Chilean film Bonsái (pictured) by director Cristián Jiménez won the prizes for Best Ibero-American Film and the Screenwriting Award at the 29th edition of the Miami Film Festival, as it was announced this evening at the closing night ceremony at the Gusman Theater in South Florida. Based on the novel by Alejandro Zambra, Bonsái tells the story of writer who taps into his past to inspire his new novel. The film will receive a cash prize of $30,000 as Best Ibero-American Film, and $5,000 for the Screenwriting Award.
Another Chilean film, Violeta se fue a los cielos / Violeta Went to Heaven by Andrés Wood, received the Grand Jury Discretionary Prize with a cash prize of $5,000. The festival also awarded Mexican film Fecha de caducidad / Expiration Date by Kenya Marquez for Best Ibero-American Film. Additionally, the documentary film Unfinished Spaces by Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray about Cuba's National Art Schools received an Honorable Mention from the jury in the official documentary competition.
The festival opened on March 2 with the world premiere of Tom Gustafson's Mariachi Gringo (which won the prize for Best Mexican Film at the Guadalajara Film Festival today) and is showing the Argentine film Un cuento chino / Chinese Take-Away by Sebastián Borensztein in its closing night today.
