Official and non official awards were granted yesterday night at the closing ceremony of the 23rd Mar del Plata International Film Festival, at Auditorium Theater, they were granted the awards, official and non official, of this edition. These are the winners:

Official Awards

International Competition

The Jury composed of Israel Adrián Caetano, Peter Lilienthal, Pedro Olea, Sarah Polley, David Oubiña, and Yu Lik-wai, granted the following prizes:

- GOLDEN ASTOR to Best Feature Film:

Still Walking, by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan)

- SILVER ASTOR to Best Director:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, for the film Tokyo Sonata (Japan)

- SILVER ASTOR to Best Actress:

Isabelle Huppert for the film Home, by Ursula Meier (Switzerland / France / Belgium)

- SILVER ASTOR to Best Actor:

Ulrich Thomsen for the film Fear Me Not, by Kristian Levring (Denmark)

- SILVER ASTOR to Best Script:

Kristian Levring and Anders Thomas Jensen for the film Fear Me Not (Denmark)

The Special Jury Award was granted to the film:

 Involuntary, by Ruben Östlund (Sweeden)

Latin American Competition

The jury composed of Ricardo Benet, Isaac León Frías, José Luis García, Ana Poliak and María Augusta Ramos granted the prize to Best Film of the Latin American Competition. The prize consists of $80.000.- which will be distributed in the following way: 20.000.- for the director, $20.000.-for the producer and $40.000.- for expensed required for the commercial launching of the film in our country.

-BEST LATIN AMERICAN FILM:

Los bastardos, by Amat Escalante (Mexico).

-SPECIAL MENTION:

Regreso a Fortín Olmos, by Patricio Coll and Jorge Goldenberg (Argentina).

Argentinean Competition

The jury composed of Greta Gerwig, Marie-Pierre Macia, Manuel Martínez Carril and Albert Serra, granted two prizes consisting of two transfers to 35 mm. Participants films are video ones, of Argentinean production, finished after November 2007, not only documentary but fiction and experimental films, form 60 minutes length on.

- Parador Retiro, by Jorge Leandro Colás.

- Diletante, by Kris Niklison.

Short Film International Competition

The jury composed of Álvaro Buela, Fernando Castets and Gustavo Taretto granted the following prizes:

- Best Short Film: Block B by Chris Chong Chan-fui (Malaysia)

- Best Latin American Short Film: Saltos, by Gregorio Graziosi (Brazil)

Short Film Argentinean Competition

The jury composed of Dominic Angerame, Andrés Duque and José Luis Torres Leiva, granted two prizes consisting of two transfers to 35 mm

- El grito, by Andrés Denegri

- El empleo, by Santiago `Bou` Grasso

Work in Progress

The jury composed of Verónica Chen, Roger Alan Koza and Pablo Rodríguez Jáuregui granted a prize, consisting of a transfer to 35 mm.

- Best Project: Vikingo, by José Campusano (Argentina)

- Mention: El niño, by Alejandro Arias (Argentina)

Non Official Awards

Incentive Award Towards a National Cinematographic Industry

UIA (Argentinean Industrial Union) granted for the first time Incentive Award Towards A National Cinematographic Industry.

Granted by Argentinean Industrial Union, INCAA and Argentinean Federation of Cinema Producers (FAPCA), this prize is granted for the firs time at 23rd Mar del Plata International Film Festival, and is annual.

The aim of this award is to stimulate Argentinean cinematographic industry (spreading our culture, generating job and nationally profitable), promoting national productions. It will be destined to a national producer or cinematographic cinema production company of middle length or long fiction, animation, and/or documentary films with the following characteristics: Compromise for reflecting national identity; job generation with mainly national human resources; produced and opened in the year of granting the award, in the formats mentioned before; development of cinematographic activity with a proper commercial sense.

The prize was granted by Dr. Horacio Martínez, President of the Jury and Member of UIA Directive Commision.

Mention winner: Rizoma Films

First Prize winner: BD Cine

“Cahiers du Cinema” Award to artistic innovation, Spain

Destined to films that explore new cinematographic territories; works whose courage, originality and artistic value deserve being recognized.

