On the Invention of Species by Tania Hermida
Latin American productions, from Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica, were among the top winners at the 67th edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), which ran from April 24 – 28, 2024.
The Ecuadorean feature On the Invention of Species / La invención de las especies, the third feature by director Tania Hermida received the Sloan Science in Cinema Award that celebrates the compelling depiction of science in a narrative feature film. In On the Invention of Species, Carla’s dad drags her to the Galápagos Islands for a convention on conservation and species evolution, where she finds herself adrift on the historic archipelago that led to Charles Darwin’s breakthrough studies on adaptation, grappling with grief and coming of age on this moving film.
The Brazilian film Heartless / Sem Coração by Nara Normande and Tião, received the Cine Latino Jury Recognition for best film in the Cine Latino competition. In this dramatic feature, inspired by co-director Nara Normande’s own life, teenage Tamara spends the summer of 1996 hanging with her group of friends before leaving them behind to study in Brasilia. While restlessly exploring her village on Brazil’s northwest coast, Tamara’s relationships begin to shift. She grows apart from her boyfriend Kinzão while developing an attraction for another girl, nicknamed “Heartless” for the surgical scar on her chest.
Bogotá Story by director Esteban Pedraza was awarded the Narrative Short Award. The Colombian short film showcases the rise of militarism and organized crime in the early 1990s Colombia as it impacts the lives of a young married couple—and the entire country.
The Costa Rican short A Film Is A Goodbye That Never Ends by director María Luisa Santos, received the Bay Area Short Award. In this intimate portrayal of bonding and longing, a woman awaiting her US visa befriends a dog named Turbo. When it’s time to part, she says goodbye the only way she knows how—she makes a movie.
In the animation category, the Colombian short film La Perra by Carla Melo Gampert was the winner of the Animated Short Award. With its visceral and deeply affecting exploration of parent-child relationships, sexuality, and grief, La Perra beautifully paints an unsettling and universal coming-of-age story. Ink and watercolor surrealist illustrations explore what it’s like to inhabit an oversexualized body and how to make sense of our desires in a society that shames them.
The SFFILM awards serve as a launching platform for internationally renowned filmmakers in early stages of their careers, and these awards serve to qualify films under 40 minutes for the Oscars.
