“State of Silence,” (“Estado de Silencio”), the fourth doc feature by Mexico’s Santiago Maza (“The Thunder Feast”), a passion project of producer Diego Luna at Mexico-based label La Corriente del Golfo where he partners with Gael García Bernal, has walked off with a coveted best feature award at this year’s Sanfic Festival in Santiago de Chile.
Further big winners were Agustín Toscano’s “I Trust You,” which took best direction in Sanfic International Competition and “Our Memory” from Matías Rojas Valencia and “The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine,” from Alfredo Pourally, which shared top best feature honors in Sanfic’s Chilean Film Competition.
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Major winners at Sanfic Industria, Sanfic’s vibrant industry forum, were led by Caye Casas’ “El Show del Gran Luciferio,” his follow-up to “The Coffee Table,” which Stephen King consecrated by applauding it as “horrible and also horribly funny. Think the Coen Brothers’ darkest dream.”
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“Water Never Hurt,” from Argentina’s Ana Clara Bustelo, and “Concert for a Single Voice,” directed by Peru’s Alejandra Carpio, won double in Sanfic Industria’s Ibero-American Work in Progress, its industry centerpiece.
‘State of Silence’: What Marks It Apart
Doc features have been made before on Mexico’s appalling death count of journalists: from 2000 to the beginning of 2024, 163 have been murdered and 32 remain missing, a pre-credit roll stat notes in “State of Silence.”
What sets “State of Silence” apart, however, is its sense of intimacy as its follows the lives of four journalists who refuse to be silent about Mexico’s crux: the toxic mix of organized crime syndicates and local governments, or narco-politics.
Two journalists chose exile, one is relocated, another sends his wife and kids to live with his mother, fearing for their safety. Two of them return, however, to high-risk zones to continue reporting.
World premiering at Tribeca this June, and recently picked up by Netflix for North and Latin America, with Rosa Bosch at Begin Again Films representing overseas sales, “State of Silence”is fast-paced in its interviews and achieves an aesthetic cinematographic finish with the idea of ennobling the extraordinary courage of journalists portrayed, Maza explained to Variety.
The doc feature climaxes in scenes which demonstrate what they are up against with now out-going president Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a press conference paranoically rejecting journalists’ criticism of his indifference to journalists’ fates as the opinions of paid underlings of opposition party PRI.
Other Prizes: Humanity & Inventiveness
The ability of doc features to lend a human face to social context was underscored in “The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine,” from Alfredo Pourally.
The director visited the remote Tierra del Fuego region for years until coming upon charismatic artisanal gold miner Toto whose devoted son is building a gold harvesting machine – virtually on his own – to help his ailing father. Their poignant expressions of relief at the end when they finally get the machine up and running are worth their weight in gold.
Sanfic prizes also underscore the sheer inventiveness of Latin American filmmakers. “Our Memory” (“Aullido de invierno”) mixes aspect ratios, fiction and documentary and striking camera work to tell the real-life story of two victims of neo-Nazi colony Colonia Dignidad and a fictional woman (Paulina García) attempting to atone for wrongdoing there.
A world premiere in “I Trust You” melds a high-profile real-life crime – the murder of of 45-year-old teacher Angela Beatriz “Betty” Argañaraz in 2006 – with documentary, fiction and a musical to tease the possible innocence of Susana Acosta and Nélida Fernández, sentenced to 20 years jail for her murder in 2006. Audiences’ decision about the film’s format – is this staged theater? – judges their guilt.
New Talent Reigns
More than anything else, however, the Sanfic and Sanfic Industria prizes are a testament to the slew of new talent still breaking out in Latin America and Spain. 11 of the 13 winning films at Sanfic the year are first or second fiction, doc or solo features. Three of the four biggest winners at Santiago Ibero-American WIP and Santiago Lab Fiction And Documentary were first fiction features.
At the Lab, doc “Southern Channels,” from Chile’s Pilar Higuera, follows young Patagonians who use radios, makeshift devices, and the natural sound of water to connect. The second fiction feature from pioneering Chilean LGBT director Wincy Oyarce, “The Queer Riots” charts homosexuals and transvestites battle for survival in early 1970s Chile.
