Award at SXSW
Pantalla Colombia No.: 086marzo 01 - 31 / 2019
Catalina Arroyave Restrepos Los días de la ballena (Days of the Whale) was awarded the CherryPicks Special Recognition in the Official Selection of the South by Southwest Film Festival.
Written and directed by Catalina Arroyave Restrepo, Los días de la ballena had its world premiere at the festival and went on to feature at the 59th edition of the Cartagena Film Festival (FICCI). In the film, Cristina and Simón are two young graffiti artists from Medellin who paint the city they live in. Their restless spirit leads them to challenge a criminal gang when they decide to paint over a threat scrawled on a wall with a mural of a whale. The love that unites them, family tensions, and their friendship with other artists in La Selva, an old house they use as a refuge, come together to tell a story in which the powerful force of the youths faces up to fear, violence and the challenges of growing up.
The film appeared in the “Global” category, which focuses on selecting a variety of international cinematographic talents who employ innovative narratives or produce artistic documentaries, premieres, festival favorites and more. In this category, it was awarded a Special Recognition in the CherryPicks Female First Feature Award, a prize given out by the review aggregator CherryPicks that was awarded for the first time at the festival. Competing for the award were fiction films that premiered at South by Southwest, that had a female director and at least one female producer, and that embodied the company’s mission to “create more inclusive storytelling and teamwork in entertainment”.
The South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) brings together creatives of all stripes to celebrate innovation and emerging global talent. Each spring in Austin, Texas, the event features various events, conferences about film, music and interactive media, offering a one-off opportunity to explore the worlds of interactivity, film, music and comedy with parties, awards, screenings and showcases.
Rounding off this year’s Colombian participation was the Colombian/Venezuelan co-production Yo, imposible, a film by Patricia Ortega that was part of the film festival’s Official Selection. The project Chronicle of a Vanished City by the Colombian director Jorge Caballero also featured in the Virtual Reality category.
As well as film, Colombia was also represented by the bands La Mojarra Eléctrica, Moügli, Los Gaiteros de Ovejas and Puerto Arena, who won support from the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MinTIC), Procolombia and .CO to participate in Sounds From Colombia, a space devoted to shining a spotlight on the most vibrant sounds and talents of our country as part of the South by Southwest festival.