The Colombian film La jauría, the debut feature by Andrés Ramírez Pulidohas won the Grand Prize for Best Film, with a cash prize of €10,000, in the 61st edition of Critics’ Week, the independent parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival dedicated to first and second films. Additionally, the Colombian production was also recipient of the SACD Award, presented by the Authors Society with a cash prize of €4,000.
The jury was composed of Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, French-Greek actress and director Ariane Labed, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson, Spanish producer María Zamora, and South Korean journalist, film programmer and the director of the Busan International Film Festival, Huh Moon yung.
La jauría tells the story of Eliú, a country boy who is incarcerated́ in an experimental minors' centre in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest, for a crime he committed with his friend El Mono. Every day, the teenagers perform strenuous manual labour and intense group therapy. One day, El Mono is transferred to the same centre and brings with him a past that Eliú is trying to get away from.
This marks the third time that a Latin American film wins the Critics’ Week Grand Prize after the Mexican film Aquí y allá by Spanish director Antonio Méndez Esparza in 2012, and the Argentine film Paulina by Santiago Mitre in 2015..
The 61st edition of Critics’ Week took place May 18-26 in Cannes, France.
