Panama Horror 2022: Festival Wraps and Winners Announced

This past Saturday, February 19, the closing ceremony was held, with the awards ceremony of the sixth edition of the Panama Horror Film Fest dedicated to the figure of the headless father.

 

We are very happy to return to the face-to-face and to be able to share with new and old friends of the festival a week full of scares and many laughs.

 

We started with the youngest category of Animated Short Films and for them I want to briefly introduce our wonderful jurors.

 

Rojo Genesis: Illustrator, researcher and creator of Casa de Hadas, a space for research and writing in transsexual, lesbian and gay cinema and horror in Latin America.

 

Jonathan Harker: Panamanian multidisciplinary artist.

 

Luisifer: Singer, illustrator, podcaster and fan of horror cinema.

 

And the prize was awarded to Los Huesos from Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña from Chile.

 

Special mentions to Heart of Gold by Simon Filliot (France) and Tío by Juan Medina (Mexico).

 

 

We continue with the category of International Short Film for them we have the following fabulous jurors: 

 

Javiera Navarrete

Social anthropologist dedicated to audiovisual research and cultural management. She is currently a manager at Belladona Producciones.

 

LA MONSTRUA CINÉFAGA

Canela Rodriguez Fontao and Mariana Zárate. The film writing and analysis project that talks about the place of women in film theory.

 

Chicho Canto

Director Graduated from the International School of Film and TV, EICTV, of San Antonio de los Baños Cuba- He has been the winner of the National Film Fund of Panama with his film projects La Tierra Dividida and An Inside Job, both in the development phase.

 

The award goes to Amara by Danielle Amaral and Fernando Pompeo Neto from Brazil.

 

Special mentions for Solución para la Tristeza by Marc Martinez Jordan and Tuixén Benet Cosculluela (Spain), Sonrisas by Javier Chavanel (Spain) and Macho Carne by George Pedrosa (Brazil).

 

 

We move on to the Documentary category and for them we have these monsters and jury monsters:

 

Estefani Céspedes

Costa Rican director, producer and director of photography. Director and screenwriter of the documentary El Psicópata, crónica de un caso sin resolver (2019) and directs the first edition of The Hysteria, Fantastic Film Festival of Costa Rica.

 

Francia Herrera

She is currently a professor of theory/analysis of photography and film. She is part of the independent journalism collective/Revista Concolón and supports the photographic collective La Junta with specialized workshops. In her artistic facet she integrates and co-leads the musical project Radio Palenque.

 

El fe0

Degree in "History" and "social and cultural anthropology". About 3 years ago he started a project on YouTube called La Filmoteca Maldita

 

And the prize for the Best Documentary is awarded to Balada para niños muertos by Jorge Navas from Colombia.

 

 

We now present the category Fiction Film of Genre Horror and Fantastic and for this we have these great jurors:

 

The Bloody Girls

Bloody Girls is a cultural project in which we analyze and disseminate the representation of women in gender cinema and their relationship with other artistic forms and feminist movements.  

 

Sandra Becerril

Member of the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Mexican writer and screenwriter, nominated for the Ariel 2020 for Best Adapted Screenplay. She is the first Mexican to write for Hollywood's horror masters.

 

Juan Diego Escobar Alzate

Colombian director and screenwriter known mainly for his feature film "Luz: The Flower of Evil".

 

And the winning feature film is Jacinto by director Javi Camino from Spain.

 

 

Now we move on to one of the most important awards of the festival and it is the prize for the Central American category.

 

Our super jurors are:

 

Jorge Castillo

Founder of the CineBunker platform with the objective of promoting and developing audiovisual production in the Central American region.

 

Enrique R. Montoya

Mexican filmmaker, communicator and journalist, founder of Espanto Film Fest, a project that accommodates independent genre cinema around the world.

 

Antonio Quintero

Administrator of Fantastic Fest Fiends page, the fan group of the Fantastic Fest festival, Critic for sites such as Spill.com, Ain't Cool News, and GetReelMovies.

 

The prize is given to the Costa Rican short film Iridescent by Elena Aguilar Castillo

 

With special mentions to Twin Flames by Mariana Pulgar from Panama and La Bruja by Cesar Liang from Honduras.

 

 

We also awarded the Tanu Distribution Award, a super important prize since it consists of the distribution in 15 Latin American festivals for a short film thanks to Rocio and Tatiana, the promoters of this Argentine distributor, Tanu Distribuciones, which specializes in Latin American horror genre cinema. This award for us is a reinforcement and support to the career of a director and that is why we give it to the Panamanian short film, Escúchame (The Brain) by Alberto Serra.

 

Another of the international actions we take to help the visibility of Panamanian films abroad is to choose the Panamanian short film that represents Panama in the FantLatam Awards, Latin American Alliance of Fantastic Festivals where short films and feature films will be shown in person in Brazil, granting recognition to several works. This year 2022 the prizes for the 2021 editions are awarded, and on behalf of the Panama Horror Film Fest we have the short film Estanislao by Rodrigo Quintero Arauz.

 

For the feature film category of the FantLatam Award we selected the Argentine feature film winner for the best Latin American feature film of the fifth edition 2021 Matar al Dragón by Jimena Monteoliva.

 

For the parallel competitions we have 3 awards given by the public 

 

Best Terrifying Videominutes The Death of Jacko by Roberto Santos (Mexico).

 

Best Horror Micro-Story for True Peace by Maria Emma Faria.

 

Best Horrific Visual Arts for Headless Father of the Penumbra Collective. 

 

Congratulations to all the winners and a thousand thanks to all the people who made the festival possible.