Outstanding news for Portuguese cinema. "Ice Merchants", a film by João Gonzalez, has won an award at Festival de Cannes.
In its world premiere, "Ice Merchants" was awarded Semaine de la Critique Jury Prize for best short film in competition. It's the first time a Portuguese animation film is awarded at Festival de Cannes.
The short film by the young Portuguese filmmaker João Gonzalez was one of the ten short films selected for the competition of the famous section of the Festival de Cannes. "Ice Merchants" is an intriguing animated film that explores the relationship between a father and a son, in an exercise of consolidation of a unique and singular style that makes João Gonzalez one of the great promises of world animation.
"Ice Merchants" was also recently announced in the selection of the Guadalajara International Film Festival, being one of the 15 nominees for the Rigo Mora International Prize (created by Guillermo del Toro), the Mexican festival category eligible for qualification in the Oscar Academy Awards.
Jury Statement for the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize Award
"The Leitz Cine Discovery Prize goes to a film that has, as one of your jury members puts it, "Everything that you expect from a short film.” Here is a filmmaker that knows how to tell a story, and he does it well. He creates a short-film that holds us on the edge from the first moment. Aesthetically this film is fresh and perfect in itself, but more than that, this film has a mission, a real and important mission... And it is made by a filmmaker that we hope will get wind under his wings and as a consequence will fly high and long. The prize goes to ... Ice Merchants."