“Water Never Hurt” pictures a young daughter’s rebellion against parents’ dictates for her recovery after a horse-riding accident. From Carpio, another first-time director, “Concert for a Single Voice” depicts the personal fall-out from Peru’s armed conflict as a young Peruvian architect now settled in Paris returns to Lima to confront his mother, just out of jail, for abandoning him in favor of political activism. These issues are highly complex, director Carpio told Variety: No single voice has a monopoly on right.
Of other prizes at Sanfic, in the International Competition, Spanish writer-director-star Itsaso Arana won a best direction special mention for “The Girls Are Alright,” “a gentle study of female friendship that blows in on a warm summer breeze,” said Variety.
“A sumptuous homage to Hitchcock packaged as a metaphysical noir,” according to Variety, German Tim Kröger’s “The Universal Theory” scooped a special mention in Sanfic’s International Competition. Otherwise, Spanish-language voices prevailed at this year’s Sanfic.
SANFIC AWARDS, 2024
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Best Performance (ex aequo)
Lorenzo Ferro, (“Simon of the Mountain”)
Franklin Aro, (“The Dog Thief”)
Best Director
Agustín Toscano, (“I Trust You”)
Special Mention
Itsaso Arana (“The Girls are Alright”)
Best Film
“State of Silence,” (Santiago Maza)
Special Mention
“The Universal Theory,” (Timm Kröger)
CHILEAN FILM COMPETITION
Best Performance
Gastón Salgado, (“The Affections”)
Special Mention
Paola Lattus por (“Sariri,” “Las Cenizas”)
Best Director
Roberto Salinas, (“La Primera Dosis”)
Special Mention
Alberto Hayden, (“Una Luz Negra”)
Best Film
Shared by “The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine,” (Alfredo Pourally)
and “Our Memory,” (Matías Rojas Valencia)
Special Mention
“Las Cenizas,” (Stejpan Ostoic)
SANFIC INDUSTRIA , 2024
IBERO-AMERICAN WORK IN PROGRESS
Malaga Work In Progress Award
“Water Never Hurt,” (Ana Clara Bustelo, Argentina, Uruguay)
Yagan Films & Chemistry Award
“The Clearing,” (Maira Carrasco, Chile)
Marketing Movie Runner Award
“Concert for a Single Voice,” (Alejandra Carpio Valdeavellano, Peru)
E-28 Award
“Concert for a Single Voice,”
Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana Award
“Laureano,” (Claudia Ccapatinta, Peru)
LatAm Cinema Award
“Water Never Hurt”
SANTIAGO LAB FICTION AND DOCUMENTARY
SAPCINE Award
“Southern channels,” (Pilar Higuera, Chile)
Atómica Award
“Southern channels,”
Malaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ) Award
“The Queers Riots,” (Wincy Oyarce, Chile)
Festival Intl. de Cine Documental de Buenos Aires (FIDBA) Award
“The Criminal Record of Madame Wittmann,” (Anastasia Benavente, Nicolás Videla, Chile)
Guadalajara Film Festival Co-Production Meeting Industry Award
“Cupid’s Arrow,” (Ernesto Meléndez, Chile)
Cine Qua Non Lab Award
“Arde un reino,” (Catalina Arroyave, Colombia)
Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM) Award
“The Queers Riots,”
Nuevas Miradas – EICTV Award
“The Shorn Sheep,” (Rossana Castillo, Chile)
SANFIC MORBIDO LAB
Morbido Award 30%
“El Show del Gran Luciferio,” (Caye Casas. Mexico, Spain)
Morbido Award 10%
“El Silencio es la Musica del Diablo,” (Cremance, Mexico)
Fantastic Pavilion Award
“El Show del Gran Luciferio,”
“Loved Ones,” (Guillermo Amoedo, Mexico, España)
Lahaye Media Award
“Loved Ones,”
