03/04/2023 - Laura Donoso’s feature debut has won the Grand Prize in the Work-in-Progress section of the Toulouse-based festival; Levante by Lillah Halla took home three awards

The titles selected in the Films in Progress section, organised as part of Cinélatino - Rencontres de Toulouse, are always worth keeping an eye on — last year’s edition featured 1976 by Manuela Martelli and La Jauría [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Andrés Ramírez Pulido (both of which had their international premieres at Cannes a few weeks later, in the Directors’ Fortnight and the Critics’ Week, respectively), while the 2021 edition included Utama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alejandro Loayza
film profile] by Alejandro Loayza Grisi (which then won in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance).

At the 2023 edition, which took place on 30 and 31 March, from the six selected films (based on 220 submitted projects), the jury handed out the Films in Progress 42 Grand Prize to Sariri, the feature debut by Chilean director Laura Donoso, produced by Cine UDD. Written by the director together with Sofía Pavesi, Javier de Miguel and Carolina Merino, the script is set in La Lágrima, a mining town lost in the desert, where women live under the strict rules of patriarchy. Dina (16), under the pressure of an unwanted pregnancy, plans to escape. But when she finds out her sister Sariri (11) is going to be initiated into womanhood following her first period, she has to decide whether or not she will take her with her on her trip to the desert…

Three awards went to another feature debut: Power Alley [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lillah Halla
film profile] by Brazil’s Lillah Halla, produced by Brazilian companies Arissa and Manjericão Filmes, and co-produced by Uruguay’s Cimarrón Cine and France’s In Vivo Films. Written by the filmmaker, the script centres on Sofia, a young and promising volleyball player who makes the unwanted discovery that she is pregnant on the eve of a career-defining volleyball championship. Caught up in her initial moment of fear and panic, Sofia tries to obtain an illegal abortion but in the conservative community that surrounds her, she instead becomes a target: the decision about her future seems to be in everyone's hands but hers. The herd chasing her is fierce, but neither she nor those who love her are willing to surrender to the violent, blind swarm…

Also worth pointing out is an award for Valentina o la serenidad, the second feature film by Mexico’s Ángeles Cruz, produced by María de los Ángeles Cruz Murillo and co-produced by Cine Bigte AC. Written by the director, the script centres on Valentina, who loses her father in an accident. Not satisfied with the explanation, she searches for him everywhere. In conflict with her mother, she becomes a solitary young woman. With the help of her friend Pedro and her imagination, she will try to overcome her grief…

Finally, in the Cinema en développement 18 section, the four winning projects (from among 19 candidates) are feature debuts: three fiction films (Otra vez Malena by Cuba’s Lisandra López Fabé, Malmirada by Colombia’s Cristina Sánchez Salamancan and Ejá - Una mujer con una azada cava un agujero en el mar by Brazil’s Gabriela Gaia Meirelle) and one documentary (Ayllu by Peru’s Ximena Málaga Sabogal).

The list of winners is as follows:

Films in Progress 42 Grand Prize
Sariri - Laura Donoso (Chile)

Ciné+ en Construction Special Prize
Power Alley [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lillah Halla
film profile] - Lillah Halla (Brazil/France/Uruguay)

European Distributors and Exhibitors Award (Europe Distribution and CICAE)
Power Alley - Lillah Halla

WIP Paradiso Award
Power Alley - Lillah Halla

Le Film Français Award 
Valentino o la Serenidad - Ángeles Cruz (Mexico)

Cinéma en développement 18 Awards

BRLab Award 
Otra Vez Malena - Lisandra López Fabé (Brazil/Cuba)

Apifa - Le Lokal Award
Ayllu - Ximena Málaga Sabogal (Peru)

PCI – Argentine Award
Ejá - Una mujer con una azada cava un agujerro en el mar - directed and produced by Gabriela Gaia Meirelles (Brazil)
Malmirada - Cristina Sánchez Salamanca, produced by Duván Duque Vargas (Colombia)

(Translated from French)