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Panamanian Félix “Trillo” Guardia’s debut feature documentary “The Sorcerer: Julio Zachrisson” (“El Brujo”), which had its world premiere at Iff Panama, snagged the festival’s prestigious audience award, beating high profile contenders that included Berlinale winner “Pepe,” Mexico’s “Sujo” and Venice winner “Kill the Jockey.”

Produced by Tomás Cortés of Cine Animal and supported by Panama’s Ministry of Culture, the film weaves animation, archival footage and interviews to trace Guardia’s personal journey, fueled by his childhood memories of provocative Panamanian artist Julio Zachrisson’s odd yet captivating artworks.

News also broke during the festival that Dominican Johanné Gómez’s “Sugar Island,” which competed for the audience award, had all North American rights sold to ArtMattan Prods. by its sales agent, Patra Spanou. Gómez’s award-winning feature debut, a docu-fiction hybrid, revolves around Makenya, a Dominican-Haitian teen from a shantytown for sugarcane workers, whose unplanned pregnancy forces her to face adulthood.

Moved from its usual December berth last year, the 12th Panama International Film Festival (Iff Panama) runs April 4-7, replete with new industry activities and double the number of films since its previous edition.

True to its mandate to serve as a showcase for Central American and Caribbean cinema, the festival’s program this year includes a bevy of acclaimed films from the region, including two Panamanian Indigenous-themed features, “Bila Burba” and “God is a Woman.”

Recent years has seen the growing international recognition of pics from the region, with Nelson Carlo de los Santos becoming the first Dominican – and first Latin American – filmmaker to snag the best director Silver Bear at the Berlinale for his drama, “Pepe.”

Costa Rican director Antonella Sudasassi Furniss’ sophomore feature, “Memories of a Burning Body,” clinched the Audience Award for best fiction film in the Panorama section of the A-list German festival.

Both are screening at Iff Panama.

Amsterdam and Los Angeles- based sales outfit sells package of films and TV dramas.

Amsterdam and Los-Angeles based sales agent Skoop Media, formerly known as Dutch Features, has sold a package of drama series and feature films to Amazon Prime Video for the Netherlands and Belgium.

For the Netherlands, the deal includes two seasons of the Belgian streaming comedy F*** You Very Very Much directed by Bert Scholiers and Jonas Govaerts and produced by Caviar and Finnish streamer Eliisa Viihde’s upcoming mystery thriller series Evilside.

Also included are Andy Fehu’s Czech comedy horror Shoky & Morthy: Last Big Thing...

Amsterdam and Los Angeles- based sales outfit sells package of films and TV dramas.

Amsterdam and Los-Angeles based sales agent Skoop Media, formerly known as Dutch Features, has sold a package of drama series and feature films to Amazon Prime Video for the Netherlands and Belgium.

For the Netherlands, the deal includes two seasons of the Belgian streaming comedy F*** You Very Very Much directed by Bert Scholiers and Jonas Govaerts and produced by Caviar and Finnish streamer Eliisa Viihde’s upcoming mystery thriller series Evilside.

Also included are Andy Fehu’s Czech comedy horror Shoky & Morthy: Last Big Thing...

Panama City — “The main problem is how to reach audiences beyond festivals,” says the Locarno Festival’s Nadia Dresti.

The Locarno Industry Academy, which now boasts a network of events outside the Swiss city, aims to help a budding new generation of distribution, sales, exhibition and programming execs to develop answers.

Iff Panama and Locarno have just concluded the Academy’s first edition in Central America.

Reaching audiences is ever harder. “Box office for festival films is going down. One or two big films manage to reach theaters. But most don’t,” said Dresti, who founded the Academy in 2014.

“Festivals used to be a launch pad to the theatrical market, but now sales agents often make their revenues from screening fees at festivals and stop there. We want to develop innovative strategies to change this situation.”

One of the problems is that younger people no longer watch arthouse films in...