Chile’s preeminent Santiago International Film Festival ( Sanfic ) promises some big guns at its 21 st edition, opening Aug. 17 with Cannes Palme d’Or winner ‘It Was Just an Accident’ by Iran’s Jafar Panahi who defied expectations to show up at the prominent fest last May.

It wraps on Aug. 24 with “Miss Carbón” starring Pedro Pascal’s trans sister Lux Pascal opposite Spain’s Paco León (“The House of Flowers”). The Argentine-Spanish co-production, directed by Agustina Macri, is based on the true story of Carla Antonella “Carlita” Rodríguez, a trans woman and the first female miner in Patagonia.

Among the luminaries attending the fest are Spain’s genre king Álex de la Iglesia (“30 Coins”), who receives a career achievement award alongside a retrospective; Oscar winner Sebastián Lelio

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