Guadalajara industry prize winners include Araujo's UIO, Duran's Daggers In The Sky

The Industry/ Film Market strand of the ongoing 27th Guadalajara Film Festival has announced its 8th Iberoamerican Co-production Meetings and 6th Works in Progress (Guadalajara Construye) awards worth $315,000 in cash and services.

The Ecuadorian project UIO by Micaela Rueda Araujo received the Iberoamerican Co-production Meetings award worth $117,000 in services offered by the Mexico City-based Churubusco studios.

The award to the Ecuadorian production coincides with the homage paid by the festival to the film industry of that central American country.

UIO is the debut feature film of Rueda Araujo, who has a solid record as producer and documentary filmmaker. The story deals with the relationship between two adolescent girls who experience their sexual awakening through their mutual attraction, which contrasts with the conservative social environment in the capital city of Quito.

The film came was one of 30 selected projects that participated in the final round. According to Andrea Stavenhagen, coordinator of the Coproduction Meetings, 120 fiction and 23 documentaries were submitted and representatives of more than 60 production, distribution and sales companies participated in the pitching sessions.

Runner up Mexican project Gonzalez by Christian Diaz received $27,000 in services by the LCI Film Insurance Services.

Speaking to Screen, Stavenhagen underlined that “the record number of the participating companies representatives in the over 600 one-to-one pitching sessions proves the consolidation of the Iberoamerican Co-production meetings as a unique financing tool in the Iberoamerican film industry panorama.”

The Peruvian production Daggers In The Sky (Cuchillos en el cielo) by Alberto Duran received the main award in the Works in Progress (Guadalajara Construye) strand while the Argentinian production From Tuesday To Tuesday (De martes a martes) by Gustavo Fernandez Trivino swept all but one of the eight remaining awards. The Chilean production You Think You Are The Most Talented (Te creis la mas talentosa) by Che Sandoval came third.

Six productions seeking co-productions funds took part in the final round.

Daggers In The Sky received $100,000 in sound services by the Mexico City based Astro LX.

The film deals with the real life case of a middle-aged woman set free after 10 years imprisonment for her alleged and never proven participation in a terrorist group. Once out of prison she sets to identify the group of military personnel who raped her during her imprisonment and to mend the relationship with her estranged adolescent daughter.

From Tuesday To Tuesday took sven awards worth $65,000 and is about a working man in his late thirties who comes upon an unexpected development in his otherwise dull and monotonous daily life. This will force him to take vital decisions for his future and his relation to his wife and young daughter. Awarding companies include the likes of Kodak, Churubusco studios, Chemistry Cine, Fix Comunicacion and Latinofusion.

L.A.-based Titra Films offered the $4,000 worth subtitling services to You Think You Are Most Talented, the story of a man in Santiago who tries in vain to restart his relationship with his estranged wife who moved to Spain.

The festival wraps March 10 with the awards gala.