Ernesto Martínez Bucio became the third Mexican director to win the Best First Film Award at the Berlinale for his debut feature The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box) / El Diablo Fuma (y guarda las cabezas de los cerillos quemados en la misma caja). He follows in the footsteps of Alonso Ruizpalacios, who won in 2014 for Güeros, and Gabriel Ripstein, who won for 600 Miles / 600 millas a year later.
The Best Film Award was presented to the film which premiered in the new Perspectives competition of the festival. The award comes with a cash prize of €50,000, to be split between the producer and the director of the winning film. Additionally, the director was presented with a high-quality viewfinder as both a useful instrument and memorable trophy.
The Devil Smokes tells the story of the fears of five stoic young siblings—abandoned by their parents—that blend with those of their schizophrenic grandmother, who now cares for them, gradually blurring and dissolving the boundary between reality and imagination.
Director, screenwriter and editor Martínez Bucio was born in Uruapan, Mexico in 1983. He studied communication sciences followed by film at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica in Mexico and has a master’s degree in filmmaking from the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastián, Spain. His short films have premiered at high-profile festivals including Cannes, Cairo, San Sebastián and Rotterdam. He participated in Berlinale Talents in 2016.
