Borges, Gatti and Kapadia inaugurated the third edition of the festival

Graciela Borges, Asif Kapadia and Juan Gatti received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Buenos Aires at the opening ceremony.

The first to receive the highest distinction was Juan Gatti, designer, art director and photographer, whose career spans four decades of influence in film, music, fashion and advertising. Marcelo Altmark, the festival’s artistic director, delivered the laudatio: “Sophisticated and popular, intimate and universal, today we celebrate a creator who brought Argentine design to the world and who reminds us, with every work, that art can be all of that at once,” he said. The audience -where young design students mingled with cinema, art and culture figures such as Mirtha Legrand, Susana Giménez, Alfredo Arias, Mercedes Morán, Cecilia Roth, Ariel Winograd, Pablo Ramírez and Felisa Pinto, among many others- gave Gatti a standing ovation. He thanked them “for this gift I truly did not expect. And for the pleasure of now being able to call myself doctor…”

The recognition continued with the distinction awarded to Asif Kapadia, the British filmmaker internationally renowned for his documentaries on Diego Maradona, Ayrton Senna and Amy Winehouse, the latter earning him the Academy Award. Paula Quattrocchi, the festival’s institutional director, read the laudatio, which highlighted his contribution: “His films have taught us that the archive is not a repository of dead images, but a living territory capable of moving us as much as the finest fiction. With Senna, with Amy, with Diego Maradona, he gave back to us the intimacy of iconic figures who were often trapped in headlines and reduced to clichés. Kapadia rescued them from caricature and restored their humanity.”

Upon receiving the doctorate, Kapadia shared his vision of cinema and cultural diversity: “When I started making films, it was very important for me to make world cinema. I like going places, I like meeting people, I like working in their language and trying to understand a culture as an outsider.”

The ceremony concluded with an emotional tribute to Graciela Borges, an emblematic figure of Argentine cinema. Taking the stage, Borges said: “Today I don’t know why it feels so difficult to speak… Because sometimes I manage to connect my head and my heart, and then more beautiful words come out. Today, first of all, I want to thank you endlessly for so much affection.”

FIC.UBA will continue until Wednesday, October 8, with screenings and special activities at Cine Cosmos.UBA, the Cine Arte Cacodelphia theaters, the Cinépolis Plaza Houssay complex, UBA’s School of Law, and FADU.