«Emilia Pérez» by Jacques Audiard will be the opening film

The film festival in the city known as “La Feliz” (“the Happy City”) will begin on November 21 with Jacques Audiard's Emilia Pérez, starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gómez, Adriana Paz and Edgar Ramírez. The musical drama, which represents France in the Oscar competition, has just won two awards at Cannes, Best Actress, shared among its four protagonists, and the Jury Prize for Audiard. It has also established itself as one of the favorites for the upcoming Oscar race.

For the first time in its history, the festival will host a guest country: Japan. While the complete program dedicated to the country’s cinematography has not yet been defined, the visit of director Miwa Nishikawa has already been confirmed, presenting a retrospective including screenings of the multi-award-winning Dear Doctor (2009) and her most recent film, Under the Open Sky (2020). There will also be a retrospective of the legendary director Sadao Yamanaka, in which Nezumikozo Jirochi (1933), Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (1935), Priest of Darkness (1936) and Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937) can be seen. And in a parallel program, there will be a cycle of screenings dedicated to the Armenian director Sergei Parajanov which will include three of his films: The Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, which won two awards at the Mar del Plata Festival in 1965, The Color of Pomegranates (1969), and The Legend of the Fortress (1969). The festival will also present I Will Revenge this World with Love by Zara Jian, a documentary about Parajanov’s work, which will have its Latin American premiere in the seaside city.

Argentine cinema will also have its share of tributes and retrospectives. Three films released in 1974 will be screened, starting with Sergio Renán's La tregua, the first Argentine film to compete for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, as well as a restored copy of the iconic La Patagonia rebelde by Héctor Olivera, and Boquitas pintadas by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth. The festival will hold a tribute series for the legendary director including the documentary film by his son Pablo Torre, Mi padre y yo, and a third yet to be announced title.

In celebration of the Festival’s 70th anniversary, there will be a retrospective of films that were originally screened in Mar del Plata and went on to have important national and international trajectories. The following have already been confirmed: El jefe (1958) by Fernando Ayala, Los venerables todos (1963), which will also be a tribute to the recently departed Manuel Antín, Buenos Aires viceversa (1996) by Alejandro Agresti, Pizza, birra, faso (1997) by Israel Adrián Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro and El abrazo partido (2004) by Daniel Burman.