The Pontevedra International Film Festival – Novos Cinemas brought its seventh edition (13-18 December) to a close on Sunday, confirming its return to normality, free of pandemic-related restrictions and remaining true to the spirit in which it was founded: singling out new voices in the international landscape and welcoming a compelling selection of first and second works. Remainders [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Raúl Capdevila was selected as the opening film, while Matadero [+lire aussi :
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bande-annonce
fiche film] by Argentina’s Santiago Fillol had the honour of bringing this edition to a conclusion. In addition to the 13 titles presented in the two competition sections, the programme included a focus on Lisbon-born filmmaker Susana Nobre (Jack’s Ride [+lire aussi :
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interview : Susana Nobre
fiche film], Ordinary Time [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]), as well as various educational activities and meetings with professionals.

The international jury, comprising actor-director Julián Génisson, programmer Elena Oroz and producer Darío Oliveira, decided to hand the Novos Cinemas Award for the Best Film in the Official Section to Happer's Comet by Tyler Taormina, praising “its precise and poetic immersion in daily life during a unique time marked by isolation and uncertainty [...] through some outstanding work with temporality, contrasts in light and sound, and the transition from the public to the private”. The US filmmaker’s second feature also picked up the Award of the Critics’ Jury, made up of Raquel Loredo, Blanca Martínez and Yago Paris, who underlined “its radical reliance on visual narration, the finely tuned control in its mise-en-scène and the tense transformation of everything day-to-day into a mystery”.

The other big winner of the event was Life Lasts Two Days by Brazil’s Leonardo Mouramateus, which received the Audience Award and a Special Mention from the Xurado Novo (Youth Jury), made up of several students from the University of Vigo: Susana Alba Alonso, Yuri Salgado Álvarez, David Arosa Cerqueiro, Martín Arufe Castro and Iris Rodríguez Justo. They handed the Xurado Novo Award for Best Director in the Official Section to Sorayos Prapapan for Arnold Is a Model Student [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], “for using irony to serve the message, for being a film in which everything contributes to the whole, where the ensemble of characters are the ones who signal change, and for the incorporation of various formats in a surprising and organic way”.

Finally, the award in the parallel Latexos competition went to the Spanish film Mission to Mars [+lire aussi :
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Here is the full list of winners:

Best Film at Novos Cinemas
Happer's Comet – Tyler Taormina (USA)

Best Film in Latexos
Mission to Mars [+lire aussi :
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Critics’ Award
Happer's Comet – Tyler Taormina

Xurado Novo Award for Best Director in the Official Section
Arnold Is a Model Student [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] – Sorayos Prapapan (Thailand/Singapore/France/Netherlands/Philippines)
Xurado Novo Special Mention
Life Lasts Two Days – Leonardo Mouramateus (Brazil)

Audience Award
Life Lasts Two Days – Leonardo Mouramateus