Two Chilean Films Win Prizes at Sundance

Chilean cinema had a stellar performance at this year's Sundance Film Festival receiving two of the main prizes. Andrés Wood's Violeta se fue a los cielos / Violeta Went to Heaven, about the life of folksinger Violeta Parra who became a pop culture icon and her songs protested social injustice, won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic. Wood follows on the footsteps of Chilean film La nana / The Maid by Sebastián Silva which won the same prize exactly three years ago.

The other prize awarded to a Chilean production went to Marialy Rivas, Camila Gutiérrez and Pedro Peirano who received the World Cinema Screenwriting Award, Dramatic for Loca y alocada / Young & Wild, the film directed by Rivas. "Do you want to cry? Me too. We grew up in a country during the dictatorship," said Rivas accepting the prize at the awards ceremony. "Since I was seven I wanted to be a filmmaker to escape that violent reality. Every film is an act of love."

These two awards add to the one previously announced for Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor. As it was reported earlier this week, she received the Sundance Institute / Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award.

Pictured: Camila Gutiérrez and Marialy Rivas at the Sundance Awards ceremony. Jury member Richard Peña on the background.