Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva (pictured) won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award for his film Crystal Fairy (pictured below) at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. It is the second time he wins at the festival, after 2009 when he got the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition for his film La nana / The Maid.
The film, starring Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffmann, tells the story of Jamie, a boorish, insensitive American twenty-something traveling in Chile, who somehow manages to create chaos at every turn. He and his friends are planning on taking a road trip north to experience a legendary shamanistic hallucinogen called the San Pedro cactus. In a fit of drunkenness at a wild party, Jamie invites an eccentric woman—a radical spirit named Crystal Fairy—to come along.
Other Latino winners at this year's edition of Sundance include the British-Mexican documentary film Who is Dayani Cristal? by Marc Silver which was recipient of the World Cinema Documentary Cinematography Award; and Brazilian filmmaker Aly Muritiba who won the Sundance Institute Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award.
In the past few years, Chile has had a good representation and performance at Sundance. In addition to Silva's couple of awards, last year Andres Wood's Violeta se fue a los cielos / Violeta Went to Heaven won the World Cinema Dramatic Jury Prize and Marialy Rivas Joven y alocada / Young and Wild was presented with the World Cinema Screenwriting Award.
