Tag Archives: Fernanda Valadez

Fernanda Valadez’s “Identifying Features” Wins Gotham Awards’ Inaugural Best International Feature Award

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Fernanda Valadez is in a New York state of mind…

The Gotham Film and Media Institute’s 30th annual Gotham Awards have been revealed virtually, with the Mexican filmmaker taking home a prize.

Fernanda Valadez

Valadez’s critically acclaimed Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares) picked up the inaugural award for Best International Feature.

The drama premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic and the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Screenplay.

Co-written by Valadez and Astrid Rondero, the film centers on the many immigrants who often go missing or die on their journeys. Most of the main characters are mothers trying to find their children.

IFP Executive Director Jeffrey Sharp welcomed the virtual audience and the night featured a handful of in-person presenters including Renee Elise Goldsberry, Cristin Milioti, Hunter Schafer, Padma Lakshmi, Michael Shannon and Noma Dumezweni, as well as remote presenters such as Zachary Quinto, Lupita Nyong’o, Anthony Mackie, Rebecca Hall and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre.

Here’s the full list of winners below.

BEST FEATURE: Nomadland
BEST DOCUMENTARY – TIE A Thousand Cuts & Time
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: Identifying Features
BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD: Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night
BEST SCREENPLAY – TIE: The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank & Fourteen, Dan Sallitt
BEST ACTOR: Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
BEST ACTRESS: Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth
BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR: Kingsley Ben-Adir, One Night in Miami…
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONG FORMAT (40-PLUS MINUTES PER EPISODE): Watchmen
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORT FORMAT (LESS THAN 40 MINUTES PER EPISODE): I May Destroy You
ACTRESS TRIBUTE: Viola Davis
ACTOR TRIBUTE: Chadwick Boseman
ENSEMBLE TRIBUTE: The cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7: Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Alex Sharp, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Caitlin Fitzgerald, Alice Kremelberg, and Ben Shenkman.
DIRECTOR’S TRIBUTE: Steve McQueen
INDUSTRY TRIBUTE: Ryan Murphy
MADE IN N.Y. AWARD: Jeffrey Wright
GOTHAM AUDIENCE AWARD: Nomadland

First U.S. Trailer Released for Fernanda Valadez’s Spanish-Language Drama “Identifying Features”

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Here’s your first look at Fernanda Valadez’s latest film…

Kino Lorber has released the U.S. trailer for the Mexican filmmaker’s latest project, the Spanish-language drama Identifying Features.

Fernanda Valadez

The film was well-received the Sundance Film festival.

It centers on a mother (Mercedes Hernandez) who travels across Mexico in search of her son who authorities say died while trying to cross the boarder into the U.S.

Valadez’s film picked up two prizes at Sundance and will open in theaters and virtual cinemas in January 2021 after its New York premiere as an official selection at New Directors/New Films festival.

The film was recently nominated for a Gotham Award for Best International Feature, and previously played festivals including San Sebastian, Zurich, Morelia, and Thessaloniki.

At Sundance, the film won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award and the same category’s Best Screenplay prize. Avanti Pictures and Corpulenta Producciones produce.

Fernanda Valadez’s “Identifying Features” Added to NYC’s New Directors/New Films Series Lineup

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Fernanda Valadezis bringing her award-winning new project to the Big Apple.

Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art have announced the complete lineup for the 49th annual New Directors/New Films, which includes the Mexican filmmaker’s Identifying Features.

Fernanda Valadez

Valadez’s film, which won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival,tells the story of Magdalena, a mother who embarks on a journey in search of her son who disappeared en route to the US border. Traveling through the foreboding towns and landscapes of northern Mexico, she meets Miguel, a young man recently deported from the United States who is making his way home. The two accompany one another: Magdalena looking for her son, and Miguel eager to see his mother again in a territory where victims and aggressors ramble together.

Other films in the lineup include Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ Boys State; Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent; Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s debut feature The Cloud in Her Room; Janis Rafa’s Kala azar; Arun Karthick’s Nasir;Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Atlantis; Brazilian filmmaker Maya Da-Rin’s The Fever;Mamadou Dia’s Nafi’s Father; and Aneil Karia’s Surge.

In all, the iconic series will screen 27 features and 10 short films from 35 countries, with 13 North American premieres and 4 U.S. premieres, 15 films directed or co-directed by women and 15 works by first-time feature filmmakers

“The New Directors/New Films selection is always international in scope, but I’m particularly struck by the sheer breadth of this year’s lineup,” said Dennis Lim, Film at Lincoln Center Director of Programming and 2020 New Directors/New Films co-chair.

“We have everything from speculative war films to intimate dramas, unnerving works of science fiction to political documentaries, hailing from countries often represented on screen as well as some less commonly seen ones. Collectively these films speak to the continued vibrancy and daring of world cinema in an age of political uncertainty and cultural sameness. They prove that cinema still has what it takes to reflect and enhance the moment we live in,” said Lim, who was just named Director of Programming for Film at Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival.

This year’s New Directors/New Filmsseries will run from March 25 – April 5.