HUELVA. The Mexican film “Valentina or serenity“, of angels crosswas awarded the Golden Columbus to the Best Film of the 49th edition of the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festivalfor narrating “with respect and from beauty the immense pain of loss”. The ruling of the jury formed by the Mexican Estrella Araiza, general director of the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) and the FICG Cineteca, by the Spanish producer Clara Nieto, the journalist David Martos and the screenwriter, director, critic and writer Javier Tolentino concluded that “if it is difficult for adults to accept death, For a girl it is a well of pain and fear”.

“Valentina or serenity” also took the Silver Columbus to the Best Performance for the actress Myriam Bravo“for the meticulous construction of a character that guides the little protagonist of the film.”

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In the film, Valentina puts all her efforts into soothe a recent lossalong with his best friend and his mother. angels cross he builds his films from and with his Mixtec indigenous community and presents the viewer with this intimate and delicate look at the depths of loss and the healing power of true love.

Excited, Ángeles Cruz, author of the short films “La Tiricia” or how to cure sadness, “La carta”, “Arcángel”, and the feature film “Nudo mixteco”, stated that “it moves all of us that if there is something to go through, if there is something certain it is life and death, nothing more” and added that “when lightning crosses us, that scar that we carry inside makes us survivors and I believe that many of the people who inhabit this planet are survivors of those great pains and that we move forward.”

She asked us to “stop a little, reflect on ourselves and discover with every step we take the wonder of life” and reiterated that she feels very excited and very happy, coming from a community of 300 inhabitants. “It is incredible that this film wins this very important award and For the entire community it represents a big hug”.

Cruz highlighted that “cinema transforms us in every sense, from where you start, from where the seed arises, from where you choose the story, the elements that are going to be part of a film and for me it is important to return to our territories, the sound ones, the geographical ones, those of our faces because many times the Indigenous villages We have been portrayed by external eyes and for me it is very important that what comes from within has this reception and May we share our language, our face, our landscapes”.

The actress Myriam Bravo, who is in Spain for the first time, assured that being able to play this character, as the mother of the girl who is grieving, “already It has been a great gift of life, I feel extremely excited and if this award is dedicated, I would dedicate it with all my love to all those mothers who have lost someone, who have the strength to accompany their children; “I feel happy with Ángeles to give me the opportunity to play this beautiful character.”

The jury also awarded the Silver Columbus Special Jury Prize to the film “The Buriti Flower” (Portugal, Brazil, 2023), by directors João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, considering that the film “takes the viewer, from a montage impeccable, the disturbing usurpation of Brazilian lands from their legitimate owners.”

Mexico also took the Silver Columbus to the Best Address for Sofia Auza by Adolfo, thanks to “the originality of the approach and for telling us that through love and friendship we can save ourselves.” In the film, Momo, Hugo and Adolfo, in the love triangle with some of the most surprising characters in world cinema, they meet one night while going in opposite directions. Their unlikely encounter will not only magically change the course of their lives, but will also encourage them to warmly embrace the beauty of the unexpected.

There was also the Silver Columbus to the Best Performance for the Argentine actor Rodrigo de la Serna, for his work in “El rapto” (Argentina, 2023), by Daniela Goggi, “for carrying out the interpretive creation of a man who, believing in the end of one of the most “Dark moments of Argentine history, ended up swallowed by the sewers of the old regime” and the cast of the film Penal Cordillera, by Felipe Carmona (Chile, Brazil, 2022) was recognized in that category.

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For their part, the spectators of the Huelva Festival They decided that the Audience Award should go to La Suprema, by Felipe Holguín, (Colombia, 2023). In La Suprema, a town that is not even on the maps, an Afro-Colombian teenager dreams of being a boxer. Her first tournament will be to get a television to watch her uncle boxing for the world title. In the end, she will understand that her true fight is for her dignity and her personal and collective identity.