GÜEROS Sweeps Mexico’s Ariel Awards

Güeros was the top winner at the 57th edition of the Ariel Awards, Mexico’s national film prize, which were presented this evening at a ceremony in Mexico City. The debut feature film by Alonso Ruizpalacios walked away with five awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best First Film, and Best Photography. It had received the most nominations at 12.

The film, which recently had its theatrical premiere in the U.S. to critical acclaim, follows Sombra and Santos, who ever since the National University strike broke out, have been living in angst-ridden limbo. But their idiosyncratic routine is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Tomas, Sombra's kid brother. Unable to fit in amongst these older slackers, Tomas discovers that unsung Mexican folk-rock hero Epigmenio Cruz has been hospitalized somewhere in the city. Tomas convinces Sombra and Santos they must track him down in order to pay their final respects on his deathbed. But what they thought would be a simple trip to find their childhood idol, soon becomes a voyage of self-discovery across Mexico City's invisible frontiers.

The Ariel Award for Best Original Screenplay went to Rigoberto Perezcano for Carmín Tropical, while the award for Best Adapted Screenplay was for the film Obediencia perfecta / Perfect Obedience. The award for Best Documentary went to H20 MX by José Cohen and Lorenzo Hagerman, and the Ariel for Best Ibero-American Film was awarded to the Argentinean film Wild Tales / Relatos salvajes by Damián Szifron.

Producer Bertha Navarro (Cronos, Pan’s Labyrinth) was presented with the Golden Ariel for her professional trajectory.

Created in 1947, the Ariel Awards are presented annually by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences.

WILD TALES Leads Platino Award Nominations

Argentine feature Wild Tales / Relatos salvajes leads in nominations for the 2nd annual edition of the Platino Awards of Ibero-American Cinema, with a total of ten nominations, including, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.

Directed by Damián Szifron and produced by the Almodóvar Brothers, Wild Tales continues to make waves after it premiered this time last year at Cannes. It went on to be a huge box office success in Argentina and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film earlier this year, amongst countless other prestigious awards and nominations. It was released theatrically in the United States in February and its immense popularity has kept it in theaters until now, as we are fast-approaching June.

Wild Tales is a black comedy including six shorts with characters that walk a thin line between civilization and brutality. It is a film about deadly revenge and losing control. 

Other nominees include Venezuelan feature Bad Hair / Pelo Malo by Mariana Rondón, which received eight nominations. Nine-year-old Junior, who has a beautiful head of curls is obsessed with straightening his hair which elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother.

Mr. Kaplan, a comedy from Uruguay by Álvaro Brechner, received seven nominations. At seventy-six years old Mr. Kaplan faces a severe existential crisis and in the midst of his breakdown becomes convinced that a German running a nearby café is an escaped Nazi. As a Jew who fled from the Nazis as a child he teams up with an expelled cop to capture the Nazi and bring him to justice.

Szifron is joined in the Best Director category by Brechner from Uruguay, Ernesto Daranas (Conducta) from Cuba, and Rondón from Venezuela.

The Latin American films competing for Best First Film are Ciencias naturales / Natural Sciences by Matías Lucchesi from Argentina, La distancia más larga / Longest Distance by Claudia Pinto from Venezuela, Mateo by María Gamboa from Colombia, and Vestido de novia / Wedding Dress by Marilyn Solaya from Cuba.

The nominations were announced early this morning in Los Angeles. This year’s Festival received an outstanding seven hundred and sixty films for competition leaving thirty finalists and representing thirty-three different countries.

The 2015 Platino Awards of Spanish-American Cinema will take place in Marbella, Spain on on July 18, 2015.

Cannes 2015 In Review: Latin American Cinema Excels, Winning Awards in Almost Every Section

Despite the preliminary unpromising prospects for Latin America at the 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival -in last April's original lineup announcement only the Mexican film Las elegidas / The Chosen Ones by David Pablos was selected- the region had a stellar performance at the French competition. Latin American filmmakers won awards at all, but one, of the competitive section at Cannes, arguably the world’s most influential film festival.

Colombia, the South American country with the most numbers of competing films, had a historic performance at Cannes earning five major accolades at the French Riviera. César Augusto Acevedo was the winner of the Caméra d’Or prize for his debut feature La tierra y la sombra / Land and Shade, making it the highest distinction ever won by a Colombian film, and the fourth time a Latin American filmmaker won the prize for Best First Film of the festival.

