Venezuela director Jorge Thieleman receiving the award for La Fortaleza
The Biarritz Latin American Festival has announced the winners of its 29th edition, that took place in a hybrid model September 28 - October 4 in France.
The top prize for Best Film in the fiction competition was presented to the Argentine film Offering / Ofrenda by Juan Mónaco Cagni. The film, which had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival last January, tells the story of two women who, at various stages in their lives, happen to be in the same place. Being and time. The young teens spend time in summery fields, in desolate, abandoned warehouses and other buildings on the outskirts of a small provincial town in the Argentinian pampas. The same spaces reoccur a few years later when the young women meet again when one of them returns with a backpack symbolizing the knowledge acquired.
The Jury Award was presented to the Venezuela film La Fortaleza, the second feature film by Jorge Thielen Armand (La Soledad), which also had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival, follows a man who retreats into the jungle and meets old friends to escape the crisis in Venezuela, and his alcoholism. But the former happiness of the man and his friends is transformed into evil intentions by the lure of gold.
The Mexican film Tragic Jungle / Selva trágica by Yulene Olaizola received the Audience Award, while Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine / Chico ventana también quisiera tener un submarino by Uruguayan director Alex Piperno was presented with the French Union of Film Critics Award.
The Award for Best Documentary was presented to the Chilean film The Other One / El otro by Francisco Bermejo. The film follows a man who lives somewhere at the end of the world, where ocean and rocks play their endless games of hide and seek. Yet in his mysterious solitude, he is not alone. One day, remains of a white whale are washed ashore by a storm.
The Brazilian film The Pink Indian Against the Invisible Beast: Noel Nutels' Battle / O Índio Cor-de-Rosa Contra a Fera Invisível: A Peleja de Noel Nutels by Thiago Carvalho was the winner of both the Student Jury Award and Audience Award in the documentary competition, while the Colombian film Teoría social numérica by Paola Michaels won the Best Short Film Award.
