Language International | ||
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Location Buenos Aires, Argentina Website | ||
The Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (BAFICI, English: Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival) is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the month of April, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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The festival is managed by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Buenos Aires City. It is not officially affiliated with FIAPF, but it has become well known internationally.
History
The festival had its first edition in April 1999 and it was organized by the SecretarÃa de Cultura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. The festival used important movie theatres, some of them included Hoyts and other more traditional studios, usually non-commercial theatres.
In the first year the festival had 146 guests, among them Francis Ford Coppola, Todd Haynes, Paul Morrissey and others. The festival screened more than 150 national and international films. It had approximately 120,000 spectators. Since then the festival has been growing reaching an audience of 1.100.000 spectators in the 2013 edition.
The following year the event featured more films and other activities were added such as conferences and workshops. With a similar amount of spectators and guests, the festival was permanently added into the Buenos Aires list of cultural events.
Awards
The festival has an international group and national group of judges. Currently some of the award categories are Best Film, Best Script, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Special Mentions, and others.
The public assisting the event also vote. The film that gets the most votes receives the People's Choice Award.
Since the third festival, there have been awards given to short subject films, which include Best Short Subject Film and Best Director.