Riviera Maya Film Festival:

·         A Promise (Director Patrice Leconte, Starring Rebecca Hall, Alan Rickman, Richard Madden, Toby Murray)

·         Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas (Director Arnaud des Pallières, Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Delphine Chuillot, David Kross)

·         Grand Central (Director Rebecca Zlotowski, Starring Tahar Rahim, Oliver Gourmet, Léa Seydoux)

·         Hard to Be a God (Director Aleksei German, Starring Leonid Yarmolnik, Dmitriy Vladimirov, Laura Lauri)

·         Holy Field Holy War (Director Lech Kowalski)

·         Night Moves (Director Kelly Reichardt, Starring Dakota Fanning, Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Sarsgaard, Alia Shawkat)

·         Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 & Volume 2 (Director Lars von Trier, Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Shia LaBeouf)

·         Oldboy (Director Spike Lee, Starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson)

·         R100 (Director Hitoshi Matsumoto, Starring Mao Daichi, Lindsay Kay Hayward, Hairi Katagiri, Gin Maeda)

·         Seduced and Abandoned (Director James Toback, Starring Ryan Gosling, Martin Scorsese, Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger)

·         The Double (Director Richard Ayoade, Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Sally Hawkins, Mia Wasikowska)

·         Til Madness Do Us Apart (Director Wang Bing)

·         Tip Top (Director Serge Bozon, Starring Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Kiberlain, Karole Rocher)

·         Why Don´t You Play in Hell (Director Shion Sono, Starring Hiroki Hasegawa, Gen Hoshino, Akihiro Kitamura)

*Additional titles to be forthcoming.

For more information, please visit: http://rmff.mx/

About the Riviera Maya Film Festival

The Riviera Maya Film Festival was created in 2012 with the goal to meet one of the greatest needs of the film industry in Mexico and perhaps in the entire world: the distribution of quality international cinema.

By bringing this sort of films to a larger number of people we reaffirm our belief in the transforming power of cinema due to its ability to show different glances and ways of thinking. That’s why we decided the festival should be for free and that is also why we decided to revitalize the experience of watching a film by organizing screenings in all kinds of stages and contexts, such as at the beach or in public squares.