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With its focus on Costa Rica, the Málaga Festival Industry Zone (Mafiz) is showcasing the central American country’s bourgeoning film sector and talent with presentations of feature films, works in progress, projects in development and the country’s scenic locations and support opportunties.

Costa Rican filmmakers and their projects are participating in Mafiz’s various sections, including the Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (Maff); Málaga Work in Progress; Málaga Talent and Hack Málaga.

Nicole Chi’s documentary “Guián” and Daniel Ross Mix’s “El Zoológico de la Milla 70” (“70 Mile Zoo”) are the two Costa Rican projects taking part in the Work in Progress section.

In “Guián,” Chi chronicles her own personal journey of discovery as she travels to China following the death of her grandmother Guián. She sets out to find the house her grandmother abandoned when she emigrated to Costa Rica years ago in the hope of finding...

The Costa Rica International Film Festival has announced the full list of winners from its fifth edition. An initiative of the Ministry of Culture and Youth’s Film Center, this year’s festival included 72 films from around the world and ran from December 8 to December 17 in San Jose.

Read More: Costa Rica’s Big Movie Dreams: How a Country With 150 Theaters Plans to Improve the Central America Film Industry

The jurors of the 2016 fest announced the competition and audience award winners in each of the festival’s three categories at the closing ceremony Saturday at the Magaly Theater.

“After 10 intense days, the 2016 edition of the Costa Rica International Film Festival comes to an end, having firmly established that it is committed not just to national and Central American cinema, but to strengthening its ties with audiences, whose numbers swelled this year compared to the 2015 edition,” Crfic Artistic Director Marcelo Quesada said in a statement.

Jurgen Ureña’s film was named Best Central American Feature Film and Best National Feature Film as the 2016 Costa Rica International Film Festival (Crfic) wrapped on Sunday.

Best International Feature Film went to Mexican director Tatiana Huezo’s Tempestad, while the National Short Film Competition winner was Roya Eshraghi’s El Arbol (Costa Rica-Cuba).

Audience awards went to Pieter-Jan De Pue’s The Land Of The Enlightened (Belgium-Ireland-Holland-Germany-Afghanistan), short film Belleza, Valentía y Fortaleza en la Ocupada Cisjordania by Glorianna Ximendaz, and Marcela Zamora’s documentary Los Ofendidos (El Salvador).

The festival took place in San José, Costa Rica, from December 8-17 with the backing of the ministry of culture and youth’s Centro de Cine.

Only a small handful of films are produced in Costa Rica every year, and even fewer (if any) are afforded any sort of international distribution. But, however unfortunate that may be, the fluorescent purgatory of Jurgen Ureña’s “Abrázame Como Antes” is made all the more striking by virtue of its uncertain commercial future — Ureña’s second feature is a beautiful micro-portrait of a world that tourists and foreigners may never see, and the movie’s power is only compounded by the unavoidable fact that most tourists and foreigners will never see it.

Borrowing its name from a line in Jeane Manson’s 1979 pop hit “Avant de Nous Dire Adieu,” “Abrázame Como Antes” tells a story that’s canopied beneath the muted evening hum of streetlights and distant cars. The film’s title translates to “Hold Me Like Before,” and every frame of this tender still life buzzes with the...

The Costa Rica International Film Festival (Crfic) has announced its complete lineup for its fifth edition. This year, 72 films have been chosen to represent the world’s best in independent cinema, with four world premieres and three Latin American premieres taking place, and over 60 features to be presented for the first time in the region.

“At Crfic we are interested in approaching the idea of artistic diversity; covering a broad spectrum of styles and proposals found in contemporary national and international cinema,” said Marcelo Quesada, Artistic Director for the Festival. “Our identity and our program is built around a free, coherent and risky cinema that moves away from the usual places and bring us closer to different voices and world visions from over 30 countries.”

Read More: Costa Rica Selects Esteban Ramirez’ ‘Presos’ as Oscar Submission

Taking place at the capital city of San José, the festival will run from December...

Central American cinema is the focus of two competitive sections at the sixth Costa Rica International Film Festival, set to run in San José from December 8-17.

The competitive Central American Feature Film roster comprises Costa Rican titles Abrázame Como Antes (pictured) by Jurgen Ureña, El Sonido De Las Cosas by Ariel Escalante, and La Sombra Del Naranjo by Patricia Velásquez and Oscar Herrera; Marcela Zamora’s Los Ofendidos (El Salvador-Mexico); and Guido Bilbao’s Es Hora De Enamorarse from Panama.

Non-competitive sections include Panorama, Radar, Youth, Bridges and Special Presentations. The festival will also pay tribute to director Kelly Reichardt.

“At Crfic we are interested in approaching the idea of artistic diversity; covering a broad spectrum of styles and proposals found in contemporary national and international cinema,” said artistic director Marcelo Quesada. For full details click here.

Production has begun in Winnipeg on genre bending horror, Trench 11. Rossif Sutherland plays a First World War tunneller...