Mexico and Argentina shine at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema

The Mexican film, La cocina, written and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios, won the prize for Feature Film, narrating the life of an illegal immigrant who works in a New York restaurant.
The films La cocina, from Mexico, and Jockey, from Argentina, were the top winners of the 45th edition of the New Latin American Cinema, whose Coral Awards were presented this Friday in Havana, Cuba.

The Mexican film, written and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios, won the prize for Feature Film, narrating the life of an illegal immigrant who works in a New York restaurant with the vain hope of living the so-called "American dream."

The film also won awards for Editing, for Yibran Azuad; Sound, for Javier Gutiérrez, and Photography, for Juan Pablo Ramírez.

The film also received one of the collateral awards, given by the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRECI).
The Argentine film, by director Luis Ortega, triumphed in the category of Best Director, and also took home the Corals for Male and Female Performance, with Nahuel Pérez and Úrsula Corberó, and the one for Art Direction, shared by Julia Freid and Germán Naglieri.

The feature film, a mix of thriller and psychological drama, previously won the Horizontes Award for best Latin American film at this year's edition of the San Sebastian Festival, and was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The Bolivian film El ladrón de perros, written and directed by Vinko Tomicic, was selected for Best Screenplay. It tells the story of a young orphan who works as a shoe shiner and decides to steal the dog of his best client, a lonely tailor whom he has begun to imagine as his father.

The Best Documentary Award went to Apocalypse in the Tropics, by Brazilian director Petra Costa, while the award for Short Film went to Fieras, by Colombian Andrés Felipe Ángel, and the award for Animated Film went to Olivia y las nubes, by Dominican Tomás Pichardo-Espillat.

"We have done it again," said the president of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), Alexis Triana, at the awards ceremony, referring to the 45th anniversary of the Festival.

The director stressed that "it seemed like an impossible dream to challenge an energy crisis and call Havana back in the midst of the real and most ferocious blockade" of the United States.

Triana called for the resumption of an international seminar in March of next year to discuss cinema in its cultural role, on the occasion of the centenary of the late Cuban intellectual Alfredo Guevara, founder of the Festival and of the Foundation of New Latin American Cinema, an entity based in Havana.

For her part, the director of the event, Tania Delgado, said that during these days there has been a celebration of cinema, starting with the reunion with works that are among the best of Latin American and international cinematography.

Although the awards have been given out, the screenings will continue until Sunday in the six largest movie theaters in the Cuban capital, most of them located on the central Avenida 23.
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