Rio International Film Festival 2005 September 22 through October 6

The Rio Int'l Film Festival (Festival do Rio), taking place in one of the world's most famous cities September 22 - October 6, will light up Rio de Janeiro with the brightest and best of world cinema. The biggest and most important showcase for Latin American cinema, and one of the biggest in the world, this year's festival will play host to more than 300 features and documentaries from 60 countries with screenings spread over 35 venues throughout the city, made up of 25 cinemas, 8 specially constructed outdoor tents as well as on the famous Copacabana beach.

World and Latin premieres, screenings of classical movies, special screenings, retrospectives, together with seminars, debates and visits by international directors and actors add up to the vibrant mix that is Festival do Rio.

Highlights of Festival do Rio 2005 include Latin premieres of such previous festival winners and crowd pleasers as Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers, Gus van Sant's Last Days, (L'Enfant) by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, The Wayward Cloud by Ming-liang Tsai, Where the Truth Lies by Atom Egoyan, John Madden's Proof, Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardner,and straight from their Toronto world premieres - Stephen Frears' Mrs Henderson Presents, and Neil Jordan's Breakfast at Pluto.

Expected high profile festival guests will include Fernando Meirelles, Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Gus Van Sant, Kelly Reilly, Stuart Gordon, Danny Glover, William H Macy, and Cuba Gooding Jr.

"The Int'l Rio Film Festival is a mosaic of world cinema, bringing together all levels of production and achievement - top name directors screening alongside independents and newcomers. Our aim is to make the city alive with anticipation and to deliver the most comprehensive programme of any world festival," says festival director Ilda Santiago.

In addition to the regular festival sections World Panorama, Expectations 2005, Midnight Movies, Première Brazil and Premiere Latin America, the festival will this year introduce several new strands: Dox - dedicated to national and international documentaries; Brasil with a Z, a series of foreign films which take their subject from an outsider's view of Brazilian life and culture; Classical Japanese, a special celebration of the 110 years of Shochiku Films, Japan's biggest studio; Retrospective Raymond Depardon, featuring films of the revered French photographer and documentary maker. Spanish films and filmakers are highlighted in Focus Spain, with 22 of the most recent movies from the country on show, among them Iberia by Carlos Saura, Real, the Movie (Real,La Película), by Borja Manso, and Reinas, by Manuel Gómez Pereira, which stars Carmen Maura and Marisa Paredes.

Special film events which will see world classics revisited in either restored or new versions include The Gang's All Here - an homage to Carmen Miranda on the 50th anniversary of her death; Battleship Potemkin, screened with a soundtrack performed by live orchestra; Donkey Skin (Peau d'Ane), by Jacques Demy, The Battle of Chile (Batalla de Chile) in a new extended six hour version, and I am Cuba (Soy Cuba), by Mikheil Kalatozishvili.

2005 also sees the inauguration, in partnership with the City Mayor, of the The Odeon Tenda, (Odeon Tent) which will be erected in front of the festival headquarters palais, and will provide an official meeting point between the public and the directors and the actors attending the festival.

As usual, Copacabana's Meridien Hotel will provide the base for the festival centre where delegates and visitors - this year numbering 300 producers and foreign executives, and 600 distributors and others professionals of the Brazilian cinema will meet. For the first time the festival will inaugurate a new co-production market, Semana Latina, which will bring producers and industry together in daily workshops and one-to-one meetings. The market side of the Rio Int'l Film Festival has grown annually, and is now considered central to the aims of Festival do Rio in bringing the international film community together to benefit from exchanged views and experience. "In the Rio Screenings and Seminars programme, established for people to do business in the festival, Brazilian producers will have the opportunity to show their films to buyers from all over the world." says Walkiria Barbosa, the Festival director,who also points to the fact that this year the digital markets will have a new place: "It is an opportunity for Brazilian TV channels and distributors to buy movies never exhibited before in the country, and for the opening of new windows to the marketing and distribution of movies in the emerging telephonic and digital television market".

RIO INT'L FILM FESTIVAL 2005
September 22 through October 6
Sponsors
Secretary of Culture of Rio de Janeiro/Riofilme
Petrobras

Highlights of Festival do Rio, 2005:
 
WORLD PANORAMA
Movies by revered directors, award-winning films and films exhibited in the most important festivals of the world.

