The Lanzarote International Film Festival, organized by Fisme productions and the Island Council of Lanzarote, concluded its twenty-fourth edition this Saturday, May 25, with an awards gala held at the Víctor Fernández Gopar Theater “El Salinero”, in Arrecife.
As a culmination of several weeks of events, the awards were presented to the winners in the five official sections of the festival: International Fiction Shorts, National Fiction Shorts, Canary Shorts, Animation Shorts and Documentary Shorts. This edition highlights the participation with a record of works presented with a total of 2,605 from more than 100 different nationalities, of which 59 have entered into competition.
The night of cinema in Lanzarote
The audiovisual creator Emilio González and the actor and comedian Nacho Peña presented a gala marked by humor and homage to the seventh art, where all the winning shorts of each category were screened and the corresponding awards were presented. The jury this year has been composed of personalities from the world of cinema at a national level such as the actresses Blanca Portillo, Irene Escolar, Marta Etura and Ruth Armas, the screenwriter and director Benito Zambrano, the actors Juanjo Artero and Pablo Padrón, and personalities from the world of cinema and culture in the Canary Islands such as Elena Ramírez, Alby Robayna, Iván Umpiérrez, Cristina Marsoc, María Del Río, Paz Vargas and Lauren Collins.
The audience present has also formed an important part within the festival since, in addition to being able to enjoy each work projected, they participated by casting their vote to award the Audience Award. An award that is always received with great affection by the filmmakers and directors participating.
The musical note was present with the performance of Marius John Band, a talented rock band formed by the drummer Julio Santana, the bassist Juanjo Mora, Marius John who gave voice to one of the themes of the gala accompanying his skill on the piano, Mame Spinola on the electric guitar and Daniel Esc with his incredible voice.
Best International Short for “The Old Young Crow” by Liam LoPinto.
The best International Short was for “The Old Young Crow” a short work signed by the Japanese director Liam LoPinto that tells the story of Mehrdad, an Iranian boy who befriends an old woman in a Tokyo cemetery and who after many years reflects on the sudden disappearance of his old friend thanks to his notebook and that perfectly combines animation techniques and live action.
For its part, the work “Cycle” by the Turkish director Naz Çaybasi received the audience award and a special mention from the jury
Best National Short for “Cura Sana” by Lucía G. Romero.
The highest award in the national section went to “Cura Sana” by Lucía G. Romero. A short that exposes the drama of domestic violence in a marginal environment. Two sisters, Jessica and Alma, who end up replicating the toxic dynamics and do not expect that on a night of San Juan their lives will change. The work already has some international recognition: Crystal Bear for best short film at the Berlin Film Festival and nomination for best actress at the Malaga Festival.
“El Nuevo Barrio” by Víctor Izquierdo about the increasingly common problem presented by gentrification and the abusive prices that cause many elderly people to sell their apartment in bare ownership received the Audience Award at the show.
Best Canary Short for “Tras los Pasos Perdidos” by Concha de Ganzo.
With the artists Santiago Alemán and Juan Gopar as protagonists, the short “Tras los Pasos Perdidos” by Concha de Ganzo, won the first prize in the Canary Category. A work that travels through the places that have marked the lives of both artists, repairing in the house of their grandparents. It invites us to reflect on the risk to which our ethnographic heritage will be exposed and raises a plea for its conservation and the change of the productive model of the islands. Its director points out “In Lanzarote there are magical spaces that we should not lose”.
Special mention of the jury for the short film by Javier Chavanel “NAP” a work that addresses in a distressing way the need for rest in the face of the demanding productivity to which its protagonists are subjected. As an audience award “Patata” by Emilio González, with a short that narrates how a simple request for a photo, on a trip to La Palma, ends with a relationship.
Best Animation Short for “Star Wars Visions 2: in the stars” by Gabriel Osorio.
In the category of Animated Short Films Juanjo Artero, Cristina Marsoc and Elena Ramirez have selected the work “Star Wars Visions 2: in the stars” by the Chilean director Gabriel Osorio. This second season of Visions (the first with a marked inspiration in Japanese anime) reflects the variety of cultures all interwoven around the usual tropes of the galactic saga. Gabriel Osorio experiments with very diverse animation techniques from 3D animation to stop motion and the most traditional, achieving
Special mention for “In the Shadow of the Cypress”, an Iranian film by Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi, which tells the life of a former captain who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and leads a hard and secluded life with his daughter in a house at the foot of the coast and who managed to win the favor of the attending public.
Best Documentary Short for “Vecinos” by Marcela Ascencio and Salym Fayad.
“Vecinos” received the highest award in the Documentary Shorts section. Benito Zambrano, Marta Etura and Paz Vargas have selected a story that narrates the beginning of the current political and social crisis in the Central African Republic, 10 years after the coup d'état. Salym Fayad, journalist and director of this film together with the filmmaker Marcela Ascensio, collected from 2014 photos of the conflict and audios that chronologically narrate an immersive story leaving a completely round documentary work.
For its part, “Broken Wings” by Jorik Dozy and Sil Van der Woerd won the audience award, a musical documentary short that tells the journey that tropical birds make, from the forest to the cage, and reveals how the caging of wild birds has become a massive industry around the world.
A choice that coincides with the special mention of the jury. Marta Etura, member of the jury, also wanted to highlight the quality of the short film “Los Cayucos de Kayar” by the director Álvaro Hernández Blanco.
With this awards ceremony of the 24th edition of the Lanzarote International Film Festival, it is consecrated as an obligatory stop for lovers of the seventh art, not only at the Canarian level, but also at the national level. It is important to remember that this festival is an official qualifier for the Goya Awards, which implies that both the winner of the national and international sections enter the official pre-selection of the national awards. As a novelty, this year the Lanzarote festival is an official collaborator of the Fugaz Awards for the Spanish short film.