Artist Talk: Award-Winning Screenwriter, Alicia Luna, in conversation with Mimi Plauché, , Artistic Director, 54th Chicago International Film Festival
In collaboration with the Asociación de Estudios de Género y Sexualidades (AEGS), the Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago and the 54th Chicago International Film Festival Mimi Plauché Mimi Plauché is Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival, the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. She has been at the Festival for 12 years and oversees the programming of the annual Festival as well as the organizations year-round film series.
Alicia Luna is the recipient of the Goya Award and Best European Script Award for the script of Te doy mis ojos (2004, co-writer). She has also co-written La vida empieza hoy (2010) and is the winner of the Critics Award at the Málaga Film Festival;Pídele cuentas al rey (1999) and winner of the Audience Award at the Valladolid International Film Festival.; and Sin ti (2006). Ms. Luna has also published two books about the tools of screenwriting: Matad al guionista (Kill the screenwriter); Nunca mientas a un idiota (Never lie to an idiot). She has also written scripts for documentaries like ChicasNueva24Horas and El Proxeneta, both with Mabel Lozano. Ms. Luna currently splits her time as founder and head of Escuela de Guion de Madrid (www.escueladeguion.es) where she teaches screenwriting techniques and is the Co-Head on Máster en Guion Cine, Series TV y Dramaturgia in Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Additionally, she works as the Projects Advisor for several international development programs: Proimágenes (Colombia), Oaxaca Screen Lab (México), Lab Novas Historias (Brasil), Bolivia Lab (Bolivia). Currently she is finishing a script co-written with Icíar Bollaín and is writing a series with El Deseo Productions for Netflix.
Before joining the Chicago International Film Festival, she was working on a doctorate in Japanese literature and film at the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. She is the recipient of Fulbright-Hays, Japan Foundation, and Social Science Research Council fellowships, among others. Plauché has previously worked in documentary and short subjects programming for Cinema/Chicago and, while living in Japan for 8+ years, she worked for the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. She has worked as a programming advisor and has served on juries for a number of international film festivals.