- Ae Fond Kiss, by Ken Loach
- Breakfast at Pluto, by Neil Jordan
- Cuore Sacro, by Ferzan Ozpetek
- Dear Wendy, by Thomas Vinterberg
- Enduring Love, by Roger Michell, with Samantha Morton
- Espelho Mágico, by Manuel de Oliveira
- Factotum, by Bent Hammer,
- Fateless, by Lajjos Koltai
- Holy Lola, by Bertrand Tavernier
- Last Days, by Gus van Sant
- The Russian Dolls (Les Poupées Russes), by Cédric Klapisch
(second part of the l'Auberge Espagnole)
- Man to Man, by Régis Wargnier
- Manderlay, by Lars Von Trier
- O Jardineiro Fiel, by Fernando Meireles
- The Taste of Tea, by Zhang Yuan
- Thumbsucker, by Mike Mills
- Twilight Samurai, by Yoji Yamada
- Dias de Campo, by Raoul Ruiz (Chile/França)
- Crash, by Paul  Haggis
- Shadowboxer by Lee Daniels
- Proof, by John Madden


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EXPECTATIONS 2005
The best of new contemporary cinema; films by directors to watch out for:

- A Way of Life, by Amma Asante
- Bride of Silence, by Doan minh Phuong Doan
- Bullet Boy, by Saul Dibb
- Darwin's Nightmare, by Hubert Sauper
- Green Chair, by Park Chul-soo
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, by Shane Black
- Shoot Goals! Shoot Movies!
- The Goebbels-Experiment, by Lutz Hachmeister

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DOX

- The Education of Shelby Knox, by Marios Lipschutz
- Unknown White Male, by Rupert Murray
- The Happiest People on Earth, by Shaheen Dill-riaz
- Faces of change, by Michell Stephenson
- Abdullah Ibrahim - a Struggle for Love, by Ciro Cappellari
- How Arnold Won The West, by Alex Cooke

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FOCUS SPAIN
- Iberia, by Carlos Saura
- Amor Idiota, by Ventura Pons
- Perfect Crime (Crimen Ferpecto), byAlex de la Iglesia
- Método Grönholm (El Método Gronholm), by Marcelo Piñeyro
- Reinas, by Manuel Gómez Pereira (with Marisa Paredes, Carmem Maura, Mercedes
Sampietro).
- Real, the movie (Real, la Película), by Borja Mando
- Incautos, by Miguel Bardem
- Obaba by Montxo Armendariz
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MIDNIGHT MOVIES
Devoted to cult films at their best - experimental, weird, or just wonderful:
 
- Buy It Now, by Antônio Campos
- Casshern, by Kiriya Kazuaki
- Deep Throat, by Gerard Damiano
- Inside deep throat, by fenton bailey e randy barbato
- George Michael: A Different Story, by Southan Morris
- I Am a Sex Addict, by Caveh Zahedi
- Joahanna, by Kornel Mundruczó
- Korda, by Marcos Andrade
- Odete, by João Pedro Rodrigues
- That Man: Peter Berlin, by Jim Turshinski
- Um Lobisomem na Amazônia, by Ivan Cardoso
- Measures to Better the World, by Jorn Hintzer

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GAY WORLD
A selection of the newest and most interesting from the world of Gay cinema.

- Feline Masquerade, by Veronika Minder
- Formula 17, byDj Chen
- Muxes: Autenticas, intrépidas y.. by Alejandra Islas
- Testosterone, by David Moreton
- Un Año Sin Amor, by Anahí Berneri
- Heights, by Chris Terrio, with Glenn Close

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PREMIÈRE LATINA
Featuring over 20 premieres of the most important new films from Latin America, among them:

