03/04/2023 - At the 13th edition of the Barcelona Film Festival, the Talents Award has been bestowed upon the feature helmed by Mònica Cambra, Ariadna Fortuny, Clàudia Garcia de Dios, Lucía Herrera and Mònica Tort

The Catalonian film A Bright Sun [+see also:
film review
film profile] has scooped the Talents Award at the 13^th edition of the D’A Barcelona Film Festival, which unspooled between 23 March and 2 April. The prize – endowed with €10,000 – served to reward this work jointly directed by five students at the Pompeu Fabra University: Mònica Cambra, Ariadna Fortuny, Clàudia Garcia de Dios, Lucía Herrera and Mònica Tort. The project previously won the D’A Film Lab Award in 2022. The jury – consisting of actress-director Leticia Dolera, film critic Quim Casas and filmmaker Alba Sotorra – acknowledged this “imaginative coming-of-age tale, which is simple and poetic, and which portrays the crisis of the future in store for today’s youth”. The film enjoyed a jam-packed world premiere on the evening of 24 March, in the Centre de Cultura Contemporània, where it garnered plentiful applause.

The Un Impulso Colectivo Award was bestowed upon the medium-length title La mecánica de los fluidos (Spain/France), directed by first-timer Gala Hernández López, an artist and researcher who lives in both Paris and Berlin. The jury, comprising Alberto Lechuga, Zaida Cardona and Eugenia Mumenthaler, granted it the trophy (worth €5,000) on account of “its ability to zero in on its story through a thorough search, both on a formal level and on a documentary one”.

The same jury handed the OpenECAM Un Impulso Colectivo Award to another Spanish medium-length film, Sóc vertical però m'agradaria ser horitzontal, shot by María Antón Cabot in her native Benidorm, for “its warm and playful gaze, able to imbue it with a singular space-time dimension, which makes an unexpected encounter between two apparently antagonistic women possible”.

This year saw the inauguration of an official award in the Un Impulso Colectivo Cortos strand (for shorts), which went to Ten Minutes to Midnight, the second work by Mario Sanz. The jury, made up of Alba Bresolí, David Moragas and Patricia Sánchez Mora, gave it the prize (to the tune of €1,000) for “being able to portray the protagonist of the piece from a point of view of fascination and fondness, which binds us with the strength of its filmic gaze”.

Finally, Andreu Marves, Nuria Vidal and Alberto Richart presented the Critics’ Award to Metronom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandru Belc
film profile] by Romanian helmer Alexandru Belc; they particularly appreciated “the weaving of a personal story into a political context and the strength of its mise-en-scène”. For its part, the audience voted for the Argentinian-German co-production Trenque Lauquen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Citarella
film profile], a feature by Laura Citadella.

In the industry sidebar, D'A Film Lab Barcelona (see the news), the jury, comprising Chiara Marañón, Gaia Furrel and Valérie Delpierre, handed the Final Cut Award (worth €20,000) to the drama Sobre todo de noche [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Víctor Iriarte
film profile] by Víctor Iriarte, which is being staged by La Termita, Atekaleun, CSC Films, Ukbar Filmes and 4 A 4 Productions, and which will be distributed in the near future by Atalante. The movie, which is at the advanced post-production stage, is toplined by Lola Dueñas and Ana Torrent (see the news).

Here is the full list of award winners:

Talents Award
A Bright Sun [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Mònica Cambra Domínguez, Ariadna Fortuny Cardona, Clàudia Garcia de Dios, Lucía Herrera Pérez, Mònica Tort Pallarès (Spain)

Un Impulso Colectivo Award 
La mecánica de los fluidos - Gala Hernández López (Spain/France, medium-length film)

OpenECAM Un Impulso Colectivo Award
Sóc vertical però m'agradaria ser horitzontal - María Antón Cabot (Spain, medium-length film)

Un Impulso Colectivo Cortos Award
Ten Minutes to Midnight - Mario Sanz (Spain, short film)

Critics’ Award
Metronom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandru Belc
film profile] - Alexandru Blec (Romania/France)

Audience Award for Best Feature
Trenque Lauquen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Citarella
film profile] - Laura Citadella (Argentina/Germany)

Audience Award for Best Short Film
Esta no es una película sobre Cardenete – Paula Martínea Artero (Spain, short)

D'A Film Lab Barcelona Award
Sobre todo de noche [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Víctor Iriarte
film profile] - Víctor Iriarte (Spain)
Producers: La Termita, 4 A 4 Productions, Atekaleun, CSC Films, Ukbar Filmes

Lokro Production Award for Emerging Catalan Production
Mala gent – Sara Gutiérrez Galve (Spain)
Producer: Materia Cinema

Music Library Award for Emerging Catalan Production
Younger Days – Gerard Vidal (Spain)
Producer: Ayhe Productions

(Translated from Spanish)