“Oscuro Animal” wins 2016 Lima Film Fest

PanARMENIAN.Net - Colombian helmer Felipe Guerrero’s feature debut “Oscuro Animal” (“Dark Beast”) snagged both the best film prize and int’l critics award at the 20th Lima Film Festival, which wrapped Saturday, August 13, Variety reports. The Gema Films-Mutokino co-production is on a winning streak, having just won the top awards at the March 2016 Guadalajara Int’l Film Fest, including Best Ibero-American Film, director and actress for all three actresses in the nearly dialogue-free triptych.

At the closing ceremony, transmitted live on TV Peru, a tearful Gema Juarez-Allen of Gema Films thanked the film’s crew, its three actresses and the film funds which helped get the film made.

The official selection jury comprised of Ciro Guerra, Karim Ainouz, Daniela Michel, Ezequiel Acuna and Alonso Cueto also awarded Kleber Mendonca Filho’s 1940s-set drama “Aquarius” of Brazil with a special jury prize and a best actress award to Sonia Braga for her performance in the pic. Venezuelan Lorenzo Vigas took home best director for his Venice Golden Lion-winning drama “From Afar.” Ecuador’s Ana Cristina Barragan won the best debut feature award as well as the 2016 Premio APC from the Peruvian communications association for her coming-of-age pic, “Alba.”

In the documentary competition, Mexico’s Tatiana Huezo and her moving docu “Tempestad,” which first came to light as a work-in-progress at the Morelia Film Festival last year, won Best Documentary for its “ability to narrate a long journey into the heart of a nation besieged by dark clouds of injustice.” The docs jury led by Nicolas Echevarria, Gema Juarez-Allen and Aldo Garay also granted a special mention to “El Dorado XXI” by Portugal’s Salome Lamas, whose haunting docu about the Andean villages of La Rinconada and Cerro Lunar, deemed the highest villages in the world, “provides a singular cinematographic vision of a remote world.”

Both docs dominated a selection of strong titles that included Maya Goded’s 2015 Morelia work-in-progress and Sundance 2016 entry, “Plaza de la Soledad,” about ageing prostitutes in Mexico’s ancient La Merced barrio, and “When Two Worlds Collide,” co-directed by Peruvian-German Heidi Brandenburg and Welsh helmer Matthew Orzel, which pivots on the conflict in the Amazon between government forces and the indigenous populace. The Sundance-winning docu, produced by Taira Akbar, is slated for release across Latin America by Disney-owned Cinecolor and a U.S. platform release by First Run Features, starting August 17.