Director Lucía Garibaldi
Two debut features, the Uruguayan film Los tiburones / The Sharks by Lucía Garibaldi and the Mexican film Midnight Family by U.S.-born Luke Lorentzen, were the top winners at the 34th edition of the Guadalajara Film Festival, taking home five awards total between the two films. Both The Sharks and Midnight Family had had their world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last January, where they were also were awarded: Garibaldi for Best Director in the World Cinema Narrative competition, and Lorentzen for Best Cinematography in the U.S. Documentary competition.
The Sharks—an engaging and provocative coming-of-age tale about tge 14-year-old Rosina , who lives in a quiet and small beach resort rumored to be plagued by sharks—was the winner of the Special Jury Prize in the Ibero-American fiction competition, while director Garibaldi was presented with the award for Best Screenplay, and protagonist Romina Bentancur shared the award for Best Actress.
The documentary film Midnight Family was the winner of the Mezcal Award for Best Mexican film, and Lorentzen received the award for Best Director in the national competition. The film follows the Ochoa family that runs a private ambulance in Mexico City, and as they try to make a living in this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from compromising the people in their care.
Other winners include Brazilian film Cine Morocco by Ricardo Calil for Best Documentary, Argentine Dario Grandinetti for Best Actor for his role in Benjamín Naishtat’s Rojo, Luis Armando Arteaga for Best Cinematography for Jayro Bustamante’s Temblores / Tremors, and the Guatemalan film La asfixia by Ana Isabel Bustamante, which received the Special Jury Prize in the documentary competition. Acelo Ruiz Villanueva’s Oblatos, el vuelo que surcó la noche was the winner of the Audience Award and also received a Special Mention in the Mexican competition.
The 34th edition of the Guadalajara International Film Festival took place March 8 - 15 in Mexico.
