14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 23 April 2023 — Director Pavel Giroud highlighted “the pain of Cubans” upon receiving the award for best documentary film for El caso Padilla, at the Platinum Awards of Ibero-American Cinema, held this Saturday at the Ifema Madrid Palace.
“I want to thank you in the name of we Cubans who are fed up. Our country is a theme park for an ideology and a utopia, and the pain of Cubans does not have the same strength as the pain suffered by other countries,” Giroud said when collecting the prize.
El caso Padilla uses unpublished images of the self-criticism of the poet Heberto Padilla before the Union of Cuban Writers. He was arrested in 1971 by State Security and accused some who were present, including his own wife, of being counterrevolutionaries.
The Platinum Awards, organized by Egeda and the Ibero-American audiovisual federation Fipca, were presented at a gala held at the Municipal Palace of Ifema Madrid, with more than 1,800 guests and 200 accredited journalists.
The favorite of the gala was Argentina 1985, which won five awards, including best film, closely followed by the Spanish As bestas [The Beasts], which received four.
In a gala marked by the demands of historical memory, the celebration of the Hispanic and music, Santiago Mitre’s film about the historic trial of the leadership of the Argentine military dictatorship also won the award for best actor for Ricardo Darín and those for best screenplay, art direction and education in values.
The Spanish As bestas, a rural thriller that reflects on violence, won the awards for best director for Rodrigo Sorogoyen, best supporting actor, for Luis Zahera, best editing and best sound.
In Spain, the awards for best leading actress, Laia Costa, and best supporting actress, Susi Sánchez, were given for their work in Cinco lobitos [Lullaby], the debut film by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa that is about motherhood.
In the series section, the great winner was Noticia de un secuestro [News of a Kidnapping], an adaptation of the book of the same name by Gabriel García Márquez. Meanwhile, the award for the best Ibero-American comedy is shared between Spain and Argentina, since it was for Competencia oficial [Official Competition], a satire on the egos in the world of cinema directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Dupra, starring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez.
The Chilean 1976, a thriller drama set in the darkest years of that country’s dictatorship and directed by actress Manuela Martelli, won as the best debut film, and the Bolivian Utama [Our Home] by Alejandro Loayza, won in best photography and best music.
The Platinum for the best animated film went to Mexico, for Águila y Jaguar, los guerreros legendarios [Águila and Jaguar, the Legendary Warriors], a post-apocalyptic story directed by Mike R. Ortiz. In the series section, the great winner was Noticia de un secuestro [News of a Kidnapping], an adaptation of the book of the same name by Gabriel García Márquez, which won four awards: best series, best creator, best lead actress (Cristina Umaña) and best supporting actress (Majida Issa).
Translated by Regina Anavy
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