- Alexandra Latishev’s Medea receives Best Central American Feature Film Award and Best National Feature Film Award.
- Philippe Van Leeuw’s Insyriated wins Best International Feature Film Award.
- Best Short Film Award was granted to Federico Montero’s Umbral
- La familia de la vejiga, 500 años and Insyriated were the public’s favorites in each of the competing categories.
- Industria CRFIC awarded El despertar de las hormigas, El brujo and Apego, as well as El hombre de piel manchada.
San José, Costa Rica, 16 December 2017- After intense deliberations in the face of powerful works, the jurors of the Costa Rica International Film Fest 2017’s three competitions announced, on the night of December 16th, the corresponding winners at the closing ceremony of the sixth edition of the country’s most important film event.
The Audience Awards were also granted this night, as well as the Special Award from the Audience of the Luis Paulino Mora Mora Institutional Attention Center, which was delivered by an inmate of that institution, and the four winning productions of Industria CRFIC.
The CRFIC is a project promoted by the Costa Rican Center for Film Production (Centro de Cine), a branch of the country’s Ministry of Culture and Youth (MCJ). The Fest’s closing ceremony took place at the Magaly Movie Theater after 10 days of screening audiovisual projects from thirteen five different countries.
The Central American Feature Film Competition Jury underlined “the selection of competing films, which manifest the vitality and richness of the current Central American film industry through strong and diverse perspectives that assume their past to inquire their present and imagine their future.”
Fernando Rodríguez, director of Centro de Cine, said that “in this edition of the CRFIC we were committed to present the best possible program, and to encourage a competition exactly as tight as the one we just had. The same philosophy was applied for the selection of the projects of Industria CRFIC. We are certain that the awarded films represent our Fest’s values, and are loyal expressions of the quality of the works that are currently being produced in our region.”
As for the awards, Raciel Del Toro, artistic director of the CRFIC, said that “the awards are not only a spiritual and economic incentive for filmmakers, but are also proof of the importance of diversity in the topics and perspectives among the different sections, whether they are realized through fiction or non-fiction, through personal or collective stories.”
Awarded works
The Central American Feature Film Competition Jury, comprised by Gustavo Fallas (Costa Rica), Eduardo Guillot (Spain) and Nina Rodríguez (Germany), granted the Best Central American Feature Film Award to Alexandra Latishev’s Medea (Costa Rica-Chile-Argentina).
This Jury also awarded Medea as the Best National Feature Film, with an endowment of 3.000.000 colones (around USD 5.000).
Philippe Van Leeuw’s Insyriated (Belgium-France-Lebanon) was awarded Best International Feature Film in the International Feature Film Competition. The Jury was comprised of Jurgen Ureña (Costa Rica), Tatiana Huezo (Mexico) and Mario Mariani (Italy).
In the same competition, Everardo González’s La libertad del diablo (Mexico) received the Special Jury Award, and Rati Oneli’s City of the Sun (Georgia-Qatar-USA-Netherlands) received the Feature Film Jury Award.
The National Short Film Competition Jury, comprised of Cristóbal Serrá (Costa Rica), Millán Luis Vásquez-Ortiz (Spain) and Rodrigo González (Spain-Mexico), selected Federico Montero’s Umbral (Costa Rica) as Best Short film, with an endowment of 1.000.000 colones (around USD 1.800).
This Jury also gave a Special Jury Award to Pietro Bulgarelli and Juan Pablo Polanco’s El hilo (Costa Rica-Chile).
It is also worth noting that the inmates of the Luis Paulino Mora Mora Institutional Attention Center granted a Special Award to María Inés Pijuan’s La ocarina (Costa Rica), and that an inmate of the Center delivered the award at the event’s closing ceremony.
Finally, the Audience Award went to Pamela Yates’ 500 años (Guatemala) in the Central American Feature Film Competition, with an incentive of 1.000.000 colones (around USD 1.800), to Juan Manuel Montero’s La familia de la vejiga in the National Short Film Competition, and to Philippe Van Leeuw’s Insyriated in the International Feature Film Competition.
