Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema

The Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI, Spanish: Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente) is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.^[1]

Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema

BAFICI 2023
Location	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Founded	1999
Website	https://www.bafici.org/

History

The festival had its first edition in April 1999 and it was organized by the Secretaryship of Culture of the Government of Buenos Aires City. The festival is held in the most important movie theatres of Buenos Aires, but also feature free open-air screenings in parks and squares all over the city.

In the first year the festival had 146 guests, among them Francis Ford Coppola, Todd Haynes, Paul Morrissey and others. That year the festival screened more than 150 national and international films and had approximately 120,000 spectators. Since then the festival has been growing, reaching an audience of 1.1 million spectators in the 2013 edition.^{[citation needed]}

Nowadays the BAFICI feature more than 400 films, several activities were added over the years and many conferences and workshops are held every year. With a great number of spectators and guests, the festival is permanently added into the Buenos Aires list of cultural events.

The festival is managed by the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires.^[2]

Awards

The festival has several competitive sections of which the "International Competition" and the "Argentinian Competition" are the most important ones. Inside each competitive section a jury evaluates the films and select the winners of several awards, including: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Special Mentions. In the BAFICI the audiences vote, the feature-length film with the highest ratings given by the audience receives the Audience Award.

Since the third edition of the festival, there have been awards given to short films, which include Best Short Subject Film and Best Director.

International Competition Best Film Winners

Year	Film	Original Title	Director	Country
1999	After Life	Wandafuru Raifu	Hirokazu Koreeda	Japan
2000	Human Resources	Ressources humaines	Laurent Cantet	France
2001	Platform	Zhantai	Jia Zhangke	China
2002	Sailing Home	Tornando a casa	Vincenzo Marra	Italy
2003	Waiting for Happiness	Heremakono	Abderrahmane Sissako	Mauritania
2004	Pin Boy	Parapalos	Ana Poliak	Argentina
2005	The Sky Turns	El Cielo Gira	Mercedes Álvarez	Spain
2006	In the Pit	En el Hoyo	Juan Carlos Rulfo	Mexico
2007	In Between Days	방황의 날들	So Yong Kim	South Korea
2008	Intimidades de Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo		Yulene Olaizola	Mexico
2009	Our Beloved Month of August	Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto	Miguel Gomes	Portugal
2010	Alamar		Pedro González-Rubio	Mexico
2011	May they rest in revolt (Figures of wars)	Qu'ils reposent en révolte (Des figures de guerre)	Sylvain George	France
2012	Policeman	Ha-shoter	Nadav Lapid	Israel
2013	Berberian Sound Studio		Peter Strickland	United Kingdom
2014	Fifi Howls from Happiness	Fifi az khoshhali zooze mikeshad	Mitra Farahani	Iran
2015	Court	Tribunal	Chaitanya Tamhane	India
2016	The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis	La Larga Noche de Francisco Sanctis	Francisco Márquez, Andrea Testa	Argentina
2017	Niñato		Adrián Orr	Spain
2018	La Flor		Mariano Llinás	Argentina
2019	The Unicorn		Isabelle Dupuis, Tim Geraghty	United States
2020	Suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021	Implosion	Implosión	Javier van de Couter	Argentina /  Chile
2022	Clementina		Constanza Feldman, Agustín Mendilaharzu	Argentina
2023	The New Greatness Case		Anna Shishova	Finland /  Norway /  Croatia
2024	A Paixão Segundo G.H.		Luiz Fernando Carvalho	Brazil
	El placer es mío		Sacha Amaral	Argentina

