¡Cine Magnífico! Albuquerque's Latino Film Festival

¡Cine Magnífico! is New Mexico’s only film festival presenting the voice and vision of Latino cinema.

The festival exhibits contemporary documentaries, short films, and feature films about Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and Latinos in the U.S. In doing so it promotes intercultural awareness and celebrates the diversity of Ibero-American cultures throughout the world.

By bringing Ibero-American cinema and related outreach programming to Albuquerque, ¡Cine Magnífico! responds to New Mexico’s deep and diverse multicultural heritage. 47.6% of New Mexico residents identified as Hispanic or Latino in 2011, the highest of any state. With ¡Cine Magnífico!, New Mexico residents and visitors gain a new, opportune way to explore this cultural richness.

The festival also builds on New Mexico’s reputation as a top film location in the U.S. Filmmaking is one of the fastest growing industries in the state and Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, has developed its own local, burgeoning community of film enthusiasts. The festival only furthers this growth by promising an influx of new films and filmmakers.

Against this backdrop of film industry and cultural diversity, ¡Cine Magnífico! is poised to become a premiere showcase of Ibero-American cinema.

SPAIN arts & culture is proud to co-present the Spanish films of the Festival:

Blancanieves (Snow White)

• On May 30th at 7 pm at National Hispanic Cultural Center.
• By Pablo Berger, 2012, 104 minutes, Spain. A re-telling of the classic Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale, Blancanieves is a breathtakingly beautiful film and uniquely spirited homage to the black and white Golden Age of Europe’s silent cinema.

Elefante blanco (White Elephant)

• On June 1st at 9 pm at The Guild Cinema.
• By Pablo Trapero, 2011, 106 minutes, Argentina. The Villa Virgin, a shantytown in the slums of Buenos Aires. Julian and Nicolas, two priests and long-standing friends, work tirelessly to help the local people. Julian uses his political connections to oversee the construction of a hospital. Nicolas joins him following the failure of a project he was leading in the jungle, after paramilitary forces assassinated members of the community. Deeply troubled, he finds a little comfort in Luciana, a young, attractive, atheist social worker.

Carmina o revienta (Carmina or Blow Up)

• On June 2nd at 7 pm at The Guild Cinema.
• By Paco León, 2012, 71 minutes, Spain. Carmina, 58, runs a shop selling Iberian products in Seville. After several robberies and no help from her insurance company, she comes up with a way to recover the money she needs to keep her family. While she waits in her kitchen for her plan to kick in, she thinks back over her life, her work and her miracles.

See the full schedule and complete list of films.