Santiago Maza is celebrating an inspiring win for his fourth documentary film…

The Mexican filmmaker’s State of Silence, 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 the coveted best feature award at this year’s Sanfic Festival in Santiago de Chile.

Documentary 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 the Tribeca Film Festival this June, and recently picked up by Netflix for North and Latin America, 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 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.

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.”

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.

More than anything else 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.

Here’s a look at this year’s winners:

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,” (Guillermo Amoedo, Mexico, España)