“Los caminantes de la calle,” directed by Argentina’s Juan Martín Hsu, Chilean Ignacio Pávez’s docu-fiction drama “An Amputee” and Uruguayan Lorenzo Tocco’s “For God’s Sake” proved the biggest winners at the Malaga Festival’s MAFIZ industry area awards, announced at a ceremony on Friday night.
Covering Malaga’s Work in Progress showcase, its Málaga Festival Fund Co-Production forum (MAFF) and the Spanish Screenings Content – Málaga Short Corner, prizes were divvied up among a slew of titles, with ‘Sometimes,’ by Sara Fantova and Enrique Buleo’s ‘Still Life With Ghosts,’ both scoring multiple awards.
From his first feature, 2015’s “La Salada,” a patchwork narrative tale of immigrants’ lives, dreams and suffering in Argentina, to 2021’s “La Luna Reprenta Mi Corazon,” a docu feature record of the rencounter with his mother in Taiwan, Hsu has carved out a niche depicting the immigrant experience in Argentina. In “Los caminantes de la calle,” he rachets up the drama, plumbing the sex slavery and violence of Argentina’s Chinese Mafia. A procedural produced by Proton Cine, “Caminantes” walked off with four prizes in Málaga WIP Iberoamericana. “An Amputee” and “For God’s Sake” took two a piece at MAFF.
Pávez’s sophomore pic after “Vieja Viejo,” docu-fiction drama “An Amputee” turns on Raul, 35, a junkie, who suffers an accident, loses a hand. Sunk in depression, he discovers some truths that will lead him to find his place in the world once more. “My intention is not to create a film solely centered on individuals with disabilities. Instead, I aim to delve into the mechanisms of exclusion,” Pávez told Variety.
The Aspirant
Courtesy of Begin Again Films
In “For God’s Sake,” the mayor of El Surubí in Uruguay, which is fast disappearing off the map, claims a series of religious miracles around the village, in an attempt to turn it into a new Holy Land. The project will be directed by Tocco, whose short, “The Anniversary,” won at Guadalajara, Lleída and Viña del Mar. It is up at Uruguay’s Montelona Cine, whose credits take in Ariel Rotter’s “A Blue Bird,” Lucía Garibaldi’s “The Sharks” and “Clever,” by Federico Borgia y Guillermo Madeiro.
A Málaga WIP España title, Juan Gautier’s psychological thriller “The Aspirant” also scored a double, including the Málaga WIP Award. Acquired at Malaga for Spain and international by Begin Again Films Gautier’s tale of college hazing is “presented as a microcosm that could be extrapolated to other areas,” Gautier told Variety.
Coming of age and family tale “Jone, Sometimes,” the first feature from Bilbao-born ESCAC alum Sara Fantova, a director on three episodes of “This Is Not Sweden,” also took two awards in Malaga WIP España.
Picked up by Sideral for Spain, Enrique Buleo’s black comedy ‘Still Life With Ghosts’ was another two-time winner. Yoking absurdist humor and magical realism, its five different intertwined stories turn on ghosts and the living inhabitants in a small town in Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha region.
Malaga MAFIZ Industry Awards
Work in Progress
Málaga WIP Award (Spain)
“The Aspirant,” (“El aspirante,” Juan Gautier)
Málaga WIP Award (Ibero-America)
“Suçuarana,” (Sérgio Borges, Clarissa Campolina)
Aracne Digital Cinema Award
“Jone, Sometimes,” (“Jone batzuetan,” Sara Fantova)
Chemistry Award
“Los caminantes de la calle,” (Juan Martín Hsu)
Cine y Tele Award
“The Aspirant,” (“El aspirante,” Juan Gautier)
E-28. Award
“Los caminantes de la calle,” (Juan Martín Hsu)
“Filthy,” (“Per què no vas fer res?,” Bàrbara Mestanza, Marc Pujolar)
IAFFM – Miami Award
“Jone, Sometimes,” (“Jone batzuetan,” Sara Fantova)
Latamcinema.com Award
“Los caminantes de la calle,” (Juan Martín Hsu)
Music Library Award (Málaga WIP Spain)
“Still Life With Ghosts,” (“Bodegón con fantasmas,” Enrique Buleo)
Music Library Award (Málaga WIP Ibero-America)
“Can’t Have Sex,” (“No puedo tener sexo,” (Bel Gatti)
Río Bravo Award
“Filthy,” (“Per què no vas fer res?,” Bàrbara Mestanza, Marc Pujolar)
Sideral Award
“Los caminantes de la calle,” (Juan Martín Hsu)
Yagán Films Award
“Still Life With Ghosts,” (“Bodegón con fantasmas,” Enrique Buleo)
Yagán Films Award (Iberoamérica)
“Kaye,” (Juan Cáceres)
Partner Festival WIP Invitations
Abycine Lanza
“Filthy,” (“Per què no vas fer res?,” Bàrbara Mestanza, Marc Pujolar)
FIDBA Doc
“Under the Flags, the Sun,” (“Bajo las banderas, el sol,” Juanjo Pereira)
REC Festival
“Jone, Sometimes,” (“Jone batzuetan,” Sara Fantova)
“Surfing Einstein,” (Meritxell Campos Olivé)
SANFIC Latam
“Criminal Body,” (“Cuerpo criminal,” Martín Boulocq)
Málaga Festival Fund Co-Production Event (MAFF)
Music Library Award (Ibero-America)
“Aurelia,” (Diego Manuel Mauro Morínigo)
Music Library Award (Latin America)
“An Amputee,” (“Un amputado,” Ignacio Pérez).
Music Library Award Women Screen Industry
“La pérdida de la magia,” (Silvia Rey)
Bolivia Lab Award
“For God’s Sake,” (“El milagro del Surubí,” Lorenzo Tocco)
1st Cántico Producciones Award
“Resistencia,” (Yanillys Pérez)
2nd Cántico Producciones Award
“El niño y el tiburón,” (Lucía Flórez)
3r Premio Cántico Producciones Award
“An Amputee”
Impulso ECAM Award
“For God’s Sake”
SANFIC Santiago Lab Award
“Allq’u,” (Teo Belton)
Sideral Award
“La carne dócil,” (Pedro Gumao)
FIDBA Award
“La pérdida de la magia,” (Silvia Rey)
Spanish Screenings Content – Málaga Short Corner
Festhome Award
“Campolivar,” (Alicia Moncholí)
Lorena Jaramillo contributed to this article.