Complete List of winners

Year	Winners
2019	Best Film: The Unicorn, by Isabelle Dupuis and Tim Geraghty (United States) Best Director: Louis Garrel, for A Faithful Man (France) Best Actress: Ella Smith for Ray & Liz (United Kingdom) Best Actor: Keita Nimomiya, for We Are Little Zombies (Japan) Best Original Music: Mica Levi, for Monos (Film) (Colombia) Special Jury Award: Los tiburones, by Lucía Garibaldi (Uruguay) Best Argentinian Film: Fin de siglo, by Lucio Castro (Argentina) Best Argentinian Director: Eloísa Solaas, for Las facultades Argentinian Special Mention: Brief Story from the Green Planet, by Santiago Loza Best Latin-American Film: La fundición del tiempo, by Juan Álvarez Neme (Uruguay) Audience Award for Foreign Film: La asfixia, by Ana Isabel Bustamante (Guatemala) Audience Award for National Film: Método Livingston, by Sofía Mora (Argentina)
2018	Best Film: La Flor, by Mariano Llinás (Argentina) Best Director: Tiago Melo, for Azougue Nazaré (Brazil) Best Actress: Pilar Gamboa, Elisa Carricajo, Valeria Correa and Laura Paredes, for La Flor (Argentina) Best Actor: Anders Juul, for A Horrible Woman (Denmark) Special Jury Award: Violence Voyager, by Ujicha (Japan) Special Mention: A Tiger in Winter, by Lee Kwang-kuk (South Korea); As boas maneiras, by Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra (Brazil) Best Argentinian Film: Las hijas del fuego, by Albertina Carri (Argentina) Best Latin-American Film: Averno, by Marcos Loayza (Bolivia) Audience Award for Foreign Film: Virus Tropical, by Santiago Ciacedo (Colombia) Audience Award for National Film: Foto Estudio Luisita, by Sol Miraglia and Hugo Manso (Argentina)
2017	Best Film: Niñato, by Adrián Orr (Spain) Best Director: Carla Simón, for Estiu 1993 (Spain) Best Individual Acting: Daniela Castillo, for Reinos (Chile) Best Cast: Hoy partido a las 3, by Clarisa Navas (Argentina) Special Jury Award: Viejo Calavera, by Kiro Russo (Bolivia) Special Mention: Arábia, by Affonso Uchoa and João Dumans (Brazil) Best Argentinian Film: La vendedora de fósforos, by Alejo Moguillansky (Argentina) Best Latin-American Film: A Cidade do Futuro, by Marília Hughes Guerreiro and Cláudio Marques (Brazil) Audience Award for Foreign Film: Estiu 1993, by Carla Simón (Spain) Audience Award for National Film: Las cinéphilas, by María Álvarez (Argentina)
2016	Best Film: La Larga Noche de Francisco Sanctis, by Francisco Márquez and Andrea Testa (Argentina) Best Director: Tamer El Said, for Akher ayam el madina (Egypt) Best Actor: Diego Velázquez, for La Larga Noche de Francisco Sanctis (Argentina) Best Actress: Liliana Trujillo, for Rosa Chumbe (Peru) Special Jury Award: La noche, by Edgardo Castro (Argentina) Special Mention: Rosa Chumbe, by Jonatan Relayze (Peru) Special Mention: John From, by João Nicolau (Portugal) Best Argentinian Film: Primero enero, by Darío Mascambroni (Argentina) Best Latin-American Film: Inmortal, by Homer Etminani (Colombia) Audience Award for Foreign Film: Not awarded Audience Award for National Film: Raídos, by Diego Marcone
2015	Best Film: Best Director: Best Actor: Best Actress: Special Jury Award: Special Mention: Best Argentinian Film: Audience Award for Foreign Film: Audience Award for National Film:
2014	Best Film: Best Director: Best Actor: Best Actress: Special Jury Award: Special Mention: Best Argentinian Film: Audience Award for Foreign Film: Audience Award for National Film:
2013	Best Film: Best Director: Best Actor: Best Actress: Special Jury Award: Special Mention: Best Argentinian Film: Audience Award for Foreign Film: Audience Award for National Film:
2012	Best Film: Best Director: Best Actor: Best Actress: Special Jury Award: Special Mention: Best Argentinian Film: Audience Award for Foreign Film: Audience Award for National Film:
2011	Best Film: Best Director: Best Actor: Best Actress: Special Jury Award: Special Mention: Best Argentinian Film: Audience Award for Foreign Film: Audience Award for National Film:
2010	Best Film: Best Director: Best Actor: Best Actress: Special Jury Award: Special Mention: Best Argentinian Film: Audience Award for Foreign Film: Audience Award for National Film:
2009	Best Film: Best Director: Best Actor: Best Actress: Special Jury Award: Special Mention: Best Argentinian Film: Audience Award for Foreign Film: Audience Award for National Film:
