Chile’s Film Industry: Praised Abroad, Ignored At Home

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Praised and prized abroad, Chilean movies often fail to make an impact back home where cinemagoers choose Hollywood blockbusters over local offerings. bUSiness CHILE looks at the reasons and at what the industry offers.

When, in the first few weeks of this year, two Chilean feature films won prestigious international awards, cinema critics in Santiago reacted with patriotic pride, but also a degree of surprise.

No-one had expected La Nana (The Maid), directed by young filmmaker Sebastián Silva, to win a World Cinema prize at the Sundance Festival in Utah. And despite his previous success with the 2004 film Machuca, few had predicted that Andrés Wood would win a Goya - regarded as the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar - for La Buena Vida (The Good Life).