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Montevideo, Uruguay — “Vainilla,” “The Condor Daughter” “Baptism” and “Lux Noctis” proved the big winners at Ventana Sur long-running showcases Copia Final/Primer Corte, Animation! and Blood Window as dozens of industry awards were announced Friday at the first Ventana Sur Río de la Plata, which unspooled Dec.2-6 in Montevideo.

Also scoring a flurry of prizes were “Eva” and “Girls Ground” in an award spread which serves to not only highlight titles with a running chance of selection for 2025 A-list festivals but also point up emerging talent and trends in Latin America filmmaking.

Following, a breakdown of major winners in the most established sections at 2024’s Ventana Sur, Latin America’s weightiest film-tv meet and market.

Primer Corte

A pix-in-post showcase for first-cut titles, some in very early stage of editing, Primer Corte saw one runaway winner: “Vainilla.” A first feature from Mexican Mayra Hermosilla, depicting a late ‘80s family...

Jô Serfaty’s “Beyond the Edge,” Jorge Cadena’s “Tropical Malady,” and María Paz Barragán’s “The Tenants” look like potential standouts at the 7th Proyecta project platform at next week’s Ventana Sur.

Supported by two powerful partners, Cannes Marché du Film and the San Sebastian Film Festival, Proyecta, will take place place Dec. 4 in Montevideo’s Teatro Solís.

One of Proyecta’s buzz titles, Jô Serfaty’s fiction debut “Beyond the Edge” took prizes from Globo Filmes and Vitrine at Brazil’s BRLab and then was a double winner at Málaga’s 2023 Maff. Projeto Paradiso also supported development.

Sourced from San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, “Tropical Malaise” is the latest from Swiss-Colombian Cadena, whose shorts won a Rotterdam Tiger, at Berlin (“Soeurs Jarariju”) and SXSW, while scoring an Efa nomination (“Flores de otro patio”).

A social-issue shock fest, catnip for sales agents, from Lima-based Final Abierto,...

Ventana Sur organisers have unveiled 12 projects selected to participate in this year’s market, which for the first time is taking place in Montevideo, Uruguay from December 2-6.

Nine of the chosen projects seeking additional funding and new partners for their first or second features originate from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay, and three are European with ties to Latin America.

Two of the European projects bring Spanish production involvement, and one, Tropical Malaise (Malestar Tropical), represents Switzerland and participated in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in San Sebastián last month. Five already have European co-productions, notably with France and Spain.

French outfit Still Moving has joined forces with Switzerland’s GoldenEggProduction to co-produce “Tropical Malaise” (“Malestar tropical”), a Colombia-set drama project directed by Jorge Cadena, whose short “Flores del otro patio” snagged a Special Jury Award at 2023’s SXSW Film Festival.

“Tropical Malaise” features among the 14 projects being brought to market at San Sebastian’s 2024 Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum edition.

Produced by Gabriela Bussmann and Yan Decoppet at Geneva-based GoldenEggProduction, “Tropical Malaise” is at financing stage, planned for an early 2026 shoot.

Co-writers include Jacques Toulemonde, a co-scribe on Ciro Guerra’s Oscar-nominated “El abrazo de la serpiente” and director of Netflix’s “Historia de un Crimen – Mauricio Leal;” and the Colombian-born and Swiss-trained Cadena, alongside Juana del Río (“Goles en contra”) and “Flores del otro patio” co-scribe Li Aparicio Candama.

Deeply rooted in Colombian reality, “Tropical Malaise” addresses contemporary societal issues, exploring social, political, environmental, and gender (Lgbtqia+) themes.

The...

The ceremony kicks off live from Berlin today (December 9) at 19:30 Cet.

The European Film Awards is taking place in Berlin tonight (December 9), and Screen will be revealing the winners live from the ceremony, kicking off at 19:30 Cet.

German actor Britta Steffenhagen is hosting the awards, which will take place at the Arena Berlin.

