28/05/2025 - Eva Libertad's Deaf, Urška Djukić's Little Trouble Girls and Petra Volpe's Late Shift vie for the award given out by a jury of 33 film critics from 13 Latin American countries

Eva Libertad's Deaf, Urška Djukić's Little Trouble Girls and Petra Volpe's Late Shift

A jury of 33 film critics from 13 Latin American countries has selected three finalists from 19 film entries for this year‘s Latin American Critics’ Award for European films, which will be handed out at the Guadalajara Film Festival on 9 June: Deaf [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eva Libertad
film profile] by Eva Libertad (Spain), Little Trouble Girls [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Urška Djukić (Slovenia) and Late Shift [+see also:
film review
interview: Petra Volpe
film profile] by Petra Volpe (Switzerland).

Thirty-three of the most prominent and influential film critics from 13 Latin American countries selected their top three films from among 19 nominees (see the news), submitted by each country's national film institute and European Film Promotion (EFP)’s member organisations, before voting for the winning film.

Eva Libertad's feature debut, Deaf is deeply personal and based on her short film of the same name. The main role is played by Eva‘s deaf sister Miriam Garlo. Deaf observes the nuanced relationship between a deaf woman and her hearing partner as they prepare to have a child. According to the Spanish director, “The feature comes from that desire to take a deeper dive into the complexity of the relationship between the deaf and hearing worlds: engagement and disengagement, connection and love, but also clashes and conflicts… Something that, as Miriam’s sister, has been a fundamental part of my life and which, still today, after spending our whole lives together, continues to change shape and present challenges, like a mystery that needs to be constantly unraveled.“ Deaf celebrated its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale Panorama Section and received the Audience Award and the Arthouse Cinema Award as well as six awards at the 28th Festival de Malaga including Best Film, Best Actress and Best Actor. Deaf is a Spanish production by Distinto Films, Nexus CreaFilms and A Contracorriente Films, represented by Madrid-based world sales company, Latido Films.

The debut feature by Urška Djukić, Little Trouble Girls follows an introverted 16-year-old who travels with her Catholic school's all-girls choir a countryside convent for a weekend of intensive rehearsals, and whose interest in a dark-eyed restoration worker tests her friendship the girls, and makes her begin to question her beliefs and values. The Slovenian director wants “to explore the mysteries of the senses as tools for understanding ourselves. I think the long-standing taboo around sexuality has left us still unable to fully understand or harness its potential power. The body has its own instinctive intelligence, guiding us if we listen carefully.” Little Trouble Girls opened the new official competitive Perspectives section at this year’s Berlinale and won the FIPRESCI Award. Little Trouble Girls was produced by Slovenia’s SPOK Films, in co-production with Staragara IT (Italy), 365 Films (Croatia), Non-Aligned Films (Serbia), Nosorogi (Slovenia) and OINK (Slovenia). Heretic is in charge of world sales.

In Petra Volpe's third feature film Late Shift, a nurse passionately and very professionally works in the surgical ward of a Swiss hospital, but in the harsh reality of her daily routine, things are often unpredictable. During a late shift one day, her work becomes more and more of a race against time. The Swiss filmmaker, who once worked in care herself and lived with a nurse for a long time, and is therefore aware of the job's pressure, great responsibility and inner turmoil, wanted to “make a movie that celebrates this profession.” Late Shift celebrated its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale Special Gala section. The film is produced by Zodiac Pictures (Switzerland), in co-production with Germany’s MMC Zodiac and SRF. TrustNordisk handles world sales.

In 2024, EFP launched the Latin American Critics’ Award to boost the visibility of European films in Latin America, while highlighting at the same time the key role role of film critics in promoting arthouse cinema. It's about increasing circulation, sparking dialogue, and growing the appetite for European cinema across the region. Last year's winner was The Teachersʼ Lounge [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: İlker Çatak
interview: Leonie Benesch
film profile] by Germany's İlker Çatak (read news).

The Latin American Critics’ Awards, in cooperation with the Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG), is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the European Union  - and the respective national film promotion institutes. Media partners are LatAm cinema and Cineuropa.