Cinema made by young Colombian filmmakers has triumphed at the 64th edition of the Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival (Zinebi).

The only three films from that country submitted to the contest have won two of the grand prizes and a special mention from the jury.

Since the organization of this festival, it has been pointed out that the three Colombian films submitted to the contest show a great bill and enormous talent.

The young filmmakers Angélica Restrepo and Carlos Velandia have won the Zinebi Grand Prize in the Official Section with their animated short film “All my scars fade with the wind” (Colombia, 2022), in which Restrepo, present at the press conference , seeks to “honor the bond” with his mother.

“What we wanted to achieve is to propose a journey through some memories that are painful towards the healing of the original wound,” he pointed out.

Velandia, for his part, explained that his film was the result of “completely self-taught work that stems from our training at film school, but recognizing that training as insufficient, we began to explore new types of possibilities to create images based on from the idea of ​​not involving a physical camera in the process.”

Theo Montoya First Feature Award

The feature film “Anhell69”, the first large-format work by Colombian director Theo Montoya, has won the Grand Prize of the International Competition, the best financially endowed of the festival, with 12,000 euros for the winner.

In recent months, this work has won the Golden Dove at the German DOK Leipzing festival and a special mention at the International Critics’ Week in Venice.

In addition to these two main awards, the third Colombian work at the festival, “Nuestra película”, by Diana Bustamante, has been recognized with a special mention within the Grand Prix of the International Competition.

The growth of Colombian cinema

Bustamante, also present at the awards presentation, pointed out, in relation to this success of the cinema of his country, that “Colombian cinema has been trying to grow for a long time, now with a little more possibilities than before.”

“Most of these works are the result of self-management (of the filmmakers), but I think that it is a good time for Colombian cinema and to look forward and build other narratives,” he added.

Along with these awards for Colombian, Balkan and German cinema, they have also obtained two separate awards at Zinebi 64 with the Best Basque Short Film award for Croatian filmmaker Karla Crnçeviç for her documentary “Wild Flowers produced” in Euskadi, and the award for Best Documentary Short Film to the Serbian Gorana Jovanoviç for her film “Balls”, a feminist look at the world of football.

German cinema, backed by a powerful industry in the industry, has won the Best Fiction Short Film award for Nicolai GH Johansen’s “Backflip” and the nomination for the 2022 European Film Awards for “Zoon”, by director Jonatan Schwenk.

The Spanish Film Grand Prize has gone to the documentary “Olores”, by the filmmaker Alba Esquina.