The 24th annual Mar del Plata International Film Festival begins Saturday.

The festival runs from Nov. 7 thru Nov. 15 in the coastal city of Mar del Plata and will screen films from Argentina, Spain, South Korea and the US, among many other countries.

The opening film, which is featured here in the YouTube trailer, is “A Serious Man” by the Coen brothers.

In previous years, celebrities attending the festival have included Jacqueline Bisset, Renee Zellweger, Kathleen Turner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, among others.

For more information about the festival in English click here. You can download a PDF of the complete film schedule by clicking here. A much better document, available in both English and Spanish, is this one, which gives great overviews of the films and their directors, etc.

Just in time for Halloween, Buenos Aires Sangre Rojo, a horror film festival, will spook the hearts and minds of Porteños starting Thursday.

The festival, which has run annually since 2000, will screen short and feature-length films from Argentina, Canada, Japan and the US, among other countries. It will even include the zombie movie “Colin” from the British Indie director Marc Price. The film cost only $70 to produce. Colin turned out to be a surprise smash hit at Cannes. You can see the trailer for Colin here.

If you like horror movies, bizarre flicks or otherwise outré films, BA Sangre Rojo could be just for you. For more information about films and times, click here.

Where: Lavalle 780 (in downtown Buenos Aires) at the Monumental Lavalle Theater
When: October 29 thru November 4
Cost: 8 pesos per screening

The Heavy Metal band Metallica is coming to Buenos Aires in January, 2010, according to a report in the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio.

According to the report, the band will kick off its South American tour in Lima, Peru on January 19, then it will head towards Argentina and work its way up to Mexico. Official information about the concert isn’t yet available on the band’s website.

Metallica will play at River Stadium, according to Rolling Stone, which also cites Peruvian media.

I’ll update this post with official confirmation and ticket information once it’s available.

One of the year’s best photo and video art shows opens Wednesday when the City of Buenos Aires inaugurates the 5th annual Buenos Aires Photo exhibit.

Buenos Aires Photo will display works from 30 galleries in seven countries from the Americas and Spain. The exhibit will run through November 1. Details follow:

Where: Palais de Glace – Posadas 1725
When: 1pm to 9pm
Cost: 20 pesos (or 2×1 with American Express, Club Nación, Club Arte al Día)

You can also get tickets online at Ticketek.

A Retro Cine Film Festival will open to the public from November 6-8, screening such 1980s classics as Top Gun, E.T., Back to the Future, The Never Ending Story, and, the greatest of them all, Goonies.

The retro fest will take place at the Atlas Cine on Santa Fe 2015, in Barrio Norte.

For more information, previews and show times, click here.

An exhibit highlighting the work of the famous U.S. artist Andy Warhol will open in Buenos Aires later this month.

The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, or MALBA, will host the exhibit, dubbed Mr. America.

It’ll be the first major exposition of Warhol’s work in Argentina. The exhibit is being organized in conjunction with the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, where Warhol was born.

The MALBA exhibit contains 140 works, including 26 paintings, 39 photographs and other materials, in addition to 17 films.

There’s plenty of time to see the exhibit. It’ll be in town through February 22.

Details:

Where: MALBA Avenida Figueroa Alcorta 3415
Contact: contactinfo@malba.org.ar or 4808-6500
When: October 23-February 22

For more info about museum hours and costs, click here.

After selling out their first concert set for December 2, the legendary rockers ACDC have added another night.

You can get tickets for the December 4 show here.

The legendary rock & roll band ACDC will play Buenos Aires on December 2.

The Australian rockers will offer a live debut of their latest album, Black Ice, and other classics, at the River Plate stadium.

Beginning September 29, you will be able to get tickets for the show here.

El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Juan Jose Campanella’s new film starring Ricardo Darín is “simply mesmerizing,” according to a recent review of the movie by Variety magazine.

From the review:

“A deeply rewarding throwback to the unself-conscious days when cinema still strove to be magical, “The Secrets in their Eyes” is simply mesmerizing. While it packs two generation-spanning love stories, a noirish thriller, some delicious comedy, a pointed political critique and much food for thought into more than two hours’ compelling, grown-up entertainment, the film is still more than the sum of its parts. Repping a change of direction for Juan Jose Campanella, whose “The Son of the Bride” also starred Ricardo Darin, this is an altogether darker, more complex piece of work, as well as Campanella’s finest film.

In Argentina, the mid-August release has met with unusual critical and commercial acclaim; “Eyes” is likely to shine similarly in a range of offshore territories.”

You can read the complete review here.

Juan Jose Campanella is an Argentine-born director of both local and international TV and films. He is perhaps most famous for directing El Hijo de la Novia, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2001, though he has also directed episodes of U.S. TV shows such as House, 30 Rock and Law & Order.

Link: Official Movie Site
Link: YouTube Trailer (why it’s not available in HD is beyond me)

The Banff Mountain Film Festival, a traveling festival dedicated to screening adventure and sometimes death-defying extreme sports movies, is about to arrive in Buenos Aires.

The festival will show 13 films from Canada, Germany, Norway,  the US and the UK, as well as Argentina. Before the films, there will be free conferences with people who participated in the movies in one way or another. Details follow:

In Buenos Aires:

Where: Cine Hoyts. Dot Baires Shopping Center. Vedia 3632.
When: September 21-23 8pm (pre-film conferences start at 6pm)
Contact: 4704-5222 banff@aver-sa.com
Cost: 25 pesos or 65 for all three nights

Argentina’s regional food fair, Caminos y Sabores, returns this weekend to La Rural. It’s a great chance to learn about food from across the country and to discover and buy goods from small and mid-sized producers.

This year’s edition, the fifth, will include 300 participants, some of whom belong to Terra Madre (www.terramadre.org), a network of more than  1500 communities from 150 countries. The network aims to rediscover regional food and promote quality production methods that are in harmony with nature.

Among the activities, there will be conferences and cooking demonstrations using tipical products from regions including Patagonia, Cuyo, and Tucuman, as well as Uruguay.

From 6-9pm daily, Terra Madre producers will hold expositions and show films related to the production and enjoyment of regional foods.

There will also be a competition among the participating producers — “experiencias de sabor” –  for extra virgin olive oil, cheese, and dulce de leche.

Hours: Noon until 9pm, Thursday thru Sunday
Entrance: Av. Sarmiento 2704
Cost: 20 pesos
For more information: http://www.caminosysabores.com.ar

The (outlandishly excellent) alternative rock band The Killers will play Buenos Aires on Friday, Nov. 27th, according to the group’s website. Tickets will be available soon online here.

The band with be playing at the GEBA club in Buenos Aires. Rumor has it that The Killers will be opening for Coldplay, but The Argentine Post hasn’t been able to confirm this.

Stay tuned for more details and an opportunity to win free tickets from The Argentine Post.