‘Me & The Beasts,’ ‘Olivia and the Shadows,’ ‘The Night Belongs to Monsters’ Win Big at Ventana Sur
Taking place on site in five cities – Madrid, São Paulo, Mexico City, Bogotá and Santiago de Chile – and online for the rest of the world, Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest film market, climaxed Friday with a virtual awards ceremony for its major industry competitions hosted out of Buenos Aires.
Awards went to some buzzed up titles from major production houses, as well as others – “Me & The Beasts,” for example, which came from seemingly nowhere to take multiple industry sponsors by storm.
Following, the prize winners:
Primer Corte
Venezuelan Nico Manzano’s “Me & The Beasts” – an original, fantasy-tinged drama turning on a singer seeking inspiration as Venezuela’s crisis roils – won three of the six prizes on offer at Ventana Sur’s 2020 Primer Corte, its art film pix-in-post competition. Post-production prizes took in a DCP copy (NMF/Colorfront), color correction and VXF supervision (Sofia Films) and a final mix check (La Mayor.Cine).
Argentina’s Malena Solarz won a collective prize from Ibero-America’s Caaci state film agencies assn. for “Album for the Youth,” a coming of age tale made up of small tentative steps to maturity rather than dramatic character arcs.
In contrast, the big European prizes – from France’s Titra Films, Canal Plus’s Canal Plus Club and Le Film Français-Cannes Market News – went to two titles from Brazil’s burgeoning generation of young women directors – Thais Fujinaga’s “The Joy of Things,” a nuanced, study of a middle-class mother under pressure, and Flávia Neves’ “Fogaréu,” a lacerating depiction of racism, gender abuse and residual colonialism in provincial Brazil – as well as Miguel Salgado’s “Shame,” portrait of prevalent violence in Mexico.
Copia Final
In a rare show of unanimity in a Ventana Sur section, both prizes on offer went to “Anaira” from Brazil’s Sergio Machado, a movie in line with his “Lower City” which explores the foibles and failure of manhood as two brothers fall in love with the same woman, Anaira. The feature is produced by TC Filmes and Gullane, marking a remarkable winning run for the latter which has just snagged an International Emmy and Brazil’s submission for the International Feature Film Oscar.
Animation!
Best feature and La Liga awards went to 2D puppets project, “Olivia and the Shadows,” a coming of age tale tinged with a sense of magic from creators Virginia Mórtola and Juan Carve at Uruguay’s Chucho.tv, the company behind Annecy-selected series “La Orquestita.”
Produced by Colombia’s Nocroma, best feature co-winner “Disposable” delivers a pre-apocalyptic and poetic vision of Latin America’s hardscrabble big cities, reflecting on their social inequality and violence. Mixing techniques— analogue, 2D, 3D digital animation, digital photography – the action-adventure project follows a biology student kidnapped in the jungles of Colombia.
From Argentina’s Yellow Kingdom and Spain’s WeDoo Studio, colorful kids’ series “Ghost Bros” took the Pixelatl best TV award.
Adopting a documentary approach towards major revolutions whose importance has been diminished, often by authoritarian governments according to producer André Pereira, “Bring on the Revolution!” shared the best series award. Brazil’s Lupa Filmes, Buraco de Bala and Jetto TV produce.
A comedic 2D actioner and coming of age story, “Irl Squad,” from Chile’s Fernanda Frick (“Here’s the Plan”) received a special mention and the Weird Animation, Video Games & New Media Market Award.
A second special mention went to Argentina’s “Forest Girl,” Ali Chen’s exquisitely drawn 2D feature parable from Juan Pablo Miller’s Tarea Fina and Ariel Rotter’s Aire Cine.
