‘Fifi Howls From Happiness’ Wins Buenos Aires Film Fest

BUENOS AIRES — Mitra Farahani’s Fifi Howls From Happiness won the International Competition at the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival (BAFICI), which closed Saturday night.

The Z Films Award for Best Film, El Premio Z Films, includes a $5,000 acquisition rights prize for theatrical, DVD and TV exhibition of the film in Argentina. Village Cinemas adds a week of exhibition time in two of its multiplexes.

“This was a very large edition, with almost 500 films playing in different neighborhoods, and a great audience response”, said Buenos Aires Minister of Culture Hernan Lombardi at the awards announcement Saturday morning. “We’re very happy and already preparing the next steps: provide financial help to the films screened in the festival so they can be released throughout the year. For that, we have a structure of film theaters that will harbor many BAFICI films throughout the year.”

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The International Competition jury also crowned brothers Daniel and Diego Vega best directors for El Mudo, which also won best actor for Fernando Bacilio. Best actress went to Sophie Desmarais for Chloé Robichaud’s Sarah préfère la course.

Hernan Roselli’s Mauro (Argentina) won the Jury Grand Prize and the FIPRESCI award, while Luis López Carrasco’s The Future (Spain) and Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s  Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy (Thailand) got two special mentions.

The Argentine Competition was topped by The Gold Bug, by Alejo Moguillansky and Fia-Stina Sandlund. Best Director went to Gustavo Fontan for The Face, and Edgardo Cozarinsky’s Carta a un Padre received a Special Mention.

The official figures for the 16th edition of BAFICI include 380,000 spectators and a total of 504 film screenings (154 shorts, 32 medium-length films, and 283 feature-length films).

The rest of the official awards are listed below: 

Audience Award

Best Argentine Film: Mientras estoy cantando, by Julián Montero Ciancio

Short Film Competition

Speical Mentions: Rockero Reyes, by Romina Cohn and No sé María, by Paula Grinzpan.
Second Prize: La Reina, by Manuel Abramovich
First Prize: Lo que dicen del monte, by Octavio Tavares and Francisca Oyaneder.

Human Rights Competition

Mention: ReMine, el último movimiento obrero, by Marcos Martínez Merino (España).

Best Film: El cuarto desnudo, by Nuria Ibañez (México). 

Avant-Garde and Genre Competition

Special Mention for Short film: Alan Vega, Just a Million Dreams, by Marie Losier.

Best Short: Redemption, de Miguel Gomes 

Special Mention for Feature-Length Film: Living Stars, by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat.

Best Film: It for Others, by Duncan Campbel.

Jury Grand Prize: Manakamana, by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Vélez.