• Gábor Reisz’s film Explanation for Everything wins this 23rd edition’s Silver Lady Harimaguada
• The feature film Paradise obtains the Audience Award, whereas the Best Perfomance Award goes to actress Minh-Châu for her role in Cu Li Không Bao Giờ Khóc
• Daniela Muñoz Barroso’s piece Cuatro hoyos wins the Best Short Film Award
• The feature film Malqueridas, by filmmaker Tana Gilbert, gets the Bande à Part Award
• Panorama Spain awarded On the Go, by María Gisèle Royo and Julia de Castro
• The Canarias Cinema Awards go to the feature film La hojarasca, by Macu Machín, and the short film Aitana, by Marina Alberti
• CIMA grants its award to the Czech film I’m Not Everything I Want to Be
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Saturday, April 27, 2024. The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival has announced its 23rd edition’s awards. The Official Jury has given the Golden Lady Harimaguada to the Canadian feature film Matt and Mara (Canada, 2024, 80 min.) by Kazik Radwanski. Those charged with granting the award, Marina Sanna, Samal Yeslyamova and Sidney Cadot-Sambosi, have announced their decision today, April 27, in a ceremony held at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium. Among the ten features competing in the Official Section, the jury has awarded this film for “the ability of the director to bring deep, complex and universal relationship issues and situations on screen. The actor’s direction as well as the screenplay are brilliant and relevant.” The audience will be able to enjoy a final screening of this award-winning film on Sunday, April 28, at 8 p.m. at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas Screen 6.
The second most important award of this 23rd edition, the Silver Lady Harimaguada, has gone to the feature Explanation for Everything (Magyarázat mindenre) (Hungary, Slovakia, 2023, 127 min.), by filmmaker Gábor Reisz, “for the powerful immersion in hungarian society, the subtle interconnection between the characters and the complexity of the questions that link politics and and freedom. The editing and the music emphasize all the qualities of the plot, too.” The film will be screened again tomorrow, April 28, at 6 p.m. at Cine Yelmos Las Arenas Screen 6.
In addition, the jury has decided to give the Best Performance Award to actress Minh-Châu for her role in Cu Li Không Bao Giờ Khóc (Cu Li Never Cries) (Phḁm Ngọc Lân, Vietnam, Singapore, France, Philippines, Norway, 2024, 92 min.) due to “her presence and naturalness that gives the film all the colors that can exist.”
The Official Feature Film Jury has also granted a Special Mention to Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing (USA, 2024, 84 min.) by Travis Wilkerson “for the great talent of the director to reflect on very complex parts of history throughout humor, turning architecture into a dumb character as well as a theater scene where contemporary issues are as hilarious as pathetic.”
The feature film Paradise (Sri Lanka, India, 2023, 93 min.), by Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage has obtained the Audience Award of this 23FICLPGC. For the popular jury, “this feature film has proven that cinema has the power to unite us, to inspire us and to provides us with a glimpse to the diversity of the world around us.” “Through its characters, landscapes, stories and unique vision,” they continued, “it has captured the beauty and complexity of the human experience.”
Best Short Film Award
In the short film category, the award has gone to filmmaker Daniela Muñoz Barroso’s Cuatro hoyos (Cuba, France, 2023, 20 min.). Linn Löffler, Samir Karahoda and Yun-Hua Chen, members of this section’s jury, have highlighted that “with power of simplicity, the mere presence of two individuals,” the piece “captivates audiences with its raw authenticity and endearing charm. It emerges as a multifaceted narrative with a wide range of socioeconomic topics that resonates universally.”
Bande à Part Award
The Bande à Part Jury, featuring Elena Duque, Samuel M. Delgado and Ulrich Ziemons, has awarded the feature film Malqueridas (Chile, Germany, 2023, 74 min.) by female Tana Gilbert for being “a film about compassion, support, care and humanity in a hostile environment. Through pictures taken from its main characters’ points of view, the film tells the collective story of a community born out of necessity. A collage of experiences builtd around a simple but effective visual device which also appeals to the desire for physical contact that isolation brings.”
