The Mar del Plata International Film Festival will celebrate its 40th edition starting November 6, featuring a program that includes tributes, retrospectives, and world premieres. This year, the festival will honor three influential filmmakers: Fabián Bielinsky, Milos Forman, and Yuzo Kawashima.

Marking 25 years since the release of Nine Queens, a special tribute to Fabián Bielinsky will include the world premiere of Nine Auras, a documentary directed by Mariano Frigerio. The film, which will later stream on HBO Max, revisits the Argentine filmmaker’s legacy through testimonies from actors and collaborators such as Ricardo Darín, Gastón Pauls, Leticia Brédice, Dolores Fonzi, and Carlos Sorín. The screening will take place on November 7, alongside special showings of Nine Queens (2000) and The Aura (2005).

The festival will also present a retrospective dedicated to Milos Forman, featuring restored copies of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984). In addition, there will be a public talk with Paul Zaentz, nephew of producer Saul Zaentz, who will share production anecdotes and reflections on working with the Czech director.

Meanwhile, the Embassy of Japan in Argentina will organize a program devoted to Yuzo Kawashima, a prominent figure of classic Japanese cinema. The cycle will feature titles such as Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District (1956), Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (1957), A Geisha Day (1961), The Temple of Wild Geese (1962), and Elegant Beast (1962).

The Panorama section will include recent releases that have screened at major international festivals, among them Omaha by Cole Webley, Köln 75 by Ido Fluk, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You by Mary Bronstein, Nouvelle Vague by Richard Linklater, The Last Viking by Anders Thomas Jensen, Nuremberg by James Vanderbilt, The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania, and Silent Friend by Ildikó Enyedi.