THE AFI SILVER THEATRE AND CULTURAL CENTER ANNOUNCES ALONSO RUIZPALACIOS’ IMMIGRANT DRAMA LA COCINA TO OPEN 2024 AFI LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
Lineup Features New Films from Karim Aïnouz, Jayro Bustamante and Matías Piñeiro, Closing with Andrés Baiz’s PIMPINERO: BLOOD AND OIL
The Festival’s 35th Edition Runs September 19–October 10 with 43 Films from 20 Countries, Including 11 U.S. Premieres
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Silver Spring, MD, August 27, 2024 — The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center announced today the full slate of films for the 2024 AFI Latin American Film Festival (LAFF), which will take place September 19–October 10 at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD. Now in its 35th year, the Festival is one of the largest and longest-running showcases of Latin American cinema in the United States, dedicated to presenting Latin America’s prolific and versatile talent during National Hispanic Heritage Month. This year’s wide-ranging selection of 43 films from 20 countries spans international festival favorites and award winners, local box-office hits and dynamic debuts from a new generation of Latin American filmmakers.
The Festival opens with the acclaimed Berlinale competition entry LA COCINA. Filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios (GÜEROS, MUSEO) channels THE BEAR as if reimagined by John Cassavetes, creating a high-wire drama that explores the illusions of the American dream and the lengths to which a bustling kitchen’s working-class and largely undocumented staff must go to achieve it. At the heart of the brilliant ensemble cast is Raúl Briones (A COP MOVIE) as Mexican chef Pedro, a fiery-tempered dreamer entangled in a turbulent affair with Julia (Oscar®-nominated actress Rooney Mara), a harried waitress with her own crosses to bear. Ruizpalacios will participate in a Q&A following the screening.
LAFF closes with the U.S. Premiere of Andrés Baiz’s heart-pounding thriller, PIMPINERO: BLOOD AND OIL, which follows a clan of three brothers who smuggle gasoline across the desert border between Colombia and Venezuela. Tragedy strikes when the youngest brother is forced to work for their sinister rival. The film features bristling performances by Alberto Guerra, Alejandro Speitzer, Laura Osma and Colombian music icon Juanes and comes straight from its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Festival presents the U.S. Premieres of several titles that had their World Premieres at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, including Karim Aïnouz’s return to Brazilian filmmaking, the sizzling, neon-soaked noir MOTEL DESTINO; THE FALLING SKY, a powerful anti-colonial documentary about the Yanomami tribe in Brazil by Eryk Rocha (CINEMA NOVO) and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha; MOST PEOPLE DIE ON SUNDAYS, a heart-tugging and hilarious black comedy about growing up from Argentina’s Iair Said; and Colombian filmmaker Camila Beltrán’s horror-tinged coming-of-age fable, MI BESTIA. Other U.S. Premieres of note include Argentine actress Valeria Bertuccelli’s sophomore directorial feature, NO GUILT, a hilarious comedy co-starring Almodóvar regular Cecilia Roth and RITA, a twisted fairy tale from Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante (IXCANUL, LA LLORONA) set in a hellish state-run orphanage.
The Festival is also scheduled to welcome several filmmakers for in-person presentations, including Alessandra Lacorazza with her impressive feature debut, IN THE SUMMERS, a semi-autobiographical tale starring Puerto Rican musician Residente that won the Grandy Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias (COCOTE) with his Berlinale-premiered PEPE, following one of Pablo Escobar’s imported hippos; acclaimed documentarian Pamela Yates (WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE, 500 YEARS) with her provocative new film about U.S. immigration policy, BORDERLAND | THE LINE WITHIN; Santiago Maza with his searing documentary about the dangers journalists face in Mexico; STATE OF SILENCE, executive produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna; and David Altrogge with his SXSW Audience Award–winning documentary about sports legend and humanitarian Roberto Clemente.
LAFF also features several recent favorites from the international festival circuit, including Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner SUJO from Mexican filmmaking duo Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez (IDENTIFYING FEATURES); the political thriller MEXICO 86 by César Díaz (OUR MOTHERS) starring Academy Award®–nominee Bérénice Bejo, direct from its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival; Berlinale Competition entry ANOTHER END, a twist-filled futuristic tale of love and loss starring Gael García Bernal; Tribeca Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature winner, THE FRESHLY CUT GRASS, starring Academy Award®–nominee Marina de Tavira (ROMA) as a professor engaging in an illicit affair with her student and executive produced by Martin Scorsese; Berlinale Audience Award winner MEMORIES OF A BURNING BODY, an intimate, frank and expertly rendered portrait of three women’s lives and desires under the repressive patriarchal structures of 20th-century Costa Rican society; and Sundance favorites GAUCHO GAUCHO, a gorgeously lensed black-and-white portrait of the dwindling gaucho culture in Argentina by THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; REINAS, a 1990s-set coming-of-age tale from Peruvian filmmaker Klaudia Reynicke; and MALU, a potent family drama from Brazil’s Pedro Freire.