Panorama Spain Award
The jury charged with evaluating the works competing in this section, which has reached its third edition within the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, consisted of María Campaña Ramia, Davide Abbatescianni and Ana Isabel Strindberg. They decided to award On the Go (Spain, 2023, 72 min.), by María Gisèle Royo and Julia de Castro, because it is “a constant transit, from the material that inspires it to its final destination.” The three of them said that they “were struck by the uniqueness of its bizarre yet deep leading characters, its freewheeling yet rigorous film language, and its playful but tactful approach to love, queerness, friendship and motherhood.” The film, they added, “delivers a rare freshness and audacity in terms of its acting performances, cinematography and editing, and embraces the viewer who embarks on a gentle yet radical journey through the South of Spain and the four corners of the body.”
As advanced last Wednesday, they also decided to award a Special Jury Mention to Anna Llargués’ short film Trenc d’Alba (Crack of Dawn) (Spain, 2023, 28 min.). They highlighted “the subtlety and delicacy of the mise-en–scène of a story of resistance and preservation of the collective memory of a family.”
Canarias Cinema Awards
The Canarias Cinema jury, made up of Maider Fernández Iriarte, Javier García Puerto and Joana Granero Sánchez, gave the Richard Leacock Award for Best Feature Film to Macu Machín’s La hojarasca (The Undergrowth) (Spain, 2024, 72 min.) for offering “a great film that portrays three sisters’ intimacy and complicity thanks to the skill of a filmmaker who manages to convey the audience, with members of her own family, a story with a universal scope.”
Canarias Cinema was the first section to announce its awards last Monday, which also included the Richard Leacock Award for Best Short Film to Marina Alberti’s work Aitana (Spain, 2023, 19 min.). The jury pointed out that it is “a short film that explores memory and the looming threat of oblivion in a single setting where four generations of the same family and the ins and outs of a country’s history crowd around.”
Likewise, those charged with evaluating the works in competition have granted a Special Jury Mention to the short film Cabreo (Goat Anger) (Spain, 2024, 12 min.) by Jesús F. Cruz, for “making a film that’s brimming over with creativity and defiance.”
Finally, the Digital 104 Jury, featuring Jonay García, Domingo J. González and Nayra Rodríguez, gave Alexander Cabeza Triggs’ short film El canto de los años nuevos (The Song of the Years to Come) (Spain, 2023, 23 min.) their Digital 104 Distribution Award “for its ability to create a film microcosmos in which past, present and future are put together to reflect on the identity of the island and its survival through the new generations.”
CIMA Award
In this twenty-third edition, the Film Festival has collaborated for the fifth time in a row with CIMA, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media. Elena Molina, María Monreal and María Abenia award those works contributing to the awareness of and social commitment to gender equality. They have decided to give the CIMA Award to the feature film I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Ještě nejsem, kým chci být) (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, 2024, 90 min.).
They have awarded this feature film by Czech director Klára Tasovská, “for her ability to place the cinematographic device at the service of the life and work of a female photographer, whose voice conveys the dissidence and counter-narrative we at CIMA feel necessary to address formulas of representation that rework the hegemonic imaginaries and the great androcentric fiction.” “For its use, also, of editing as an intelligent photo diary or photonovel in the purest style of Chris Marker’s La Jetée, decentralizing the use of photography from the museum room, and exhibiting a pace, a pulse and a truth in its juxtaposition of images and very interesting sounds.” “The use of the photographer’s diaries in voice-over,” they felt, “further rewrites the images with extraordinary eloquence, providing deeper layers of meaning, which endow the film’s political discourse with an intimate and sincere nature that is confronted as well with a particular historical context, implicit at all times within the film. And it’s so real, from the gut,” they said, “that it has moved, touched, confronted and shaken the three members of the jury, unanimously.”
