«The Giant Buddhas» at Sao Paulo festival competition

22.03.2006

At the 11th International Documentary Film Festival Sao Paulo (Brazil), which takes place from March 23 - April 2, 2006, «The Giant Buddhas» by Christian Frei is one of 17 films in the international festival competition. The Swiss co-production «Into Great Silence» by Philip Gröning is also competing in this section. The three-member jury, comprised of the Argentinian filmmaker Carmen Guarini, the Finnish television producer Iikaa Vehkalathi, and the Brazilian documentary filmmaker Maria Augusta Ramos, will bestow the «It’s all true» award with a prize sum of 12,000 Real (= CHF 7,200).
Presented in additional sections of the festivals will be: "L'image à
paroles/Picture to Speech" by Michel Favre, "Aristide and the Endless
Revolution" by Nicolas Rossier, and "Crónica de un sueño/Chronicle of
A Dream" by Stefano Tononi and Mariana Viñoles, which is a
Swiss-Uruguayan co-production.

For «The Giant Buddhas», this is the 15th invitation to an international film festival. With this event, the film has continued its success story, and will be presented on the Latin American continent for the first time. After its initial showing in Locarno in 2005, and its international premiere in Toronto, the film has primarily been featured in Europe (Golden Dove in Leipzig), along with the United States (Sundace Film Festival), Canada, and Thailand. It has received additional invitations from Turkey, Singapore, and Israel. Aside from its cinematographic qualities, the film’s contemporary topic of intolerance and war of civilizations – explains this extraordinary interest.



Zurich, March 22, 2006