Tatiana Huezo’s prayers are being celebrated…
The 50-year-old Mexican Salvadoran filmmaker’s Prayers for the Stolen has won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Feature Film at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which revealed its juried winners this week despite being forced to cancel its 2022 edition.
Huezo’s film, which has made this year’s Oscars short list for the Best International Feature Film category. was released by Netflix in theaters and on the streaming platform in November.
It centers on three young girls in a mountain town who take over the houses of those who have fled, dress up as women when no one is watching, and have a hiding place as their mothers train them to flee from those who turn them into slaves or ghosts. Until one day, when one of the girls doesn’t make it to her hideout in time.
The jury awarded it the top prize “for a miraculously vivid portrayal of girlhood under siege told with visual exuberance and powerful intimacy from the ensemble cast.”
The film also took the festival’s Ibero-American Award, the top prize in its Ibero-American sidebar devoted to the best films from Latin America, Spain or Portugal.
Special mentions in the Ibero-American sidebar were given to Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Medusa and Víctor Escribano’s 7 Lives, 7 Lakes.
The Palm Springs Film Festival, which had been scheduled to run January 6-17 before being scrapped amid the latest COVID surge, is considered a must-stop for International Feature Oscar contenders, with 36 of the 93 official submissions this year slated for the lineup.
Here’s the full list of winners:
FIPRESCI Prize: Best International Feature Film
Prayers For the Stolen (Mexico)
Directed by Tatiana Huezo
FIPRESCI Prize: Best Actor in an International Feature Film
Amir Jadidi
A Hero (Iran)
FIPRESCI Prize: Best Actress in an International Feature Film
Agathe Rousselle
Titane (France/Belgium)
FIPRESCI Prize: International Screenplay
A Hero (Iran)
Screenplay by Asghar Farhadi
Best Documentary Award
Flee (Denmark)
Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Special Mention
The Caviar Connection (France)
Directed by Benoît Bringer
New Voices/New Visions Award
Happening (France)
Directed by Audrey Diwan
Special Mention
Wildhood (Canada/Germany)
Directed by Bretten Hannam
Ibero-American Award
Prayers For the Stolen (Mexico)
Directed by Tatiana Huezo
Special Mentions
Medusa (Brazil/USA)
Directed by Anita Rocha da Silveira
7 Lives, 7 Lakes (Spain)
Directed by Víctor Escribano
Local Jury Award
Escape from Mogadishu (South Korea)
Directed by Ryoo Seung-wan.
Special Mention
Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times (USA)
Directed by Louie Psihoyos, Peggy Callahan
MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award
A Hero (Iran)
Director Asghar Farhadi
Special Mentions
Fear (Bulgaria)
Directed by Ivaylo Hristov
Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America (USA)
Directed by Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler
Young Cineastes Award
Yuni (Indonesia)
Directed by Kamila Andini
Special Mention
Any Day Now (Finland)
Directed by Hamy Ramezan