Vicente (Agustín Silva) meets Ana and Francisca one day while hanging out at the beach. The girls seem nice, and easy-going Vicente decides to join them and their friend Manuel at a party that night. Everyone imbibes liberally from the collective supply of piscola and the gang sets out in Manuel’s car to steal fireworks. At some point an accident occurs—an event that Vicente misses completely, having fallen asleep inside the vehicle. Upon sobering up, Vicente learns that he is being charged with a hit-and-run, that some of his cohorts have suggested that it was he who was behind the wheel and not Manuel (who happens to be the son of an important Chilean politician).

Based on a true story of legal malfeasance amongst Chile’s upper crust, this latest feature from Alejandro Fernández Alemendras—whose stunning To Kill a Man won the Festival’s Miami Future Critics Award in 2014—chronicles a crime in which both the falsely accused and the guilty parties seem completely unfazed by the death of another human being. Elevated by a formidable supporting cast that includes Paulina García (Gloria), Much Ado About Nothing has little to do with Shakespeare but plenty to do with toxic levels of privilege and power in modern day Chile. – Andres Castillo

Much Ado About Nothing is also Ibero American Feature Film Competition.