Celebrating a quarter century of existence, the Black Movie International Independent Film Festival (running 19 to 28 January) is set to take us on yet another journey across the world with a cutting-edge selection of the best of independent film productions. Divided into ten thematic sections, the selected movies lend a voice both to known directors and young and up-and-coming filmmakers, such as the Georgian talent who graduated from Geneva’s HEAD Elene Naveriani, who’ll be presenting Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry [+lee también:
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entrevista: Elene Naveriani
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entrevista: Sofia Exarchou
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entrevista: Martín Benchimol
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Three major events are scheduled to unfold on the occasion of director and artist Tsai Ming-Liang’s attendance at the festival: Walker, which is a sizeable exhibition dedicated to the series of the same name, a masterclass, and a focus session revolving around a selection of the filmmaker’s movies, accompanied by an installation and a series of his drawings.

In the ten sections forming the basis of this tantalising 25th edition, we’ll find a handful of co-productions and several European gems. In the Cinema, Your Merciless World line-up, for example, the ruthless universe behind the scenes of the film industry is set to be revealed through six films, including Greek work The Summer With Carmen [+lee también:
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entrevista: Zacharias Mavroeidis
ficha de la película] by Zacharias Mavroeidis, and three European co-productions: the documentary Celluloid Underground [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by the Iranian director based in London Ehsan Khoshbakht, and two recently restored masterpieces highlighting the complexities involved in the profession of film archiving: Le Mandat by Ousmane Sembène (Senegal/France), dating back to 1968 and Hyènes by Djibril Diop Mambéty (Senegal/Switzerland), from 1992. In addition to the afore-mentioned Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry and the Locarno Film Festival’s champion Critical Zone [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Iranian director Ali Ahmadzadeh, the Resist! section, which lends a voice to rebellious people all over the world, also includes Man in Black [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Wang Bing, and Hungarian duo Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó’s mixed animation movie White Plastic Sky [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Sz…
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The Taking Root section, for its part, which pays tribute to the various indigenous groups in the Americas, consists of three films which include the co-productions Eureka [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lisandro Alonso
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entrevista: João Salaviza y Renée Nade…
ficha de la película], which is a reflection on the importance of safeguarding the shared fragile memories of João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. Family Jewel, meanwhile, explores the highs and most notably the lows of one-of-a-kind families, showcasing the Brazilian-Portuguese co-production Toll [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], which is the second feature film directed by Brazil’s Carolina Markowicz. The Phantom Members line-up will then take us into the afterlife by way of four films, including Samsara [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lois Patiño
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The Smell of Money section, paying tribute to workers, will feature five films, including the afore-mentioned Animal, alongside Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World [+lee también:
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entrevista: Radu Jude
ficha de la película] by Radu Jude, and the co-production Youth (Spring) [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Wang Bing, revolving around the highly questionable Chinese textile industry. Last but not least, in Sweat and Tremor, a line-up dedicated to a series of elite sportspeople, we’ll find Tatami [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by the filmmaking duo Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who paint a portrait of an Iranian judoka.