The Cuban film ¨Conducta¨ was the big winner of the 36th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema by receiving the Coral Award for Best Feature Film at the closing ceremony of the event.
Received by its director, Ernesto Daranas, the recognition was the colophon for Conducta, which recently won five Side Awards and now also earned the prize for Best Male Performance granted to its young protagonist, besides the SIGNIS Prize and a mention in the side awards, for a total of nine laurels.
“Bythe moving, intimate and lucid force of Cuban current society”, that was the argument given by the Jury of Fiction before announcing that Daranas’s film would be declared the best of this edition in the event that annually takes place in Havana.
The popularity award was for Marilyn Solaya´s debut film: Vestido de Novia. Another emotional moment of the gala, hosted by Cuban actress Laura de la Uz and her colleague Caleb Casas, was the opening words by Ivan Giroud , Festival director, who said that a fierce competition was expected this year and pointed to Cuban cinema as “engine driver of this edition .”
Another special moment in the ceremony was the award for Best Actress granted to Geraldine Chaplin by her performance in the Dominican-Mexican film Dolares de Arena. In her remarks , she referred to the capital of Cuba as her “beloved Havana” and said that Charles Chaplin cinema , which name comes from the genius of the performance that her father was, is as her “second home”.
At the endof the evening the Cuban composer and musician Hernán López Nussa with his trio performed songs from his authorship that have been part of the soundtracks of several films, both domestic and foreign.
The list of Cuban films that won Corales Awards includes Conducta (Ernesto Daranas), Meñique ( Ernesto Padrón), Vestido de Novia (Marilyn Solaya) and La Pared de las palabras (Fernando Perez), which also won several side awards.
Hereis the list of winners of the main categories in the 36th edition of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema:
Best Feature Fiction: Conducta (Cuba)
Fiction Feature Film Special Award: Tierra en la lengua (Colombia)
Fiction Short Film: Sin corazón (Brasil)
Director: Damián Szifrón (Relatos salvajes, Argentina)
Best Female Actress: Geraldine Chaplin (Dólares de arena, Dominican Republic-Mexico)
Best Male Actor: Armando Valdés (Conducta, Cuba)
Screenplay: Celina Murga-Gabriel Medina (La tercera orilla, Argentina)
Photography: Wojtek Staron (Refugiado, Argentina)
Artistic Direction: El cerrajero (Argentina)
Edition: Relatos salvajes (Argentina)
Music: Praia do futuro (Brazil)
Sound: Praia do futuro (Brasil)
Debut Film: Güero (México)
Documentary: Silvia (Chile) and La muerte de Jaime Roldós (Ecuador)
Animation: Meñique (Cuba)