These are the night’s winners:
Central American Feature Film Competition
Best Central American Feature Film: Medea (Costa Rica-Chile-Argentina), Alexandra Latishev.
“For the rigor on its formal and conceptual approach, which is proof of a will for insight both technically and narratively, and a suggestion for the audience to travel the film at risk and not without challenge.”
Best National Feature Film: Medea (Costa Rica-Chile-Argentina), Alexandra Latishev.
“For its courage and originality in approaching a controversial topic in an adverse social context, and for its honesty at exposing a situation of denial through a character that embodies conflict to its last consequences.”
National Short Film Competition
Best National Short Film: Umbral (Costa Rica), Federico Montero.
“For its cinematographic quality, its mise-en-scène, and the empathy it draws on the spectator, by means of a staged character performing in a real context.”
Special Jury Award: El hilo (Costa Rica-Chile), Pietro Bulgarelli and Juan Pablo Polanco.
“For proposing in a ludic way an approach to film essay through materials that are proper to the cinematographic enterprise.”
Special Award from the Audience at Luis Paulino Mora Mora Institutional Attention Center: La ocarina (Costa Rica), María Inés Pijuan.
International Feature Film Competition
Best International Feature Film: Insyriated (Belgium-France-Lebanon), Philippe Van Leeuw.
“For its pertinence in the current geopolitical context, for its formal decisions which present an intimate psychological perspective on war, and for opening a powerful space for interpretation on the part of the spectator.”
Special Jury Award: La libertad del diablo (Mexico), Everardo González.
“For its courage, for its intelligent treatment of a delicate topic, for giving voice to those who do not usually have it, and for taking advantage of the classic resource of the mask: a metaphor full of potential readings and meanings.”
Jury Award: City of the Sun (Georgia-USA-Qatar-Netherlands), Rati Oneli.
“For its aesthetic, visual and sound elements, which create an extraordinary and nostalgic world.”
Audience Awards
Central American Feature Film Competition: 500 años (Guatemala), Pamela Yates.
Nacional Short Film Competition: La familia de la vejiga (Costa Rica), Juan Manuel Montero.
International Feature Film Competition: Insyriated (Belgium-France-Lebanon), Philippe Van Leeuw.
Industria CRFIC 2017 Awards
“In order to encourage with the best of our strength the development of the selected audiovisual productions”, the Industria CRFIC Jury, integrated by Paz Fábrega (Costa Rica), Sandro Fiorín (Brazil) and Christian Sida-Valenzuela (Mexico-Canada), decided to concentrate the Film in Construction Award in two projects.
The Best Costa Rican Project Award, with an incentive of 3.000.000 colones (around USD 5.000), and the Say the SAME Subtitles Award for translation and subtitles to two languages, went to El Despertar de las hormigas, directed by Antonella Sudasassi and produced by Amaya Izquierdo.
The Best Central American Project Award, with an incentive of 2.500.000 colones (around USD 4.400), as well as the Yagán Films Award for sound postproduction went to Panamanian animation project El brujo, directed by Tomás Cortés and produced by Félix Guardia.
The Boogieman Media Award for Key Art Design went to the Costa Rican project Apego, directed by Patricia Velásquez and produced by Alejo Crisóstomo.
The Jurors also decided to concentrate the awards of the Project Presentation Forum to a single winner, arguing that they intended to “encourage to the best of [their] efforts the selected Costa Rican project.”
Finally, the Best Project Under Development Award, with an endowment of 3.000.000 colones (around USD 5.000), as well as the direct pass to Toulouse Cinélatino-Rencontres event Cinéma en Développement, was awarded to El hombre de piel manchada, directed by André Robert and produced by Gimena Cortés.
Press contact: Sergio Pacheco, CRFIC2017 Communications Director.
Tel. + 506 8816-2283
Ana Beatriz Fernández, Content Management.
Tel. +506 8325-5319
