‘La hojarasca’ and ‘Aitana’, Richard Leacock Awards of this 23rd International Film Festival

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday, April 22, 2024. La hojarasca (The Undergrowth), by filmmaker Macu Machín, and Aitana, by Marina Alberti, have won the Richard Leacock Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film of this 23rd Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival. The Canarias Cinema section jury, featuring Maider Fernández Iriarte, Javier García Puerto and Joana Granero Sánchez, has announced their decision during a press conference held at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium this Monday morning.

Of the four features competing in this edition, the jury has awarded Macu Machín’s La hojarasca (The Undergrowth) (Spain, 2024, 72 min.) after having discovered “a great film that portrays three sisters’ intimacy and complicity thanks to the skill of a filmmaker who manages to convey the audience, with members of her own family, a story with a universal scope.” Macu Machín’s first feature film, which premiered at the Berlinale, has also received two Silver Biznagas (Best Feature Film and Best Director) at the Málaga Film Festival’s Zonazine section. Now the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival will give 3,500 euros to the Canarian filmmaker.

The Richard Leacock Award for Best Short Film, endowed with 1,500 euros, has gone to Marina Alberti’s work Aitana (Spain, 2023, 19 min.). The jury has acknowledged that it is “a short film that explores memory and the looming threat of oblivion in a single setting where four generations of the same family and the ins and outs of a country’s history crowd around.” The Award includes a 2,000 prize for the filmmaker of the winning piece.

Likewise, those charged with evaluating the works in competition have granted a Special Jury Mention to the short film Cabreo (Goat Anger) (Spain, 2024, 12 min.) by Jesús F. Cruz, for “making a film that’s brimming over with creativity and defiance.”

Digital 104 Distribution Award

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

The Digital 104 Jury, featuring Jonay García, Domingo J. González y Nayra Rodríguez, has awarded Alexander Cabeza Triggs’ short film El canto de los años nuevos (The Song of the Years to Come) (Spain, 2023, 23 min.) “for its ability to create a film microcosmos in which past, present and future are put together to reflect on the identity of the island and its survival through the new generations.”

The 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.