The Guatemalan film project Los Fantasmas, to be the debut feature by Sebastián Lojo, has won the Cinema Tropical prize at the 10th annual edition of LABEX, the Latin American film lab for development and production, which took place July 24-28 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Los Fantasmas by the London Film School graduate and London-based Guatemalan filmmaker, was the winner of the second place in the work in progress competition. The jury, composed by producers Vanessa Ragone and Ariel Vicente and the musician-sound designer Gustavo Pomenarec decided to give the award to Lojo's project for presenting a little-known universe and cinema, and being an innovative and personal search that explores the limits between documentary and fiction. The Cinema Tropical Prize consists of a personalized film festival and distribution consultancy for the filmmaker.
The work in progress competition was won by the Chilean project El cielo está rojo by Francina Carbonell. Two other projects received a Special Mention from the jury: the Uruguayan project Los tiburones by Lucía Garibaldi, and the Argentine-Peruvian co-production Pucaurquillo by Martín Tricárico
In the Development category, the jury composed by producer Gema Juárez Allen, and directors Paula Hernández and Cristian Darío Pellegrini gave the top prize to Sebastián Kohen Esquenazi's Villa Olímpica, an Argentine-Mexican-Chilean project. The second place was awarded to the Mexican project Impostor(es) by Rodrigo Márquez, and the third prize was for the Peruvian project El pecado social by Juan Carlos Goicochea.
Two projects were awarded by Argentina's main documentary film organizations: DOCA, Argentine Documentarians gave a special prize to Impostor(es), while ADN, the Argentine Association of Directors and Producers of Independent Documentary Cinema gave its special award to the Chilean project Asteroide 2518 by Amanda Rutllant.
All of the winning projects will receive support and services from companies and organization from Argentina, Chile, and the United States including Alucine HD, Pensylvania Films, Perro Suelto Cine, La Burbuja Sonido, Edgar Allan Post, Red Room Post, Pomeranec Música & Sonido, Ñandu Sonido, Talk Box Subtitling Studio, Kiné Imágenes Cine Digital, 3 al Cubo, Kaiju Cinema Diffusion, Lahaye Post, Cinema Tropical, Common Comunicación, Caviglia estudio, Doca and Adn.
