CRFIC13 celebrates the diversity of cinema with an edition marked by equality and the symbolic exploration of the number 13.

From June 19 to 29, San José will become the epicenter of regional and international cinema with the celebration of the 13th Costa Rica International Film Festival (CRFIC). This year, the festival will offer a wide and diverse selection of 64 films, as well as open workshops, talks, and discussions.

The activities will take place at four main venues: the Gómez Miralles Room at the Film Center, the Magaly Cinema, the Spanish Cultural Center, and the Fidel Gamboa Amphitheater at CENAC.

A historic edition

This year, CRFIC marks a milestone by being directed by a woman for the first time. The cinematographer Patricia Velásquez Guzmán leads a curatorial proposal that reaffirms the festival’s commitment to gender equality and to a more representative and pluralistic program.

Here, the number 13, often associated with superstition, becomes the symbolic epicenter of the edition. According to Velásquez, this number inspires a creative exploration of chance, fortune, and chaos through cinema:

The 13th, as feared as it is revered, becomes an invitation to play with luck, to challenge superstitions, and to celebrate good fortune with a creative, curious, and open-minded outlook… Cinema, as an art form that transforms and reveals, becomes our medium for exploring these paths.

New features and curatorial highlights

Among the most notable new features is the expansion of the short film section, which now includes works from all of Central America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, thus consolidating a broader, more regional perspective.

This year’s guest country will be Spain, whose participation will include a screening of films directed by women, in collaboration with the Madrid Film Festival for Women and the RAMPA Network.

Eight sections to look at the present

The CRFIC13 program is organized around eight thematic sections:

  • Women Under the Influence: Films directed by contemporary Spanish female filmmakers, with an emphasis on intimate worlds, social struggles, and processes of personal transformation.
  • Generation Alpha: Works that address childhood and adolescence, celebrating their complexity and transformative power.
  • Year 13: Horror, fantasy, and mystery films that explore daring narratives and hybrid genres, in nighttime screenings with immersive atmospheres.
  • Edges: Stories from the social and cultural peripheries, portraying realities such as structural machismo and forced marriages. However, resistance and healing are also shown.
  • Timeless Dialogues: A selection that recovers works from other eras, with resonance in the present.
  • Beat Invasion: A sonic journey through films that explore musical universes with aesthetic and emotional power.
  • Feature Film and Short Film Competition: Spaces where new voices in Central American and Caribbean cinema converge, with diverse proposals in language and form.

Beyond the capital

Ahead of its arrival in San José, CRFIC13 went on a roadshow, bringing free screenings and film appreciation workshops to six communities in the Brunca, Huetar Caribe, Chorotega, Huetar Norte, and Pacífico Central regions, reaffirming its commitment to cultural access and decentralization.

All information about the films, their synopses, trailers, venues, and schedules can be found on the festival’s official website: centrodecine.go.cr

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