This past week, the Rotterdam Film Festival announced the winners of the Tiger Awards, three yearly prizes for young filmmakers making their first or second film. In the 44th annual edition of the festival, two Latin American film were awarded with the Tiger Award: the Cuban film La obra del siglo / The Project of the Century by Carlos M. Quintela and Videofilia (y otros síndromes virales) / Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) by Juan Daniel F. Molero. In both cases, it marked a first time that a Cuban and a Peruvian film receive the top honers in the Dutch festival.
Since 1995, when the festival introduced the Tiger Awards, ten Latin American films have received the top prize in total, becoming an influential platform for the promotion of cinema from the region internationally. In 2000 Pablo Trapero won the Tiger Award for his debut feature film Mundo grúa, marking a high point in the consolidation of the then-incipient “New Argentinean Cinema.” One year later, a Tiger Award also went to South America, and it was presented to the Uruguayan filmmaker Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll for their debut feature 25 Watts, which also proved to be very influential as it launched a new and fruitful chapter for Uruguayan cinema.
In total two films from Argentina, two from Uruguay, and one from Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, and Peru have been recipients of the coveted award. Read the complete list of winners:
2000 Mundo grúa / Crane World by Pablo Trapero, Argentina
2001 25 Watts by Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stoll, Uruguay
2003 Extraño / Strange by Santiago Loza, Argentina
2006 La perrera / The Dog Pound by Manuel Nieto Zas, Uruguay
2007 Baixio das bestas / Bog of Beasts by Claudio Assis, Brazil
2010 Agua fría de mar / Cold Water of the Sea by Paz Fábrega, Costa Rica
2010 Alamar / To the Sea, Pedro González-Rubio, Mexico
2012 De jueves a domingo / Thursday Till Sunday by Dominga Sotomayor, Chile
2015 La obra del siglo / The Project of the Century by Carlos M. Quintela, Cuba
2015 Videofilia (y otros síndromes virales) / Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) by Juan Daniel F. Molero, Peru
