‘Sujo’ Tops Morelia Film Festival With Best Screenplay, Direction & Fiction Feature Wins In Strong Start To Oscar Race

Sujo, Mexico‘s Oscar submission, topped the Morelia International Film Festival with three wins across Best Screenplay, Direction and overall Fiction Feature film. It’s a good start to the international film contender, following up its nabbing of the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema.

From filmmakers Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, the drama centers on the eponymous beloved son of a small-town cartel gunman who narrowly escapes death when his father is murdered. When his aunt takes him in and raises him in the isolated countryside, he must contend with hardship, poverty and the constant peril associated with his identity.

Rondero and Valadez shared the awards for Best Mexican Fiction Feature Film Screenplay, Best Direction of Mexican Fiction Feature Film and Best Mexican Feature Film overall. In September, The Forge acquired the North American rights to the pic, which will hit select theaters beginning Nov. 29.

The Morelia fest, in its 22nd edition, runs from Oct. 18 to 27 in its title city in Michoacán. This year’s program including a screening of nearly 200 films, including Mexican premieres and other features.

Emilia Pérez from French director Jacques Audiard served as the opening screening, the actresses of which — Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz — were special guests. Megalopolis was also screened, and director Francis Ford Coppola was presented with the Artistic Excellence Award. Rodrigo Prieto’s Pedro Páramo, which debuted at TIFF earlier this year, was also showcased. The closing screening was Alfonso Cuarón’s limited series Disclaimer. Other notable guests included Liv Tyler, Alexander Payne, Ava DuVernay, Ira Sachs and Leos Carax.

Below is the full winners list:

Michoacán Short Film Screenplay Competition: Antesala al primer beso, Adrián A. González Camargo

Ojo for the Michoacan Section: Imprint (Impronta), Rafael Martínez-García

Special Jury Prize sponsored by Renta Imagen: Niño halcón duerme entre visiones de un incendio, Mauricio Sáenz-Cánovas

Ojo for Best Mexican Documentary Short Film: Looking for a Donkey (Buscando un burro), Juan Vicente Manrique

Ojo for Best Mexican Animated Short Film: The Black Stain (La mancha negra), Yareni Velázquez Mendoza

Ojo for Best Mexican Fiction Short Film: Spiritum, Adolfo Margulis

Special Mention for Mexican Documentary Feature Film: Cracked (La falla), Alana Simoes

Audience Award for Mexican Documentary Feature Film: Goodbye, Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus, Eva Aridjis Fuentes

Ojo for Best Mexican Documentary Feature Film: I Died (Li cham), Ana Ts’uyeb

Special Mention for Mexican Fiction Feature Film: A Fisherman’s Tale, Edgar Nito 

Audience Award for Mexican Fiction Feature Film: La cocina, Alonso Ruizpalacios

Ojito for Best Actress in a Mexican Fiction Feature Film: Diana Laura Di, Violent Butterflies (Violentas mariposas)

Ojito for Best Actor in a Mexican Fiction Feature Film: Andrés Revo, Fine Young Men (Hombres íntegros)

Best Screenplay for a Mexican Fiction Feature Film: Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, Sujo

Ojo for Best Direction of a Mexican Fiction Feature Film: Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, Sujo

Ojo for Best Mexican Fiction Feature Film: Sujo, Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez