VIA THIS AWARD, NÉBOA AND PRIMA NOAPTE SHORTLISTED TO OSCARS
‘ENCOURAGING’ ASSESSMENT OF UPPER ARAGONESE FESTIVAL 45TH EDITION REGARDING AUDIENCE AND QUALITY OF SUBMITTED WORKS
Huesca International Film Festival concludes a successful 45th edition disclosing awarded short films at its three contests: International, Iberoamerican and Documentary. Out of a total of 80 competing shorts from 31 different countries, Néboa by Spanish Claudia Costafreda obtained the Danzante Award at the Iberoamerican competition, while at the International Contest it went to Prima Noapte, by Romanian Andrei Tanase; both works have thus gained the right to be shortlisted to Oscars thanks to Huesca Festival award. In the Documentary Contest, Spanish Cucli received the highest award.
Claudia Costafreda’s work was highlighted by the jury because of ‘the great aesthetic quality’ and how ‘memory and exile subjects are intertwined in an honest way’. Besides, the Spaniard’s work was also awarded Best Script, an award launched for the first time by Huesca International Film Festival.
Sebastián Castillo, Xavier Marrades, Leticia Akel and Claudia Costafreda. PHOTO: Jorge Dueso.
The jury, consisting of Ainhoa Jauregui, from Unifrance, the director of Latin American Film Festival in Helsinki, Diego Ginartes, and actor Ricardo Rodríguez, also distinguished Premonición with the Cacho Pallero Special Prize. This Chilean production, directed by Leticia Akel, was highlighted for developing a coherent storytelling that brings about a clash between two different worldviews. They also presented a special mention to the short film Memory of the Land, first work of the visual Palestinian artist Samira Badran, a short that, according to the jury, is ‘stunning and aesthetically committed, it makes the audience react emotionally to current geopolitical conflicts’.
Romanian Andrei Tanase won the first prize of the International Contest with his short Prima Noapte for its ‘honest account, complex and striking, with a well-structured script and excellent interpretations, on the complex father and son relationships’, as stated André Guttfreund, president of the Salvadoran Film and Television Association, member of the international jury along with Annette Scholz, ALCINE international coordinator, and Niko, animation director and creator of ‘Calico Electrónico’.
This same jury awarded the Jinete Ibérico Prize, Best Animation Short Film, to Nutshell (Switzerland), by Fabio Friedli, because ‘it creates through the stop-motion technique an exciting and visceral journey (…) that makes spectators evoke a wide range of visual and auditory sensations. It makes think, feel and laugh’. The Human Values Mention ‘Francisco García de Paso’ went to Croatian production Grimizno, by Dijana Mladenovic, for showing ‘a stressful situation in a war context’. And finally, Jung, by Nehemias Colindres, received a special mention for ‘the rhythm, the use of soundtrack and different film languages -as a whole-’ as it prevents cinematographic account about young immigrants from falling back on clichés.
In the documentary contest, the jury consisting of director Guillermo García López, the director of Reykjavík International Film Festival, Hrönn Marinòsdóttir, and director Judith Colell, granted the highest award to Cucli by Xavier Marrades, ‘for finding universal concepts such as love, solitude and death in the specifics, with a solid cinematographic discourse’. Marrades’ work also won Anselmo Pié Best Debut Work, granted by the youth jury for ‘the original way in which it deals with the subject of love through the relationship between a man and a dove’. José Manuel Porquet Special Award to Best Documentary Short went to Insiders, by Chilean Sebastián Castillo, ‘a brave and provocative film that dares to show an uncomfortable subject through an honest and poetic view’. Also in this case a special mention was awarded to Belgian work Ma fille Nora, by Jasna Krajinovic, ‘for dealing with such a relevant subject to today’s world, as it is religious fanaticism from the viewpoint of family relations’.
The youth jury also granted the Anselmo Pié Award to Indian short film Aaba, by Amar Kaushik, ‘for offering a culturally different viewpoint on the acceptance of death’.
Finally, in its third edition, the Audience Award sponsored by Aragón Television, all competing works are eligible, went to the Spanish short El mundo entero directed by Julián Quintanilla.
‘VERY POSITIVE’ ASSESSMENT OF THE FESTIVAL
The 45th edition of Huesca International Film Festival closed with a very positive result as its director, Azucena Garanto, assessed. ‘Every year audience engagement increases not just for attending cinema but also the rest of the activities organized’, she declared. Regarding present edition’s competing works as a whole, Azucena highlighted the high quality of the works and ‘how creativity takes part in the way stories are told’ by new filmmakers. Lastly, one thing should be taken into account, she stressed, the strong female presence in the list of winners of the Upper Aragonese festival.
