Luis López Carrasco’s “The Year of Discovery” Wins Top Prize at Mar del Plata International Film Festival

Luis López Carrasco is celebrating his big Discovery

The 39-year-old Spanish filmmaker took home the Best International Film prize for his documentary The Year of the Discovery (El año del descubrimiento) on Sunday at Argentina’s Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the only Latin American film fest granted a Category A status by producers association FIAPF, placing it in the same league as the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival and Locarno Film Festival, among others.

Luis López Carrasco

Due to the restraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival hosted an online edition and offered free access to all Argentine residents.

 

Carrasco’s sophomore feature follows his debut film El Futuro, which premiered at Locarno and collected numerous awards on the festival circuit.

The Year of the Discovery portrays the flipside of 1992 Spain, which celebrated hosting the 1992 Barcelona Games and the World Expo in Seville while in Murcia, south-east Spain, enraged workers from the naval, mining and chemical sectors where companies were shut down, battled alongside students against the police, culminating with the launch of Molotov cocktails that set fire to the regional government’s Parliament.

In a video call from Spain, a grateful López Carrasco dedicated the award to his parents and brother “for being the people who most taught me how to listen.”

Colombian Camilo Restrepo’s Los Conductos won the best film prize in the festival’s Latin American competition. Winner of last year’s Mar del Plata Work in Progress competition, Los Conductos marks an attempt to explore Colombia’s civil conflicts with a style outside the canons of social realism as it follows a man in his attempts to flee from a sect and the trauma that still haunts him.

Maria Alvarez’s The Lost Time (El Tiempo Perdido) trounced a strong lineup in the Argentine competition, which included notable titles like Esquirlas, The History of the Occult and Las Ranas, to nab the best Argentine film prize.

In The Lost Time, a group of now aged friends find new and personal meaning in Marcel Proust’s seven-volume novel In Search of Lost Time at each of the 18 years they have gathered at a Buenos Aires bar to discuss it.

“In this online edition, more than 200,000 people saw the films we have programmed, and on YouTube, more than 180,000 people followed our events, so I congratulate the public who have known how to adapt to our circumstances,” said festival president Fernando Juan Lima at the online closing ceremony. “We miss the City of Mar del Plata and its movie theaters, but we are going to return,” he declared.

“We celebrate [the festival’s] continuity even with the challenges that the pandemic has imposed on us,” concurred festival artistic director Cecilia Barrionuevo. The festival paid homage to filmmaker-politician Fernando ‘Pino’ Solanas, Argentine actress-writer-director Maria Luisa Bemberg and, naturally, Argentina’s greatest hero, soccer star Diego Maradona, who died Nov. 25 from heart failure.

Augusto Costa, minister of production, science, and technological innovation, also announced that Mar del Plata would be the site of the fifth regional headquarters of Argentine film school, Enerc.

“From the government and from the ministry, we reaffirm our absolute commitment to the festival and to the audiovisual industry of the province,” said Costa.

2020 MAR DEL PLATA ASTOR PIAZZOLLA PRIZES

OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

BEST FILM
“The Year of the Discovery,” (Luis López Carrasco, Spain, Switzerland)

BEST DIRECTOR
Matías Piñeiro, (“Isabella,” Argentina)

BEST PERFORMANCE
María Villar, (“Isabella,” Argentina)

BEST SCREENPLAY

Nicolás Prividera, (“A Farewell to Memory,” Argentina)

SPECIAL JURY
“Moving On,” (Yoon Dan-bi, Korea)

LATIN AMERICAN COMPETITION

BEST FILM
“Los Conductos,” (Camilo Restrepo, Colombia, Brazil, France)

SPECIAL MENTION
“Mascarados,” (Marcela Borela and Henrique Borela, Brazil)

SPECIAL MENTION
“Fauna,” (Nicolás Pereda, Mexico)

BEST SHORT
“Correspondence,” (Dominga Sotomayor and Carla Simón, Chile)

ARGENTINE COMPETITION

BEST FILM
“The Lost Time,” (María Álvarez, Argentina)

SPECIAL MENTION
“Las Ranas,” (Edgardo Castro, Argentina)

BEST SHORT
“Homage to the Work of Philip Henry Gosse,” (Pablo Martín Weber)

BEST DIRECTOR
“Esquirlas,” (Natalia Garayalde, Argentina)

ALTERNATE STATES

BEST FILM
“My Dear Spies,” (Vladimir Léon, France)

SPECIAL MENTION
“Heliconia,” (Paula Rodríguez Polanco, France, Colombia)

WORK IN PROGRESS

BEST PROJECT
“Morichales,” (Chris Gude, Colombia, U.S.)

