Copa America Film Festival

While juggling the Eastern European Cinema spotlight, I will also have a Copa America film festival to coincide with the 2007 Copa America soccer tournament starting on June 26. The soccer tournament has 12 competing countries (10 South American nations + Mexico & USA) so I will a total of 12 films, one movie for each country.

The Rules

First Round:


The scoring is a bit more complicated from the Quarter Finals up to the Final.

Second Round:


The Films & Groups:
Group A:

Group B:

Group C:


I didn't have a specific criteria or genre for the film picks. In the cases of Uruguay, Ecuador & Bolivia I didn't have much of a choice because I could only find one film from those countries. Unfortunately, I still don't have a film from Paraguay. My best bet would be the 2006 film Paraguayan Hammock but so far I can't find any trace of the film. I will set July 5th to be the final cut-off date to find a film from Paraguay because that is the date when the group stages end in Copa America.

Overall, I am thrilled with all the picks. The entries cover a diverse range with a Mexican revolution film from 1934, a classic Hitchcock flick, political charged movies, film festival award winners and a couple of commercial hits. It will be fun to pit these different films against each other.