Amat Escalante is having one Heli of an festival season…
The 34-year-old Mexican director’s latest film, Heli, won the prize for best film at the 17th Lima Film Festival, which drew more than 121,000 people, according to organizers.
Escalante won the best director prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and Heli was named best international film award at this year’s Munich International Film Festival.
The ultra-violent film, which takes a look at Mexico’s blood-drenched drug wars, tells the story of a family caught up in gangland battles in an unnamed desert region of contemporary Mexico and contains protracted torture scenes.
Argentine-Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Lelio won the best director prize for Gloria, whose star, Paulina Garcia, took home the best actress prize.
Uruguayan actor Nestor Guzzini won the best actor prize for his role in Tanta Agua, a work by Uruguayan filmmakers Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge.
Brazilian actress Gloria Pires was honored during the festival’s closing ceremony.
“I feel honored, I don’t believe I deserve to be at the same level as the other honorees,” Pires said.
The actress thanked her father, actor and comedian Antonio Carlos Pires, and filmmakers Fabio and Bruno Barreto, with whom she worked on movies like Flores raras and O Quatrilho.