BEST LATIN AMERICAN DEBUT FILM, YOUNG CRITICS PRIZE
“History of the Occult,” (Cristian Ponce, Argentina)

Lavanderos’ “Las cosas como son” Earns Karlovy Vary Film Festival Award

Fernando Lavanderos’ latest project has earned critical acclaim in Czechoslovakia.

The 39-year-old Chilean filmmaker’s Las cosas como son has won the Independent Camera Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Las cosas como son

The 2012 Spanish-language drama/thriller centers on an antisocial man who rents rooms to foreigners and lives vicariously through them. But when a 23-year-old Nordic girl arrives one day and brings meaning to his life, he tries to woo her. But  just when he thinks he’s been successful at winning her love, he discovers that she’s hiding something, awakening his worst fears.

Las cosas como son had previously won the Latin American competition at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival.

During the film festival, John Travolta, Oliver Stone and Theodor Pištěk received the Crystal Globe Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.

Here’s a look at the full list of 2013 Karlovy Vary winners:

GRAND PRIX CRYSTAL GLOBE
Le grand cahier / A nagy füzet
Directed by: János Szász
Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, 2013

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
A Field in England
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
United Kingdom, 2013

BEST DIRECTOR AWARD
Jan Hřebejk
Honeymoon / Líbánky
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2013

BEST ACTRESS AWARD
Amy Morton
Bluebird
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

Louisa Krause
Bluebird 
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

Emily Meade
Bluebird 
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

Margo Martindale
Bluebird 
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

BEST ACTOR AWARD
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
XL
Directed by: Marteinn Þórsson
Iceland, 2013

SPECIAL MENTION
Papusza
Directed by: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
Poland, 2013

EAST OF THE WEST – FILMS IN COMPETITION

EAST OF THE WEST AWARD
Floating Skyscrapers / Płynące wieżowce 
Directed by: Tomasz Wasilewski
Poland, 2013

SPECIAL MENTION
Miracle / Zázrak
Directed by: Juraj Lehotský
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, 2013

DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN COMPETITION

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM OVER 30 MINUTES LONG
Pipeline / Truba 
Directed by: Vitaly Manskiy
Russia, Germany, Czech Republic, 2013

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM UNDER 30 MINUTES LONG
Beach Boy
Directed by: Emil Langballe
United Kingdom, 2013

SPECIAL MENTION
The Manor 
Directed by: Shawney Cohen
Canada, 2013

INDEPENDENT CAMERA AWARD
Things the Way They Are / Las cosas como son
Directed by: Fernando Lavanderos
Chile, 2012

AUDIENCE AWARD
Revival
Directed by: Alice Nellis
Czech Republic, 2013

CRYSTAL GLOBE FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD CINEMA
Theodor Pištěk
Czech Republic

Oliver Stone
USA

John Travolta
USA

FESTIVAL PRESIDENT´S AWARD
Vojtěch Jasný
Czech Republic

AWARD OF INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS (FIPRESCI)

Shame / Styd
Directed by: Yusup Razykov
Russia, 2013

THE ECUMENICAL JURY AWARD
Bluebird 
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean (FEDEORA)
FEDEORA AWARD
Velvet Terrorists / Zamatoví teroristi
Directed by: Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík, Peter Kerekes
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Croatia, 2013

EUROPA CINEMAS LABEL AWARD
Le grand cahier / A nagy füzet
Directed by: János Szász
Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, 2013

AWARD OF 10,000 EUROS IN SERVICES FOR THE MOST PROMISING PROJECT
Blind dates / Brma Paemnebi
Directed by: Levan Koguashvili
Georgia