Land and Shade premiered at the International Critics’ Week, the oldest parallel competitive section at Cannes that features first and second feature films by directors by directors from all over the world, where it also won three awards: the France 4 Visionary Award, the SACD Award and Le Rail's d'Or prize.

Also from Colombia, Ciro Guerra’s third feature film El abrazo de la serpiente / Embrace of the Serpent was the winner of the Art Cinema Award, the top prize for Best Film at the Directors’ Fortnight, the independent section of the festival.

Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco, who was the only Latin American representative at the Official Competition with his feature film Chronic, was awarded the prize for Best Screenplay, while Argentinean film Paulina / La patota, the sophomore film by Santiago Mitre was awarded with the top prize at the Critics’ Week as well as the FIPRESCI Award.

In its first edition, the L’Oeil d’Or prize awarded to the Best Documentary, was presented to the Chilean film Allende mi abuelo Allende, Beyond my Grandfather Allende by Marcia Tambutti, which had its world premiere as part of the Directors' Fortnight competition.

Another Chilean production was also awarded in the Cinéfondation section of the festival. The short film Locas perdidas / Lost Queens by Ignacio Juricic Merillán from Universidad de Chile won the second place of the competition.

Cannes 2015: Mexican Michel Franco Wins Best Screenplay Award

Mexican director Michel Franco was awarded the prize for Best Screenplay for his film Chronic at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film follows David, a nurse who works with terminally ill patients. Efficient and dedicated to his profession, he develops strong and even intimate relationships with each person he cares for. But outside of his work David is ineffectual, awkward, and reserved. It is clear that he needs each patient as much as they need him.

In his acceptance speech Franco said that "The idea for this film emerged in Cannes three years ago, when I received a prize from Tim Roth. We talked about making a film together, and the result is Chronic."

Franco becomes the second Mexican filmmaker to win the prize for Best Screenplay at Cannes. Exactly a decade ago, Guillermo Arriaga was awarded the prize for his script of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, the American feature film directed by Tommy Lee Jones.

Cannes 2015: Colombian LAND AND SHADE Awarded Caméra d'Or Prize

Colombian film La tierra y la sombra / Land and Shade by César Augusto Acevedo was awarded with the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which is presented to the Best First Film featured in the festival’s Official Selection (Competition, Out of Competition and Un Certain Regard), in Critics’ Week or Directors’ Fortnight. Land and Shade premiered at the Critics’ Week and was awarded with three prizes in that category.

The film tells the story of Alfonso, an old farmer who has returned home to tend to his son, who is gravely ill. He rediscovers his old house, where the woman who was once his wife still lives, with his daughter-in-law and grandson. The landscape that awaits him resembles a wasteland. Vast sugar cane plantations surround the house, producing perpetual clouds of ash. 17 years after abandoning them, Alfonso tries to fit back in and save his family.

In his acceptance speech Acevedo said: "It's an immense honor. I would like to thank the jury and all those who make this festival possible. I also wish to thank the Critics’ Week for its love of film. My thanks also go to the entire cast and crew of the film, which made this dream possible. Finally, I would like to dedicate this prize to all Colombian farmers. It is they who are the heroes of this country. I want them to know that they're not alone".

Land and Shade becomes the first Colombian film to ever win the prize in its 36 years of existence, and it becomes the fourth Latin American film to win the award after Fina Torres’ Oriana from Venezuela in 1985, Michael Rowe’s Año bisiesto / Leap Year from Mexico in 2010, and more recently Pablo Giorgelli’s Las Acacias from Argentina in 2011. Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas received a Special Jury Mention in 2002 for his debut feature Japón.

The 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival took place May 13-24 in France.

Colombian Filmmaker Ciro Guerra Wins Directors' Fortnight at Cannes

The Colombian film Embrace of the Serpent / El abrazo de la serpiente by Ciro Guerra was the winner of the top prize, the Art Cinema Award, at the 47th edition of Directors’ Fortnight, the independent parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival.

Guerras’ third feature film -his follow-up to the Wind Journeys- is inspired by the journals of the first explorers of the Colombian Amazon, Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes.

It tells the epic story of the first contact, encounter, approach, betrayal and, eventually, life-transcending friendship, between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, travel through the Amazon in search of a sacred plant that can heal them.

The most recent Latin American film to have won the Art Cinema Award was Pablo Larraín’s No from Chile in 2012. Colombian cinema has performed well at Cannes this year, as César Acevedo’s Land and Shade / Tierra y sombra from the South American country was also awarded with two prizes in the Critics Week section of the festival.

The 47th edition of the Directors’ Fortnight took place May 14-24 at Cannes, France.