- During the occasion, the Pudú Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Babi Salas and her son Pablo Salas, for their contribution to audiovisual record and dissemination during the dictatorship.
- El que Baila Pasa, by Carlos Araya Diaz, collected best picture in the Chilean Feature category.
- Malquerida, by Tana Gilbert won the Audience Award and the Special Jury Mention.
- The Award Ceremony was hosted by Amparo Noguera and Marcelo Alonso, at Cervantes Theater, in the Regional Capital of Los Ríos, with authorities and the general public in attendance.
- Among the announcements, the audience learned the date of FICValdivia’s next edition, which will be held between October 14 and 20, 2024.
For the fourth consecutive year, the Closing Ceremony of the Valdivia International Film Festival was opened by the Valdivia Chamber Orchestra (OCV), with conductor Rodolfo Fisher, this time musicalizing the piece Ya se Rindió Allende, by artist Andrian Pertout, with the support of the Ríos de Letras bookstore in Valdivia.
The Award Ceremony, which took place at 6:00 pm on Saturday, October 14, was held at Cervantes Theater and was attended by local and regional authorities, academics, and the general public. In addition, the activity was digitally broadcast on FICValdivia platforms and media partner outlets.
At the gala, the winners of the competition were announced in the categories of Feature Film, Best Chilean Feature, International Youth Feature Competition, Latin American Short Film Competition, Latin American Children’s Short Film Competition, and Future Chilean Cinema, along with the Explora el Cine Micro Movie Contest.
During the gathering, the date of the upcoming edition of FICValdivia was also announced, which will take place between October 14 and 20, 2024.
PUDÚ LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
FICValdivia director Raúl Camargo presented the Pudú Lifetime Achievement Award, which this year went to Pablo Salas, an outstanding Chilean camera operator and filmmaker, whose daring, along with the quality of his records, led him to become one of the key cameramen of the mass protests in Chile. The award was also presented to his mother, Babi Salas, for her daring audiovisual recovery and diffusion work during the dictatorship.
FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
The award-winning film in the Feature Competition of the 30th Valdivia International Film Festival was Here, by Belgian director Bas Devos.
The Special Jury Prize in the category went to Muertes y Maravillas, by Chilean creator Diego Soto.
The jury also awarded two special mentions to: Malqueridas, by Tana Gilbert, and The Urgency of Death, by Lucía Seles.
The Audience Award also went to Malqueridas, by Tana Gilbert.
The jury for this competition was made up of filmmaker and teacher María Aparicio; film director, producer, screenwriter, and critic Jerónimo Atehortúa; and director and festival programming advisor Paolo Moretti.
SPECIAL CHILEAN FEATURE AWARD
This year’s award-winning Chilean feature was El que Baila Pasa, by Carlos Araya Diaz.
The jury in charge of awarding this prize included Pamela Biénzobas, Chilean-French consultant, programmer, and critic; Sung Moon, member of the Jeonju IFF programming team since 2004; and film critic and festival programmer Alberto Ramos.
INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FEATURE COMPETITION
The top prize in the competition was awarded to Arnold is a Model Student, by Sorayos Prapapan.
The Special Jury Prize in the International Youth Feature category went to Scary Friend, by Takara Mineo and Naohiro Takahashi.
This time, the Jury was composed of Josefa Mardones, 10th year cello student at Colegio Bicentenario de Música Juan Sebastián Bach, in Valdivia; Aníbal Silva, 10th year student at Colegio Austral de Valdivia; and Benjamín Tejeda, 12th year student at Colegio Alemán de La Unión and a self-professed passionate photographer.
LATIN AMERICAN SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Twelve films, hailing from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Cuba, Spain, the United States, Peru, and Uruguay, made up the Official Latin American Short Film Selection.
The first prize award-winner this year was Ramal, by Higor Gomes. The Special Jury Prize went to El Polvo ya no Nubla Nuestros Ojos, by Colectivo Silencio.
The jury also decided to give a Special Mention to MÃRI HI – El Árbol del Sueño, by Morzaniel Iramari.
This year, the jury for this important competition was composed by editor, filmmaker, novelist, and film critic Miguel Angel Gutiérrez; Brazilian researcher and curator Carla Italiano; and Karina Solórzano, who holds a BA in Spanish Literature and MA in Film Studies.
LATIN AMERICAN CHILDREN’S SHORT FILM COMPETITION
El Motor y la Melodía, by Juan Antonio Limo Giribaldi and Manuel-Antonio Monteagudo Gauvrit, collected the first prize in the Latin American Children’s Short Film Competition at FICvaldivia 2023.
Likewise, the Special Jury Prize went to Al Otro Lado de la Montaña, by Yosman Serrano Lindarte.
The jury was formed by Ricardo Angulo, 3rd grade student at Liceo Bicentenario Valdivia; Gatica Paloma Carrillo Quintana, 7th grade student at Colegio Bicentenario Helvecia de Valdivia; and Josué González Riveros, 6th grade student at Escuela Adventista de Valdivia, President of the Children and Teens Advisory Council to the Los Ríos Governor’s Office.
FUTURE CHILEAN CINEMA
The Future Chilean Cinema category aims to be a showcase where Chilean and Latin American filmmakers and producers can feel welcome and generate ties that allow them to professionalize their audiovisual projects and make them a reality.
The fourth edition of Austral Meetings this year made strides into these objectives, presenting a space for training, dialogue, and collaboration, from the South. Thirteen projects, in different stages of completion, summed up the participation of the national audiovisual sector in this FICValdivia section. In addition, 20 audiovisual professionals provided advisory services to these projects, addressing various creative and artistic aspects.
The jury in charge of awarding the prizes included Pamela Biénzobas, Chilean-French consultant, programmer, and critic; Sung Moon, member of the Jeonju IFF programming team since 2004; and film critic and festival programmer Alberto Ramos.
The winning Future Chilean film in the First Cut Category was Cobija, directed by Pamela Pequeño and produced by Cecilia Gómez. The prize consists of $1,250,000 Chilean pesos.
In the Post-Production Category, the award went to Población Flotante, directed by Carlos Araya Díaz and produced by María Paz González. It received $1,250,000 pesos from FICValdivia and Universidad Austral de Chile.
The Atómica Postproduction Award, consisting in 6 days of color work and the production of a DCP Master, went to Cobija, directed by Pamela Pequeño and produced by Cecilia Gómez.
The Sonamos Award, which consists of 3 days of sound mixing, went to Los Años Salvajes, directed by Andrés Nazarala and produced by Florencia Rodríguez.
The Development Project Award, consisting of $800,000, went to Visión de Chile, el Imperio de las Sombras, directed and produced by Sebastián Quiroz.
UNOFFICIAL AWARDS
EXPLORA EL CINE
The seventh edition of the Explora el Cine Micro Movie contest was organized within the framework of FICValdivia, by the Valdivia Cultural Center for Film Promotion and PAR Explora Los Ríos of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation.
28 works participated this year, coming from all the municipalities in Los Ríos Region: nine micro-movies were selected, all of them under the theme for this edition: Forest, life, and community.
The award for the best Explora el Cine 2023 micro movie went to Karün, by Sara Cheuquehuala, from Liceo República de Brasil, in Malalhue, Lanco.
The jury also awarded an honorable mention to the film Incendio en el Bosque, by Camila Hermosilla, from the Folilco Rural School, in Los Lagos.