2008	Best Film: Intimidades de Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo, by Yulene Olaizola (Mexico) Best Director: Lance Hammer, for Ballast (United States) Best Actor: Lee Kang-sheng, for Help Me Eros (Taiwan) Best Actress: Dan Liu, for Night Train (China) Special Jury Award: Night Train (China) Special Mention: Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind, by John Gianvito (United States) Best Argentinian Film: Unidad 25, by Alejo Hoijman (Argentina)
2007	Best Film: Best Director: Best Actor: Best Actress: Special Jury Award: Special Mention: Best Argentinian Film: Audience Award for Foreign Film: Audience Award for National Film:
2006	Best Film: En el hoyo, by Juan Carlos Rulfo (Mexico) Special Jury Award: Sehnsucht, by Valeska Grisebach (Germany) Best Argentinian Film: Glue, by Alexis Dos Santos (Argentina)
2005	Best Film: El Cielo Gira, by Mercedes Álvarez (Spain) Best Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky, for 4 (Russia) Best Actor: Mohammed Bakri, for Private (Italy) Best Actress: Eva Löbau, for Der wald vor lauter Bäumen (Germany) Special jury Award: L'Esquive, by Abdellatif Kechiche (France) Special Mention: Frakchi, by Cheol-Mean Wang (South Korea) and Monobloc, by Luis Ortega (Argentina) Best Argentinian Film: Como un avión estrellado, by Ezequiel Acuña (Argentina) Audience Award for Foreign Film: El Cielo Gira by Mercedes Álvarez (Spain) Audience Award for National Film: Cándido López - Los campos de batalla, by José Luis García (Argentina)
2004	Best Film: Parapalos, by Ana Poliak (Argentina) Best Director: Royston Tan, for 15 (Singapore) Best Actor: Pietro Sibille, for Días de Santiago (Peru) Best Actress: Hwang Jeong-min, for Jigureul jikyeora! (South Korea) Special Jury Award: Las horas del día, by Jaime Rosales (Spain) Special Mention: Not awarded Audience Award for Foreign Film: The Story of the Weeping Camel, by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni (Germany) Audience Award for National Film: Whisky Romeo Zulu, by Enrique Piñeyro (Argentina)
2003	Best Film: Heremakono, by Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania) Best Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, for Sud sanaeha (Thailand) Best Actor: Alejandro Ferretis, for Japón (Mexico) Best Actress: Séverine Caneele, for Une part du ciel (France/Belgium/Luxembourg) Special Jury Award: Ana y los otros, by Celina Murga (Argentina) Special Mention: Los rubios, by Albertina Carri (Argentina) Audience Award: Los rubios, by Albertina Carri (Argentina)
2002	Best Film: Tornando a casa, by Vincenzo Marra (Italy) Best Director: Michael Gilio, for Kwik Stop (United States) Best Actor: Lennie Burmeister, for Bungalow (Germany) Best Actress: Ronit Elkabetz, for Hatuna Meuheret (Israel/France) Special Jury Award: Tan de repente, by Diego Lerman (Argentina) Special Mention: Lavoura Arcaica, by Luiz Fernando Carvalho (Brazil) Audience Award: Tan de repente, by Diego Lerman (Argentina) and Lavoura Arcaica, by Luiz Fernando Carvalho (Brazil)
2001	Best Film: Zhantai, by Jia Zhangke (China) Best Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, for Mayis sikintisi (Turkey) Best Actor: Daniel Hendler, Jorge Temponi and Alfonso Tort for 25 watts (Uruguay) Best Actress: Yuko Nakamura, for Hotaru (Japan) Special Jury Award: The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein, by John Gianvito (United States) Special Mention: Takhté siah, by Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran) Audience Award: Jigsaw Venus] by Dean Kapsalis (United States)
2000	Best Film: Ressources humaines, by Laurent Cantet (France) Best Director: Noémie Lvovsky, for La vie ne me fait pas peur (France) Best Script: Sasa Gedeon, for Návrat idiota (Czech Republic) Best Actor: Ewen Bremner, for Julien Donkey-Boy (United States) Best Actress: Anna Geislerová and Tatiana Vilhelmová, for Návrat idiota (Czech Republic) Special Mention: Enrique Piñeyro (For his acting performance), for Esperando al Mesías (Spain/Italy/Argentina) Audience Award: Ressources humaines by Laurent Cantet (France)
1999	Best Film: After Life, by Koreeda Hirokazu (Japan) Best Director: Pablo Trapero, for Mundo Grúa (Argentina) Best Script: After Life, by Koreeda Hirokazu (Japan) Best Actor: Luis Margani, for Mundo Grúa (Argentina) Best Actress: Monic Hendrickx, for De poolse bruid (Netherlands) Audience Award: Sib, by Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran)