Tocopilla welcomes the Soccer Film Festival’s A-list and begins filming

An academic activity at the Andrés Pérez Theater kicked off the 2nd Tocopilla Soccer Film Festival Shorts Competition. The activity included a screening of the short film “Estrellas del Desierto” and a discussion about soccer and film with filmmaker Katherine Harder, Universidad Católica del Norte professor Mauricio Matus, former soccer player and SQM worker Bernardo Barahona and festival director Matías Carvajal, who thanked the Tocopilla schools for attending and encouraged them to participate in the second version of the event.

“We are very happy with the response from the schools Bernardo O’Higgins, Carlos Condell, República de Estados Unidos, Cosafa, Domingo Latrille, Arturo Prat, Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral. They have shown us that passion for the audiovisual world is as great as passion for soccer,” said festival director Matías Carvajal.

Carvajal recommended checking out the festival’s website www.festivalfutbolcine.cl for more information on the categories, the contest rules and how to apply.

In turn, Katherina Harder, creator of the short film “Estrellas del desierto” and president of the jury for the shorts competition, reminded the budding filmmakers that the participating shorts may be recorded with any audiovisual recording device, whether a cell phone camera, digital camera or video camera. “I think it’s very important to be able to share cinema with children, and even more so in areas outside Santiago. I can only say that over the past few days we have seen very nice work from the teachers and students in the different schools in Tocopilla,” she commented.

CATEGORIES

This year the competition brings new categories, adding 6 in total, which include General Category, with a single prize for the winning short equivalent to Ch$1,200,000; Social Media Format Short Category (Reel/Tiktok/other) with a prize of Ch$300,000; Tocopilla Special Prize with a prize of two air tickets to see Alexis Sanchez play in Milan during 2024.

The other categories are: High School Student Award with a prize of Ch$300,000; University Student Award of Ch$500,000; and the Special People’s Choice Category, of Ch$300,000.

Manuel Ossandon, Head of Community Relations for SQM, said, “As a company we are very pleased to support the Tocopilla Soccer Film Festival since culture and sports are fundamental pillars of our sustainability plan. In Tocopilla we do work in both areas, such as our efforts with Alejandro Jodorowsky, Javiera Toro in women’s soccer and Alexis Sánchez.”

The Tocopilla Soccer Film Festival is an invitation from SQM that is produced by the CChC Cultural Corporation and qualifies for the Cultural Donations Law.

The Tocopilla experience

The Tocopilla Soccer Film Festival returned in 2023 to the 2nd region with free screenings of films like “My friend Alexis,” “Pelé: Birth of a legend” and “Pena Máxima” and talks and workshops by Jean Beausejour, Gonzalo Fouillouix and Universidad Católica del Norte.