London Latino Film Festival seen with 27 countries, won't pick one
The London Latino Film Festival will screen 60 films from 27 countries this week, and insiders say nobody is being asked to commit.
"...and that was just Monday," one insider told me, lowering her voice in the foyer of a Soho cinema as if the carpet itself were taking notes. The London Latino Film Festival, darling of the capital's arts pages, has reportedly been seen with 27 different countries in the space of five days. Twenty-seven. In public. With popcorn.
Sources close to the situation confirm the festival arrived with Mexico on opening night, was photographed leaving with Colombia before the credits finished, and had brunch with three separate Caribbean nations before anyone had washed the champagne flutes. Argentina, I am told, was "not even a little bit surprised."
The festival's people insist this is all perfectly normal for a programme celebrating British-Latino identity, and that 60 films from 27 countries is simply what the week looks like. But friends of Chile are said to be furious, Peru has stopped returning calls, and Brazil has reportedly asked to be seated in a different screening room entirely.
"It has never once said it was exclusive," a festival source told me, straightening a stack of three programmes. "It said it was pan-Latin American. People hear what they want to hear."
Asked whether the festival planned to settle down with one country by Sunday, the source laughed, then stopped laughing, then asked if Spain still counted.
The BBC first reported the five-day run. Nobody has yet explained what happened on Monday.
