IFF Panama Film Match Prizes Costa Rica’s ‘Los Ultimos,’ Panama’s ‘The Journey of Kokodrit’

Costa Rican documentary “Los Últimos,” by Álvaro Torres Crespo, won the $10,000 IFF Panama Film Match Award, in the first edition of IFF Panama Film Match – the Panama Film Festival’s Cinematographic Co-Production Forum for Central America and the Caribbean, supported by the IDB Lab.

Initially planned as an integral part of the on-site film festival, the event was restructured as a virtual forum, with 10 projects in development – from Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Panama, including four Panamanian projects.

The jury members – top Colombian producer Diana Bustamante, Thierry Lenouvel, one of France’s key co-producers with Latin America, and Inti Cordera, director of DocDF, one of Latin America’s key doc events – said that “Los Últimos” was chosen “due to the relevance of its issues, history and central character, [as] ever more than before, messages from drawn from the knowledge of our indigenous peoples must be disseminated and promoted through cinematographic creation as a message to ensure the future of humanity and conservation of our planet”.

The jury granted the DocsMX award to Panamanian documentary: “The Journey of Kokodrit,” by Iván Jaripio, which will now participate in the IB project laboratory platform in October 2020.

A special mention was given to Costa Rican feature film, “Sunday and the Fog” by Ariel Escalante (“The Sound of Things”) “due to the quality of its propositions, both in its history and themes focused on the defense of the territory.”

The online version of IFF Panama now runs May 22-26, in a condensed five-day digital festival that includes the premiere of Panamanian feature “Panquiaco,” by Ana Elena Tejera, and round tables moderated by Diana Sanchez and IFF Panama’s director, Pituka Ortega Heilbron.

Confirmed (online) guests include some of latin  America’s most prominent actors, stars of Academy Award winning films – Argentina’s Ricardo Darín (“The Secret in Their Eyes”), Chile’s Daniela Vega (“A Fantastic Woman”) and Mexico’s Yalitza Aparicio (“Roma”), producers such as Mexco’s Nicolas Celis (“Roma”) directors – Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante (“La Llorona”) and Chile’s Maite Alberdi (“The Mole Agent”) and production designer Eugenio Caballero (“Roma”).