2015 Sebastiane Latino Award Winner

Recently was announced that the jury of the Third Sebastiane Latino awarded current year award to Mariposa by Marco Berger.

Jury Statement

The jury wishes to highlight the meticulous structure of the screenplay and editing used to tell a story via the two possible outcomes triggered by an initial decision.

It also wishes to reward Marco Berger for staying true to himself. For maintaining the features that have turned him into an exponent of Argentinean queer cinema. That have fashioned a creator of atmospheres where naturalism and fantasy entwine. That remind us how sexual tension, unspeakable desires and fears can exist in any reality. And all in Mariposa, where the leading part goes for the first time to a girl-boy couple.

In a complicated ensemble film, where even a first love could be incestuous, it is a tale of gay love that brings a touch of vivacity and humor. That’s why the jury of the third Sebastian Latino award wants to recognize the merit of Marco Berger, who chooses the naturalness of LGTBI as a film element to facilitate the audience’s connection with the film.

The award will be given at the upcoming San Sebastian festival and film will be screened in the Zabaltegi section.

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7/8/15
Five films will compete for the Sebastiane Latino award that goes to the Latin American feature film that best represents LGBT issues and values. The third edition of this award assures that winning film will be screened at 2015 San Sebastian International Festival that will run this year from September 18 to 26.

The award is given by GEHITU, the LGBT association of the Basque Country who also gives the Sebastiane Award -in its 16th edition this year-during to the best LGBT feature film in the festival. This year Latin America stands out for the ample presence of films portraying the world of transsexuality and transvestism. It could be the “star” theme of the year, reflected in three of the five productions chosen as finalists for the award by the Sebastiane Latino jury.

These are the five feature films.

Carmín Tropical, Rigoberto Pérezcano, Mexico
The tale of Mabel’s return to her hometown to find the person who killed her friend Daniela. A voyage of nostalgia, love and betrayal in a place where transvestism acquired uncommon dimension in its day.



La Visita (The Guest), Mauricio López Fernández, Chile
The expected return of the son for his father funeral shakes up a traditional and secretive familiar environment where women are supposed to count on men to survive as he shows himself turned into a female.



En La Gama de los Grises (In The Grayscale), Claudio Marcone, Chile
The story of Bruno, an architect who is starting to ask himself if his life is what he dreamt of or if it was forced on him. Amid this crisis, he travels to Santiago de Chile, far from those around him. When he meets Fer, a History teacher, the two are drawn into a love affair that neither had expected.



Made in Bangkok, Flavio Florencio, Mexico, Thailand and Germany (documentary)
Morganna is a transgender soprano relentless in her determination to break away from family prejudice and social stigma, firmly resolved to live an honorably respected life in society. With this idea in mind, she sets out on an odyssey of ups and downs to try and build the identity she has striven to achieve throughout her entire life, an identity made in Bangkok.

*Mariposa (Butterfly), Marco Berger, Argentina Winner of 2015 Sebastiane Latino
A butterfly, a creature symbolizing rebirth and a new beginning, epitomizes Romina’s and Germán’s world, a world that consists of two parallel realities. In one of them they grow up as siblings who desire each other and try to give shape to their love without sexual fulfillment; in the other they are a young man and woman who form an awkward friendship instead of succumbing to their feelings for each other. Germán finds himself in a discordant relationship with Mariela. Mariela’s brother is interested in Bruno. Bruno is with Romina, but wants to be with Germán. Playfully alternating between these two realities, the lovers find themselves drawn into ever new couplings in order to explore their intuitive feelings – cautiously, but at the same time prepared to lose everything.



To read news at award site go here, available only in Spanish or go to San Sebastian film festival official site here, available in English, Spanish and Euskara.