LIST OF WINNERS
OFFICIAL SECTION
Golden Lady Harimaguada
Matt and Mara (Canada, 2024, 80 min.)
Silver Lady Harimaguada
Explanation for Everything (Magyarázat mindenre) (Hungary, Slovakia, 2023, 127 min.)
Best Performance Award
Minh-Châu for her role in Cu Li Không Bao Giờ Khóc (Cu Li Never Cries) (Vietnam, Singapore, France, Philippines, Norway, 2024, 92 min.)
Special Jury Mention
Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing (USA, 2024, 84 min.)
Best Short Film Award
Cuatro hoyos (Cuba, France, 2023, 20 min.)
Audience Award
Paradise (Sri Lanka, India, 2023, 93 min.)
BANDE À PART
Malqueridas (Chile, Germany, 2023, 74 min.)
PANORAMA SPAIN
Panorama Spain Award
On the Go (Spain, 2023, 72 min.)
Special Jury Mention
Trenc d’Alba (Crack of Dawn) (Spain, 2023, 28 min.)
CANARIAS CINEMA
Richard Leacock Award for Best Feature Film
La hojarasca (The Undergrowth) (Spain, 2024, 72 min.)
Richard Leacock Award for Best Short Film
Aitana (Spain, 2023, 19 min.)
Special Jury Mention
Cabreo (Goat Anger) (Spain, 2024, 12 min.)
Digital 104 Distribution Award
El canto de los años nuevos (The Song of the Years to Come) (Spain, 2023, 23 min.)
CIMA
CIMA Award
I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Ještě nejsem, kým chci být) (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, 2024, 90 min.)
International Market Dedicated to Almost-Finished Films (MECAS)
Almost-Finished Films Award: Hijas by Matías Ítalo Scarvaci.
Films-To-Be-Made Award: Diarios del silencio by Daniela Muñoz Barroso.
Isla MECAS Award: Fuego en la boca by Alois Sandner Díaz.
Music Library &SFX Award: Tiempo de morir by Ana García Blaya.
Very Good Script Award: Fuego en la boca by Alois Sandner Díaz.
Cinema Pendent de l’Alternativa PRO Award: Fiesta Negra by Guillermo Magariños.
SEMILLERU Lab Award: Woman Bites Dog by Armand Rovira.
107 works, 45 short films and 62 feature films divided into 143 screenings
The twenty-third edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival has shown as part of its different competitive and non-competitive sections 62 feature films and 45 short films and medium-length films divided into 143 screenings. Over a hundred films have competed for some of the awards and special mentions of this edition of the Festival, which will close tomorrow Sunday, April 28.
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, organized by the Culture area of the Gran-Canarian capital’s City Council through Promoción de la Ciudad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has received public assistance by the ICAA [Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts], the Visitors’ Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE), of the Spanish Public Agency for Cultural Action (AC/E), from the Consejería de Universidades, Ciencia e Innovación y Cultura del Gobierno de Canarias [Regional Ministry of Universities, Science and Innovation and Culture of the Canary Islands], as well as public support from Promotur Turismo Islas Canarias.
Among the Festival’s collaborators we may find Fundación Auditorio Teatro, Cines Yelmo, Las Arenas Shopping Center and Hotel Cristina by Tigotan, places which also function as venues or hold activities of the film event; as well as other institutions and companies such as Sagulpa, Hospitales San Roque, Jameson, Ikigai, Cientouno Group, el Centro de Cultura Audiovisual de Gran Canaria, Audiovisuales Canarias, Music Library &SFX, Blackout Films and International Bach Festival. Likewise, its market, MECAS, has been possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Gran Canaria Film Commission-Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria and the support of Canary Islands Film and Proexca.
The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Mid Atlantic University, the CIFP Felo Monzón Grau-Bassas, the Canary Islands Film Institute, the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas, Digital 104, the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands, CIMA Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales, the Cartagena International Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival, the Barcelona Independent Film Festival, Toyota Canarias and Very Good Script are also collaborators.
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