'A Useful Life' Wins 32nd Havana Film Festival

BUENOS AIRES -- Uruguay’s Oscar-bid A Useful Life, directed by Federico Veiroj, won the First Choral Award at the New Latin American Film Festival in Havana, Cuba.

A co-production with Spain, the film features real-life film critic Jorge Jellinek as a 45-year-old film programmer who loses his job at the Uruguayan cinémathèque and is forced to change his way of life in order to adapt to a new world he’s faced with outside the film archive.   The jury was motivated by the “original way the film expresses a moving declaration of love in a unique form, using cinematographic resources.” The film was also awarded for best soundtrack.   A highlight in this year’s festival circuit and a sales hit at the recent Ventana Sur film market in Buenos Aires, Pablo Larraín’s Post Mortem grabbed the Second Choral Award and swept most major awards. The Chilean filmmaker picked up the best script award, together with co-writer Mateo Iribarren, and the film’ stars Antonia Zegers and Alfredo Castro won the best actress and actor awards, respectively.    The third Choral Award went to Mexican film The Good Herbs by María Novaro. Local filmmaker Fernando Pérez picked the best director for José Martí: el Ojo del Canario.    The jury also gave a special prize to Argentine filmmaker Diego Lerman’s Moral Sciences, as well as a mention to Thiago Ricarte’s Chapa, from Brazil.    Other awards included:    Best cinematography: Damián García, for Chicogrande (México) Best editing: Eliane Katz, for It’s Your Fault (Argentina, France) Best original score: Santiago Chávez and Judith de León, for Las buenas hierbas (México)