Amparo, the debut feature by director Simón Mesa Soto was the big winner at the 10th edition of the Macondo Awards, presented by the Colombian Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences, winning in seven categories, including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
The film, which had its world premiere at Cannes Critics’ Week, tells the story of Amparo, a single mother of two, who returns home after a long night’s shift to find that her children are not there. She soon finds out that her son has been drafted during an army raid and will be sent to the front in a notorious war zone near the border. His fate seems sealed. With only a single day left until his departure, Amparo manages to contact a man who offers to alter Elias' files and get him out. With nothing much on her side, she embarks on a race against time to free her son in a society ruled by corruption.
The Macondo Award for Best Documentary was presented to El film justifica los medios by Juan Jacobo Del Castillo, which also received the Best Editing Award. Augusto Sandino’s A Vanishing Fog / Entre la niebla won the awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Sound.
Paula Castaño won the Macondo Award for Best Actress for her performance in the horror film Llanto maldito by Andrés Beltrán, while Jacques Toukhmanian was the winner of the Best Actor Award for his role as Daniel in Marco Vélez Esquivia’s Sicosexual. The Guatemalan documentary The Silence of the Mole / El silencio del topo by Anaïs Taracena was the winner of the Best Ibero-American Film Award.
