The festival, held from March 25 to April 1, in Benidorm, has had the participation of prominent filmmakers and actors from around the world.
Skyline Benidorm Film Festival 2023 has come to an end and leaves a trail of talent and creativity in the film industry. Below, we present the list of winners of this year’s edition:
– Best National Fiction Short Film: “SUSHI” by Iván Morales. The short film has stood out for moving us with a journey through the darker side of parenthood carried out with the elegance and maturity of a round story.
– Best National Documentary Short Film: “HARDCORE” by Adán Aliaga. This short film has been awarded for treating the disease in a transgressive way, without excessive drama and with a sense of humor, and for uniting two worlds as antithetical as hardcore music and tetraplegia.
– Best National Animated Short Film: “SANDWICH CAT” by David Fidalgo. This short film has been recognized for taking advantage of the narrative opportunities offered by animation to build a comic delirium that could not have been told in any other language.
– À Punt Award for Best Valencian Short Film: “HARDCORE” by Adán Aliaga. The committee has unanimously decided to award this prize for the best Valencian short film to “HARDCORE”, a documentary production by Jaibo Films with a script and direction by Adán Aliaga.
– Best European Short Film: “SCALE” by Joseph Pierce. This animated short film has impressed the jury for its creativity and visual quality.
– Best Ibero-American Short Film: DESERT STARS by Katherina Harder Sacre. The jury has chosen this short film for dealing with a social and environmental problem, such as drought, through the innocent gaze of childhood.
– Script Contest Winner: “LA POOL” by Santiago Cardelús and Pablo Manchado. This script has been recognized for its originality and for exploring an atypical relationship between two people in a different way, through a mature and suggestive proposal.
– Honorable Mention in the Script Contest: “SON OF THE FUTURE” by Ángel Mirou. This script has been awarded for its management and fragile balance between drama and comedy through science fiction, and for glimpsing the deconstruction of masculinity around domestic violence against women, betting on and suggesting other possible realities.
– Best Director: Iván Morales for “SUSHI”. The director has managed to tell Sushi with a firm and precise hand, stimulating creativity in the thinking of his actors and his technical team. Morales has fulfilled the objective of questioning and criticizing the father/son relationships in our society, involving the viewer to reflect and feel responsibility for the subject matter.
– Best Production: “A RABIA” by Alberto Díaz López. This short film has been awarded for having the audacity to dare with a period film and manage to move us to rural Galicia at the end of the 19th century and tell the story of Spanish migrants who went to make the Americas, due to its formal ambition. The production makes lucid use of all available cinematographic language tools, including editing and sound, and manages to combine naturalism and poetry in an exceptional way.
– The prize for Best Performance is given to Xavi Sáez for “Sushi”. The jury highlights his rigorous interpretation work, which has managed to make an impact due to his authenticity and commitment, and for providing maximum credibility to the Sushi story for the public.
– Best Shortpitch: WHY DO GIRLS CRY? by Claudia Ortega. Due to its luminous vision of pre-adolescence and friendship, the normalization of the LGBTIQ+ collective at that stage, the realistic and little-known reflection of the city of Benidorm.
– Best Young Directors Short Film: IF I LOVED ME, GO, by Sofía Muñoz. This short film that has stood out for its technical quality, originality and creativity is a moving story about the importance of the family.
– Best Audience Short Film: CUENTAS DIVINAS, Eulàlia Ramon’s debut feature as a short film director, with a script written by María Zaragoza. This work presents a reflection on the irrational times in which we currently live, in which society feels a constant need to demonstrate beyond what it really is.
– Best Young Jury Short Film: TIED UP by Carmen Córdoba. An animated short film that addresses very important issues, such as motherhood and family relationships, and does so in a highly sensitive and poetic way. In addition, Carmen is already a veteran of the Skyline Benidorm Film Festival, in 2021 she was with “Roberto”, taking the award for Best Animated Short Film.
– PNR Jury Award: PARIS 70 by Dani Feixas. For an emotional story with a magnificent original script that envelops and traps us, making us reflect on caring given from our elders.
– PNR Jury Special Mention: DIVINE ACCOUNTS by Eulàlia Ramón. Second award for this short film, where the outstanding performance of Celia Freijeiro and the art direction have taken the viewer’s experience to a whole new level.
On the other hand, the Skyliner 2023 Prize has been awarded to María Esteve. The festival feels honored to be able to award an award to an actress with an indelible mark on the audiovisual industry. During her career, María Esteve has demonstrated her talent and skill as an actress in a variety of films, series and plays, captivating audiences with her stage presence and her total dedication to each character she plays. interpret. In addition, her work in the world of short films has also been exceptional, demonstrating her commitment to the art and her dedication to her craft. Short films like “Savasana”, “Como el agua” and “Nomeolvides” have been a clear example of this.
This award is a sign of the festival’s commitment to promoting talent from the world of short films, and we are proud to honor María Esteve for her extraordinary career and her contribution to the art of cinema.
The Skyline Benidorm Film Festival thanks all the participants, sponsors, the media and the public, in general and the Benidorm City Council and À punt, as the official collaborating media, for their support and enthusiasm in this edition.
See you next year for another exciting movie adventure.