The films composing this award belong to different spaces and curatorship at the Festival

The jury composed of Carlos Reviriego, Gustavo Castagna, Jorge García and David Oubiña awarded the film:

- Je ne sui pas morte, by Jean-Charles Fitoussi (France)

SICA Award (Argentinean Cinematographic Industry Trade Union)

The jury composed of Horacio Guisado, Aldo Guglielmone and Valeria Roig, granted “Tato Miller” award to Best Fiction Film of Latin American Competition to:

- El camino, by Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez (Costa Rica)

For considering it: “A moving story that narrates the adventures of two little brothers to find their mother, going through contemporary Nicaragua, devastated by poverty and hopelessness. The well done cinematographic direction strengthens the dramatic situation the two main character of the story live”.

It also granted  “Tato Miller” Award to Best Documentary Film from Latin American Competition to the film:

- Estrada real da cachaça, by Pedro Urano (Brazil)

For considering: “It narrates a way along the roads that join together the inner part of Brazil with the coast line. In all ages powerful people use cachaça as a domination way, while the people use it as a way of liberation. Urano uses the cinematographic metaphor and different documentary narrative forms to penetrate in this hidden world.

"Carlos Carella" Award of AAA (Argentinean Actors Association)

The jury composed of Silvina Bosco, Atilio Pozobón and Manuel Vicente, granted the following awards:

- “Carlos Carella” Award to Best Male Performance:

Gustavo Almada for the film Gallero, by Sergio Mazza

- “Carlos Carella” Award to Best Female Performance:

Guadalupe Docampo for the film La Tigra, Chaco, by Federico Godfrid and Juan Sasiaín.

All Argentinean films from Argentinean Competition, International Competition and Latin American Competition were participants.

ACCA Award (Argentinean Cinematographic Reporters Association)

The jury composed of Fernando Brenner, Pablo De Vita and Agustín Neifert, granted the following award:

- Still Walking, by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan).

“For condensing the relevance of a fundamental cinematography and the look of a film maker who integrates the finite and the infinite, tradition and modernity, the changeable and the durable, within a story through a family as a synthesis of human existence.”

ADF Award (Argentinean Photography Authors Association)

The jury composed of Hugo Colace, Rogelio Chomnalez and Iván Gierasinchuk, granted the award to Best Photographer of International Competition to:

- Agnés Godard for Home, by Ursula Meier (Switzerland / France/ Belgium)

SIGNIS Award (World Catholic Association for Communication)

The jury composed of Jos Horemans, Marianela Pinto and Guillermo Rubén Russo, granted the following award:

Best Film of International Competition:

The Stranger in Me, by Emily Atef (Germany)

“For illuminating a so complex topic, which provokes the audience’s reflection through a great sensitiveness and authenticity in the way of telling the story."

The jury also decided to grant a Special Mention to:

Un coeur simple, by Marion Laine (France)

“For reflecting strength and love and generosity capacity with the sole compensation of happiness for giving, through a solid staging”

FIPRESCI (International Cinematographic Press Federation)

The jury composed of Eduardo Antín (Quintín), Jean-Christophe Berjon and Ivonete Pinto.

- Best Argentinean Film (out of the three Official Competitions):

La Tigra, Chaco, by Federico Godfrid and Juan Sasiaín.

“Because its freshness, serene and controlled rhythm and quality of the performances reveal the intelligence of a production without resources that does not renounce the ambition of making a full cinema. The film shows the potential of a new generation of film makers, actors and the creative atmosphere generated by cinema schools in Argentina."

Argentina Cinecolor Award to best feature film chosen by the audience

Pa-ra-da, by Marco Pontecorvo

Annual Program Without Frontiers

Granted by Mr. Carlos Martínez, Director of the institution.

- Best Argentinean Short Film:

El empleo, by Santiago "Bou" Grasso

He also receives the certificate to the automatic selection for the 2009 edition of the San Francisco Short Film Festival and the Festival du Cinéma, Paris.

- Special Mention:

El grito, by Andrés Denegri

This film will also be internationally promoted by the Program.

Kodak Argentina. Special Award to the trajectory to the Cinematographic Director Ricardo Younis

Ricardo Younis was born on 31st of august, 1918 in Santiago de Chile.
He worked in more than 80 film during five decades, among them, Hoy cumple años mamá, El centroforward murió al amanecer, El Jefe and Dar la cara. Since his work, he became a role model and a teacher to all his colleagues.