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Costa Rica’s Spanish feature film gets big accolades


Published : 30 Nov 2022 07:20 PM

Costa Rica’s Spanish feature film, which explores a 16-year-old girl’s passage into adulthood, won the top Golden Peacock award of the best movie at the 53rd International Film Festival of India in Goa on Monday.

Directed by Costa Rican film maker Valentina Maurel, the film won a second award when its protagonist Daniela Marín Navarro, a 19-year-old debutant artist, bagged the Silver Peacock for the best actor (Female).

Daniela Marín Navarro, 19-year-old debut actor who plays the role of 16-year-old girl Eva in Spanish film ‘I Have Electric Dreams’, has been adjudged to be the Best Actor (Female) “for the ease, freshness and credibility with which the actress carries out her work, giving life to her character, full of naivety, so typical in the difficult age of adolescence.”

It may be recalled that Daniela‘s performance in the film also won her the award for the best actress at Locarno International Film Festival.

Iranian writer-director Nader Saeivar bagged the Silver Peacock for the best director for his Turkish film “No End” which is a subtle portrayal of Iran’s regressive socio-political system.

This film too walked away with a double when its lead actor Vahid Mobasseri was honoured with the Silver Peacock for the best actor (Male) for transmitting the complexity of feelings that torment the protagonist. The jury unanimously chose Vahid Mobasseri saying the award has been given to him “for the apparent facility of how this actor acts, with economy of gestures, being capable to transmit, with no words, and only with his face, the complexity of feelings that torment the protagonist of the film. In a protest drama, a common honest citizen ostentatiously grew in mind of the viewer - a helpless, conspicuous - breathlessly vulnerable common Iranian.”

Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz gets Special jury award for “When the Waves are Gone” which tells the story of an investigator in the Philippines who is at a deep moral crossroads and discusses his dark past that continues to haunt him even as he tries to heal from severe anxiety and guilt.

Greece’s Asimina Proedrou bagged the award for the best debut feature film of a director for his film “Behind The Haystacks” which had its world premiere at the IFFI.

Proedrou’s film had its world premiere at the IFFI. The jury said the film is a culmination of “an intense psychological dissertation of redundant morality, ingrained aversiveness towards the ethnic refugee crisis and awakening adolescent consciousness”. The story invites viewers to partake in the journey of a man, his wife and his daughter, who are having to confront for the first time, when a crisis strikes, the price to pay for their actions.

India’s director-writer-cinematographer Praveen Kandregula received the special mention for “Cinema Bandi” which narrates the story of a poor auto driver who chances upon an expensive camera which gets him going on a journey from an auto-driver to a filmmaker.

The jury for the international competition section of IFFI this year was headed by Israeli writer-director Nadav Lapid and comprised American producer Jinko Gotoh, French film editor Pascale Chavance, French documentary film maker, film critic and journalist Xavier Angulo Barturen and Indian director Sudipto Sen.

The 53rd International Films Festival of India drew to a close with a star-studded grand ceremony at Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Goa on the evening of November 28.

 Over nine days from November 20, IFFI organizers curated the screenings of 282 films clocking 35,000 minutes of viewing time when 183 international films and 97 Indian films in 65 international and 15 Indian languages were screened.

The 53rd IFFI had many beginnings including selection of France as ‘Country of Focus’ reciprocating Cannes’ Country of Honour status given to India, a technological park that showcased the latest innovations from the world of cinema, a specially-curated package for Manipuri cinema are some of them, he added. 

For the first time, masterclasses were held in partnership with film schools in Canada, OTT players and Oscar nominees such as Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborn.

The last day of IFFI 2022 saw Telugu actor Chiranjeevi being conferred with the Indian Personality of the Year Award. Chiranjeevi had an illustrious career spanning nearly four decades and over 150 films. End