Ecuador Selects LA MALA NOCHE as Its Oscar® Candidate,
a Bold Thriller and a Poignant Female-Centered Indictment
of Human Trafficking 

Debut Feature Filmmaker Gabriela Calvache

Watch trailer here: https://vimeo.com/365034882

Gabriela Calvache’s acclaimed debut feature La Mala Noche (The Longest Night), has been selected as Ecuador’s candidate in the International Feature Film competition at the 92nd edition of the Academy Awards®. The film will have special screenings this October in New York and Los Angeles, with the director in attendance.

Following its acclaimed world premiere at SXSW—where it was selected as one of the best films of the festival by FlavorwireLa Mala Noche has successfully played at numerous international film festivals including Guadalajara, Edinburgh, and the HBO New York Latino Film Festival, where it won the Best International Feature Award.

Additionally, filmmaker Calvache was been recently selected as one of the 17 participants in the 2019 Directors Initiative presented by Universal’s Global Talent Development and Inclusion Group, designed to give highly qualified directors access and exposure to a wider group of executives from various divisions of NBCUniversal to develop a network and gain insight on potential future directing opportunities at the company.

La Mala Noche has been selected as closing night of the 5th edition of the Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York (EFFNY), taking place October 18-20, and it will have a pair of additional special screenings on Friday, October 11 at the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, and on Tuesday, October 22 at the Quad Cinema in New York City.

The film follows Dana—a smart and beautiful woman forced to resort to prostitution in order to make a living—skillfully played by Colombian actress Nöelle Schönwald (Love in the Time of Cholera). Dana must deliver most of her income to a mafia boss who protects and exploits her.

She’s good at what she does, a job she landed by mistake, out of love. Perhaps, if she behaves well enough, she may earn her freedom, but her daughter’s illness and addiction to a pharmaceutical drug prevent her from reaching her goals. An unexpected incident gives her the opportunity to break free from her captor and seek justice with her own hands.

A co-production between Calvache’s Cineática Films and Geminiano Pineda’s Cine Canibal of Mexico, La Mala Noche is a bold thriller that ultimately becomes a poignant female-centered indictment of human trafficking.    

LA
MALA NOCHE (The Longest Night).
2019, Ecuador/Mexico, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. Director:
Gabriela Calvache; Executive Producer: Daniela Fuentes Moncada, Gabriela
Calvache, Geminiano Pineda; Producer: Geminiano Pineda, Gabriela Calvache;
Screenwriter: Gabriela Calvache; Cinematographer: Gris Jordana; Editor:
Andrea Chignoli, Amaia Merino; Production Designer: Roberto Frisone; Sound
Designer: Gabriel Reyna; Music: Quincas Moreira; Cast: Nöelle Schönwald,
Cristian Mercado, Jaime Tamariz, and Ariana Freire. International sales:
WIDE.

About the filmmaker
Gabriela Calvache was
born in Ecuador. Her short film En
espera
(On
Hold
) premiered at Film Festival Rotterdam and earned awards in
festivals in Japan, France, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil. It was
included in the Native section of the Berlin Film Festival. Her short film Things You Never Say premiered
at the Mar del Plata Film Festival and several festivals. It was also shown
in the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. (2007). La Mala Noche is her
debut film.