Director Alejandra Márquez Abella with the Ariel Award and her producing team
Alejandra Márquez Abella’s third feature film Northern Skies Over Empty Space / El norte sobre el vacío was the surprise winner of the top prize for Best Film at the 65th edition of Mexico’s Ariel Awards, which took place last night in a ceremony in Guadalajara, marking the first time ever that the event was not held in Mexico City.
Northern Skies Over Empty Space won over Michelle Garza Cervera’s Huesera: The Bone Woman and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths / Bardo: Falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades, which had 17 and 12 nominations respectively. Márquez Abella’s film also won the Ariel for Best Supporting Actor for Raúl Briones.
Iñárritu was presented with the Ariel for Best Director, and his film’s protagonist Daniel Giménez Cacho won the award for Best Actor. Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths was the big winner of the evening, taking home eight awards total: for Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume, and Best Visual Effects.
Huesera: The Bone Woman was the winner of four Ariel Awards: for Best First Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Makeup, and Best Special Effects. Arcelia Ramírez was presented with the Ariel Award for Best Actress for her role of Cielo in La Civil by Teodora Mihai.
The Ariel Award for Best Documentary was a tie, and it was presented to Helmut Dosantos’ Gods of Mexico / Dioses de México and Time Theorem / Teorema de tiempo by Andrés Kayser. Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos’ Home Is Somewhere Else was the winner of the Ariel Award for Best Animated Film.
Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985 was the winner of the Award for Best Ibero-American film, and Anabel Castro’s debut feature Trigal was the winner of the Best Supporting Actress award and the Breakthrough Actor award. Filmmakers Marcela Fernández Violante and Juan Mora Catlett were presented with the Golden Ariel for Lifetime Achievement.