- Al Otro Lado, by Gustavo Loza (México)
- Alma Mater, by Alvaro Buela (Uruguai/Canadá)
- Batalla En En Cielo, by Carlos Reygadas (México)
- Cachimba, by Silvio Caiozzi (Chile/Argentina)
- El Aura, by Fabien Bielinski
- La Sombra Del Caminante, by Ciro Guerra (Colômbia)
- Las Mantenidas Sin Sueño, by Vera Fogwill (Argentina)
- Luna de Avellaneda, by José Luis Campanella (Argentina)
- Nordeste, by Juan Solanas - with Carole Bouquet (Argentina/França)
- Iluminados Por el Fuego - by Tristan Bauer


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BRASIL with a Z
A different Brasil:

- El Milagro Del Candeal, by Fernando Trueba
- Favela Rising, by Jeff Zimbalist,
- Maria Bethania, Música é Perfume, by George gachot
- Olhar Estrangeiro, by Lucia Murat
- Samba On your Feet, by Eduado Montes
- Shantytown Shakespeare, by Paul Heritage
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SCREENING GENERATION
A selection specially created for the younger generation: children have their movies, teenagers too. Includes an interactive program VIDEO GENERATION, where children and teenagers produce their own video.
 
- Hinokio, by Akiyama Takahiko
- In Orange, by Joram Lürsen
- Pele de Asno, by Jacques Demy
- Viva Cuba, by Juan Carlos Cremata
- Wallace & Gromitt - The Great Vegetable Plot by Steve Box and Nick Park

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PREMIÈRE BRAZIL
The most popular and prestigious of the Rio Int'l Film Festival, this year screens 28 features and 21 shorts divided between the following screenings: Out-of-Competition, Premiere Brazil Portraits, Competition Fiction, Documentary and shorts.  

Première Brasil - Fiction Competition

- Achados e Perdidos, by José Joffily
- Cafundó, by Paulo Betti e Clóvis Bueno
- Carreiras, by Domingos Oliveira
- Cidade Baixa, by Sérgio Machado
- Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus, by Marcelo Gomes
- Crime Delicado, by Beto Brant
- A Máquina, by João Falcão
- Tapete Vermelho, by Luiz Albeto M. Pereira
- Vestido de Noiva, by Jofre Rodrigues
- Vinho de Rosas, by Elza Cataldo

Première Brasil - Competition - Full Length Documentary:

- 500 Almas, by Joel Pizzini
- Aboio, by Marília Rocha
- Deixa Ir, by Roberta Marques
- Do Luto à Luta, by Evaldo Mocarzel
- Do Outro Lado do Rio, by Lucas Bambozzi
- Missionários, by Cleisson Vidal e Andréa Prates
- Moacir Arte Bruta, by Walter Carvalho
- Sou Feia Mas Tô Na Moda, by Denise Garcia
- Sol, Caminhando Contra o Vento, by Tetê Moraes e Martha Alencar
- Tudo Sobre Rodas, by Sérgio Bloch

Première Brasil - Competition - Shorts:

- Alice, by Rafael Gomes
- Babaú na Casa do Cachaça, by Luis Guimarães de Castro
- Balaio, by Luiz Montes
- A Cubana, by Cezar Maia, Marcelo Barreto, Leo Trivellare, Andrea Ferraz e Silvia Goes  
- Curupira, by Fabio Mendonça e Guilherme Ramalho
- Da Terra, by Janaina Diniz Guerra
- Desejo, by Anne pinheiro Guimarães
- Do  Mundo Não se Leva Nada, by Charly Braun
- Entre Paredes, by Eric Laurence
- Eu Te Darei o Céu, by Afonso Poyart
- Historietas Assombradas, by Victor Hugo Borges
- Ímpar Par, by Esmir Filho
- Manual Para Atropelar Cachorro, by Rafael Primo
- Neguinho e Kika, by Luciano Vidigal
- O Nosso Livro, by Claudia Rabelo Lopes e Luciana Alcaraz
- Visita Íntima, by Joana Nin

Première Brasil - Out of Competition:

- Árido Movie, by Lírio Ferreira
- outores da Alegria, by Mara Mourão
- O Fim e o Princípio, by Eduardo Coutinho

Competition prizes are awarded in "PRÊMIO FESTIVAL DO RIO" in the following categories:

- Best Full Length Feature - Fiction
- Best Full Length Documentary
- Best Short
- Best Director
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Special Jury Prize
- Public Award - Full Length Feature
- Public Award - Best Short