Miguel Littin


Miguel Ernesto Littin Cucumides is a Chilean film director, screenwriter, film producer and novelist. He was born in Palmilla, Colchagua Valley, Chile.

Career

Miguel Littin directed El Chacal de Nahueltoro, becoming a major figure of the New Latin American Cinema.
Littin was exiled in Mexico shortly after Augusto Pinochet came to power in a military coup, which ousted President Salvador Allende, on September 11, 1973. His 1973 film The Promised Land was entered into the Cannes Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.
In Mexico, he directed several films:
He then went to Nicaragua to make Alsino and the Condor, based on the novel Alsino by Pedro Prado. Dean Stockwell played a supporting character. The film won multiple awards around the globe and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. In 1981, he was a member of the jury at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival.
After moving to Spain in 1984, Littin decided to enter Chile clandestinely to make a documentary, "Acta General de Chile" that showed the condition of the country under the Pinochet regime. It was made the subject of Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez's book Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin. This book chronicles his incognito escapades in Chile as he exposes the regime.
His four-hour Documentary, "Acta General de Chile," was a big success around the world and won three top prizes at the Venice Film Festival, Fipresci, Spacio Libre del Autore, and the Golden Medal of the Italian Senate.
In 1989-90, he made "Sandino" a spectacular European coproduction with Kris Kristofferson, Dean Stockwell, Angela Molina, and Joaquin de Almeida in the lead characters.
He eventually returned to Chile where he continued to make films, among them Tierra del Fuego, based on the adventures of explorer Julius Popper; Cannes Film Festival Official Selection and Dawson, Isla 10, about a group of political prisoners sent to Dawson's Island during Pinochet's regime. Rome Film Festival Official Competition.

Miguel Littin was the mayor of his hometown in the central valley, Palmilla, from 1992 to 1994 and was re-elected for the period 1996–2000.
His films Actas de Marusia and Alsino and the Condor were nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Film in a Foreign Language. Alsino and the Condor won the Golden Prize at the 13th Moscow International Film Festival.
His 2005 film The Last Moon was entered into the Seattle Film Festival, L.A. Film Festival,27th Moscow International Film Festival.

Filmography