The Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI, ) is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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.
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.
In 2024, MovieMaker named it one of the "25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World".
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.
Winners: International Competition - Grand Prize Year Film Original title Director Country 1999 After Life Wandafuru Raifu Hirokazu Koreeda 2000 Human Resources Ressources humaines Laurent Cantet 2001 Platform Zhantai Jia Zhangke 2002 Sailing Home Tornando a casa Vincenzo Marra 2003 Waiting for Happiness Heremakono Abderrahmane Sissako 2004 Pin Boy Parapalos Ana Poliak 2005 The Sky TurnsEl Cielo Gira Mercedes Álvarez 2006 In the Pit En el Hoyo Juan Carlos Rulfo 2007 In Between Days 방황의 날들 So Yong Kim 2008 Intimidades de Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo Yulene Olaizola 2009 Our Beloved Month of August Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto Miguel Gomes 2010 Alamar Pedro González-Rubio 2011 May they rest in revolt (Figures of wars)Qu'ils reposent en révolte (Des figures de guerre) Sylvain George 2012 Policeman Ha-shoter Nadav Lapid 2013 Berberian Sound Studio Peter Strickland 2014 Fifi Howls from HappinessFifi az khoshhali zooze mikeshad Mitra Farahani 2015 Court Tribunal Chaitanya Tamhane 2016 The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis La Larga Noche de Francisco Sanctis Francisco Márquez, Andrea Testa 2017 Niñato Adrián Orr 2018 La Flor Mariano Llinás 2019 The Unicorn Isabelle Dupuis, Tim Geraghty 2020Suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic2021ImplosionImplosiónJavier van de Couter / 2022Clementina Constanza Feldman, Agustín Mendilaharzu 2023The New Greatness CaseAnna Shishova / / 2024The Passion According To G.H.A Paixão Segundo G.H.Luiz Fernando CarvalhoThe Pleasure Is MineEl placer es míoSacha Amaral2025Under the Flags, the SunBajo las banderas, el solJuanjo Pereira / / / /
Full list of winners