Blood Window
From the Blood Window Lab for genre projects, Bifan, the industry section of South Korean partner festival Bucheon, selected rising Chilean star Sandra Arriagada’s “Matria” to participate in the next edition of the Southeast Asian festival while Spain’s Sitges extended an invite of its own to Diego Ortuño’s Ecuadorian project “Chuzalongo” which also scooped the Cine Qua Non Lab script treatment award. The Independent Audiovisual Producers Association (APIMA) Award went to “The House of the Doors and Window” from local filmmaker Sabrina Moreno.
Sebastian Perillo’s “The Night Belongs to the Monsters” was the big winner from the Works in Progress screenings, picking up the Mayor Cine sound mixing award, Sofia Films color correction prize and the Platinum Industry Award. “The Eye and the Wall,” from Guatemala’s Carlos Javier del Cid Mazariegos took the Le Film Français Cannes Market News Award for guaranteed coverage at next year’s Marché du Film. The Chemistry Award and Méliès International Festivals Federation Award, guaranteeing an appearance in next year’s Blood Window Showcase at Marché du Film and Sitges Film Festival, went to Andrés Beltran’s Colombian cabin-in-the-woods thriller “Tarumama.”
2020 VENTANA SUR WINNERS
PRIMER CORTE
NMF / COLORFRONT AWARD
“Me & The Beasts,” (Nico Manzano, Venezuela)
SOFIA FILMS AWARD
“Me & The Beasts”
LA MAYOR.CINE AWARD
“Me & The Beasts”
TITRAFILM AWARD
“The Joy of Things,” (Thais Fujinaga, Brasil)
CINE PLUS CLUB AWARD
“Shame,” (Miguel Salgado, México)
LE FILM FRANÇAIS – CANNES MARKET NEWS AWARD
“Fogareu,” (Flávia Neves, Brazil, France)
CAACI AWARD
“Album for the Youth,” (Malena Solarz, Argentina)
COPIA FINAL
TITRAFILM AWARD
“Farewell Captain,” (Brasil, Sérgio Machado)
CINE+CLUB AWARD
“Farewell Captain,” (Brasil, Sérgio Machado)
BLOOD WINDOW
NAFF/B.I.G BIFAN AWARD
“Matria,” (Sandra Arriagada, Chile, Argentina, Spain)
SITGES PITCHBOX AWARD
“Chuzalongo,” (Diego Ortuño, Ecuador)
APIMA AWARD
“The House of the Doors and Windows,” (Sabrina Moreno, Argentina)
CINE QUA NON LAB AWARD
“Chuzalongo”
LA MAYOR CINE AWARD
“The Night Belong to The Monsters,” (Sebastian Perillo, Argentina)
SOFIA FILMS
“The Night Belong to The Monsters”
BLOOD WINDOW SCREENINGS (WIP)
LE FILM FRANÇAIS – CANNES MARKET NEWS AWARD
“The Eye and the Wall,” (Carlos Javier del Cid Mazariegos, Guatemala)
CHEMISTRY AWARD
“Tarumama,” (Andrés Beltrán, Colombia)
MIFF – MÉLIÈS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS FEDERATION AWARD
“Tarumama”
PLATINO INDUSTRIA – EGEDA AWARD
“The Night Belong to The Monsters”
ANIMATION!
MIFA-ANNECY AWARDS
FEATURES
“Desechable,” (Carlos Gómez Salamanca, Colombia)
“Olivia and the Shadows,” (Juan Carve, Uruguay)
TV SERIES
“Ghost Bros,” (Jorge Edelstein, Argentina)
“Bring on the Revolution!,” (Aleixo Leite, Brazil)
SPECIAL MENTION MIFA / ANNECY
“Forest Girl,” (Aili Chen, Argentina)
“Irl Squad,” (Fernanda Frick, Chile)
PIXELATL PRIZE
“Ghost Bros”
LA LIGA AWARD
“Olivia and the Shadows”
WEIRD ANIMATION, VIDEO GAMES & NEW MEDIA MARKET AWARD
“Irl Squad”
INDUSTRY PLATINO AWARD
“Alen From Patagonia,” (Dante Di Giovanni, Argentina)
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