La ciudad oculta, by Víctor Moreno, wins the Richard Leacock Award for Best Feature Film

• The Canarias Cinema jury has granted the Richard Leacock Award for Best Short Film to 300 Todo incluido, by Pablo Fajardo
• The documentary film En busca del Óscar (Spain, 2018, 72 min.), made by director Octavio Guerra, receives a Jury Special Mention for “its ironic and auto-parodic proposal”
• Rafael Navarro Miñón’s short film Mi profesora de Salsa, wins the Digital 104 Film Distribution Award

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday 25 March 2019. The film La ciudad oculta [The Hidden City] (Spain, France, Germany, 2018, 80 min.), by director Víctor Moreno, has won the 19th Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival’ Richard Leacock Award for Best Feature Film. The jury in charge of valuing the works selected for the Canarias Cinema section is made up of Andrea Guzmán Urzúa, cultural manager and filmmaker; Annamaria Scaramella, executive producer and programming coordinator of the Márgenes Festiva; and film critic Manuel Zapata. They have announced the jury’s decision during this Monday morning press conference, held at the Pérez Galdós Theater, in which they have also emphasized that its director “immerses us in a journey to the heart of civilization through an flawless aesthetic proposal, of outstanding care and delicacy, in which a powerful sound treatment stands out”.

The awarded feature film of this edition, La ciudad oculta, has managed, according to the members of the jury, “to create a disturbing and riveting atmosphere where reality and science fiction get mixed while showing us the beauty hidden beneath our feet, thus making us live a completely visceral, sensory and absorbing experience”. The Festival will grant a 3,000 euro award to its director.

The Richard Leacock Award for Best Short Film, valued at 1,500 euros, has been granted to the work submitted by Pablo Fajardo, 300 Todo incluido [300 All Expenses Included] (2019,14 min.). The jury has valued from this short film “its intelligent use of film narrative resources that play with rhythm, ellipsis and editing to tell a story marked by absence that arouses the need of human contact, thus achieving a well-rounded work”.

Andrea Guzmán Urzúa, Annamaria Scaramella and Manuel Zapata have granted, too, a third prize for one of the four features competing in the section: a Special Mention for En busca del Óscar [Searching for Oscar] (Spain, 2018, 72 min.), a film by Canarian filmmaker Octavio Guerra. They highlighted not only “the ironic and auto-parodic proposal”, but also that “it is a feature film that satirizes the role of those who, like us, work in judging other people’s works and that also celebrates an unbiased view of this world without forgetting about a deep and trascendence trace”.

Minutes before announcing the awards, the three members of the jury expressed their gratitude for being part of the festival. They also congratulated the festival’s team on their programming and highlighted “the great variety and quality of the selected works”.

Digital 104 Film Distribution Award

In addition to the awards granted by the Canarias Cinema jury, the titles selected in the section also competed for a distribution award granted by the Canarian audiovisual production company Digital 104 Film Distribution.

The jury of the Digital 104 Film Distribution Award, make up of Jonay García, Domingo J. González and Jairo López, has granted the award to Rafael Navarro Miñón‘s short film, Mi Profesora de Salsa [My Salsa Teacher] (2019, 11 min.), “for its hability to create a fresh story, full of rhythm and visual appeal that brings us closer, from humor, to two characters who, for a few days, connect their loneliness thanks to some dance lessons”.

The short film will receive for a year international distribution strategies, advice, management, inscriptions and submittions to national and international festivals by the company Digital 104 Film Distribution.