‘A nuestros amigos’ and ‘De interés insular’, Richard Leacock Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film, respectively

• Adrián Orr’s feature film and Marta Torrecilla’s short film win the Canarias Cinema awards of this 24th edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival
• The Digital 104 Distribution Award has been granted to Inmaculada, by Amos Milbor

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday, April 28, 2024.- Adrián Orr’s feature film A nuestros amigos (To Our Friends) and Marta Torrecilla’s short film De interés insular (Of Island Interest) have won the Richard Leacock awards of this 24th edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival.

This year, the Canarias Cinema Jury featured Juan Ruiz Antón, director of Tilde, an organization for the promotion of Ibero-American cinema in Norway; Pablo Cayuela, a working partner at NUMAX, a cooperative based in Santiago de Compostela which comprises a cinema that only  shows films in their original version, a library and an editing, post-production and graphic design lab; and Sesi Bergeret García, a member of the selection and programming committee of L’Alternativa, Barcelona Independent Film Festival. After viewing the four feature films and eleven short films competing in this section, the three of them announced their decision this Monday morning, April 28.

The reasons behind both awards were explained during the reading of the list of winners. Thus, they noted that they have given the Richard Leacock Award for Best Feature Film, worth 3,500 euros, to Adrián Orr’s A nuestros amigos, which has been represented these past few days by its lead actress Sara Toledo, for “its ability to capture its characters’ emotional complexity, as well that of those who played them. Their experiences find the right times, distances and sensitivity to take the stage and reflect that intense and brief moment we all have been through in our lives.”

On the other hand, the Richard Leacock Award for Best Short Film, endowed with 2,000 euros for its director, was granted to De Interés Insular by Marta Torrecilla, who has been these past few days at the Festival, “for depicting on screen with admirable narrative efficiency a subject of urgent island and global interest, by playing with the contrasts and tension between the natural and the artificial, and between summer leisure calmness and climate emergency.”

Digital 104 Distribution Award

In addition to the awards given by the Canarias Cinema Jury, all competing works were eligible for a distribution prize awarded by the Canarian audiovisual production company Digital 104.

Jonay García and Domingo J. González, who are both filmmakers and founding partners of the production company Digital 104 and its distribution label Digital 104 Film Distribution, as well as audiovisual translator Nayra Rodríguez, who also works at the company, make up the Digital 104 Jury. They have granted their distribution award to Amos Milbor’s short film Inmaculada (Immaculate) “for capturing with tenderness and humor the soul of some unforgettable characters in a story full of faith, football and social criticism.”

The award-winning short film will get from Digital 104 an international distribution strategy, advice, management, inscriptions and submissions to national and international festivals for one year.

A nuestros amigos will be screened once more on Thursday, May 1, at noon at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas.