Andrés Wood and Sebastián Lelio are two filmmakers who don’t need an introduction. Both have become icons of Chilean cinema, and we might as well say of Latin American cinema as well, thanks to their high-quality films that are a fervent representation of themes that intersect Chilean society, connecting with our country’s old and recent scars, and resounding and finding new meanings at other latitudes.
Their contributions to culture and the arts are undeniable, as is the national and international recognition their work has received. Today, Wood and Lelio are ambassadors of our Chile’s cinema and that’s why we wanted to exhibit two films that have marked our country’s film history. We’re talking about Machuca, a film that consecrated Wood’s international career; and the short film Carga Vital, a point of departure for Lelio’s path to success.
Machuca premiered in 2004 at the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival, becoming one of the most-seen and awarded Chilean films. Its aesthetic, actoral, and historical quality greenlighted made it Wood’s first nomination to the renowned Goya Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain.
The film, starring Matías Quer, Manuela Martelli, Ariel Mateluna, and Ernesto Malbrán, is set in the year 1973 and its story centers on Gonzalo Infante and Pedro Machuca, two 11-year-old boys who live in Santiago — the former in an affluent neighborhood, and the latter in a modest illegal settlement, which has recently been constructed a few blocks away. They are two worlds separated by a big invisible wall that some hope to demolish, such as the director of a religious private school (Father McEnroe), who integrates children of families from the settlement into the establishment, deciding that they must learn to respect one another. Between Machuca and Infante, a friendship full of discoveries and surprises is born.
Machuca ended up consecrating Wood as a national talent and attracting the eyes of the world to a voice that spoke about historical as well as personal traumas, seeking to portray social division and using the opportunity to call for coming together.
Among the productions he’s directed are Violeta Went to Heaven (2011), which won the International Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and stars Francisca Gavilán; and the television series Ramona (2017), starring Giannina Fruttero, Paola Lattus, and Belén Herrera. He’s been nominated four times for a Goya Award, winning in 2008 with his feature film The Good Life. During 2019, he premiered the film Spider, which marked his return to the big screen and had an ample international run in festivals such as the Toronto Film Festival and Festival of San Sebastián, also arriving at the red carpet of the Goya Awards this year, celebrated in Málaga.
We invite you to enjoy one of the most successful films by director Andrés Wood by CLICKING HERE.
Carga vital by Sebastián lelio is a 24-minute fiction short film that premiered at the Festival of Viña del Mar in 2003. Actors Claudia Cabezas, Paulina Urrutia, and Alejandro Trejo embody a crude narrative inspired by true events, telling the story of Julia, a high school student who, out of fear of her parents, hides her pregnancy, resulting in experiences that range from moving to heartbreaking.
This short film that traces elements that would later become essential elements of the director’s filmography as a whole, where women lead the narrative force of the stories, intimate relationships are put under the microscope, and the trials that provoke conservative societies are examined. A cinema about belonging and liberation, from a filmmaker whose generosity has blazed the trail in consolidating our cinema at an international level.
Lelio’s career includes other successful feature films such as The Sacred Family (2005), which obtained the award for Best Fiction Film at the Toulouse Film Festival; Gloria (2013), recognized with the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Paulina García (protagonist) at the Berlin International Film Festival; and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for A Fantastic Woman (2017), among other recognitions. In addition to the above is his international career, with titles like Disobedience and the North American remake of Gloria entitled Gloria Bell, starring Julianne Moore.