Screen will be live-streaming the ceremony below, or you can refresh the page and scroll down to read the winners as they are announced.

Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall...

Austin, TX – The SXSW Conference and Festivals wrapped on March 19th, after 10 days of magic and Austin wackiness, showcasing film, TV, interactive, conferences, interviews and music. The Film & TV Fest named “Raging Grace” as the top Narrative Feature and “Grown” as top TV Pilot.

“Raging Grace” was written and directed by Paris Zarcilla, telling the story of a Filipina house cleaner and her young daughter, with the jury noting its “heady blend of horror, history, and midnight humor announcing the arrival of an exciting new filmmaking talent.” The TV Pilot “Grown” focuses on a teenage boy attempting to move forward after losing his father, and the jury said it was “a coming-of-age story told with heart and visually realized with polish and verve.”

The following is the list of top honorees …

Grand Jury Prize - Narrative Feature

Raging Grace

Photo credit: SXSW.com

Winner: “Raging Grace,” directed by Paris Zarcilla...

As SXSW basks in the Oscars afterglow of Everything Everywhere All at Once, which premiered out of competition at the event last year, jury and special awards winners for the 30th edition of the film and TV festival have been announced.

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Top honors in the Narrative Feature Competition went to Paris Zarcilla’s horror pic Raging Grace. The film follows Joy, an undocumented Filipino immigrant who is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter Grace when she secures the perfect job: taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminal old man. The new...

Two days after ”Everything Everywhere All at Once“ won seven Oscars, including best picture, the SXSW Film Festival, where Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s movie launched last year, has announced its own awards. To be clear, “Eeaao” was a studio-backed opening night premiere (not one of the smaller movies launched in competition at the indie-focused fest), but you can still feel the excitement in Austin around the landmark Oscar win. After all, SXSW was the first festival to take Daniels seriously, awarding them top prize for their Battles music video (“My Machines”) in 2012.

Will any of the movies or directors screening here this year go on to change film history?

With five days still to go at SXSW, the juries convened to present the winners.

Narrative feature honors went to writer-director Paris Zarcilla’s “Raging Grace.” On the surface, the tense story of an undocumented Filipina house cleaner and...

Every year, TIFF Filmmaker Lab, a Toronto Festival development program, selects 20 directors who will be tutored over four days by industry specialists and veterans. Rubbing shoulders this year with Brazilian, Pakistani and Rwandan cineasts is Colombian-born and Swiss-trained Jorge Cadena, whose “The Jarariju Sisters” caught attention at the Karlovy Vary European Film Promotion Future Frames last year.

This time round, Swiss production company GoldenEgg is producing his new feature project “Tropical Malaise.” In it, Cadena sheds light once again on a northern region of Colombia — an area devastated by open-pit coal mine and the absence of government, where activists and social leaders are frequently murdered, and where a man named Lucas, five years after the murder of his mother, will grapple with his grief joining forces with a group of queer activists and the region’s indigenous communities in a fight for basic human rights.

Variety talked with Cadena about...

Following a Generation 14Plus jury special mention at its Berlinale premiere and a string of successful festival screenings since, Colombian-born and Swiss-trained filmmaker Jorge Cadena’s “The Jarariju Sisters” participated as part of this year’s European Film Promotion Future Frames section at Karlovy Vary.

Occupying a space somewhere between fiction and documentary, the film tells the true-life story of its non-professional lead actresses Viviana Uriana Jarariju, Yandris Uriana Jarariju and their grandmother Rosa Jarariju. The sisters were key contributors from both sides of the camera, co-writing – along with Cadena and his sister Li Aparicio – and translating the screenplay from Spanish to their native Wayuunaiki.

In 1985, Colombia’s northern Guajira peninsula was ripped open and gutted for the copper inside its hills. In the decades since, mining operations have increased and decimated the land occupied by the Wayuu. As the community is fighting to conserve its rituals and traditions, following...