{"id":849521,"date":"2026-08-09T21:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T21:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/849521\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T21:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T21:12:13","slug":"locarno-first-look-the-surubi-spring-story-sweep-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/849521\/","title":{"rendered":"Locarno First Look: ‘The Surub\u00ed,’ ‘Spring Story’ Sweep Prizes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLOCARNO, Switzerland \u2014\u00a0 Cross-ocean love story \u201cSpring Story<\/a>\u201d and false miracle comedy \u201cThe Surub\u00ed<\/a>,\u201d won big at Locarno\u2019s 2026 pix-in-post First Look focus on Uruguay, sharing its top five prizes at a Sunday evening Aug. 9 awards ceremony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe industry plaudits went to two of the competition\u2019s most substantial offerings, underscoring the range of productions on offer from Uruguay, also taking in an offbeat crime thriller (\u201cMaltrato Animal\u201d), a historically grounded kids\u2019 adventure (\u201c\u201cOur Little Band of Justice\u201d) and two auto doc-features tracing directors\u2019 personal multi-generational family relations (\u201cPerkal,\u201d \u201cThe Other Side of the Net\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\tFor director-producers Gabriela Guillermo and Irina Raffo, based out of Uruguay\u2019s L\u2019Avventura Cine, \u201cSpring Story\u201d is the case of fourth time lucky: the film No. 4 in a series of four movies set in a different season scooped both First Look\u2019s Bright Side of the Moon prize of complete colour grading and Le Film Fran\u00e7ais Award of advertising work \u20ac5,600. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGerm\u00e1n Ormaechea\u2019s Animista Cine co-produces.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe most extensive of First Look\u2019s six titles, weighing in at a rough cut of over two hours, \u201cEl Surub\u00ed\u201d won La Mayor Cine Award, consisting of total sound post-production, and a Music Library &SFX\/Acorde Award, made up of music supervision services at Music Library & SFX\u2019s labs to a value of \u20ac45,000 ($51,750). The film also snagged a third prize, the Jannuzzi Smith Award, offering the design of an international poster worth \u20ac10,000 ($11,500).<\/p>\n

\n\tKicking off like an Ealing or Luis Berlanga comedy, \u201cThe Surub\u00ed\u201d is set in the post-industrial town of El Surub\u00ed, devastated by the closure of the local Pezur plant in the 1980s and now on its last legs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen 70 chickens at a local farm lay 128 eggs in just one night after the arrival of a red helmet biker Emanuel, the event is described as a miracle and Emanuel hailed by the local priest as a prophet of divine powers. Whether this is true or the so called miracles can halt El Surub\u00ed\u2019\u2019s terminal decline is, however, another matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEl Surub\u00ed\u201d marks the feature debut of director Lorenzo Tocco, behind \u201cThe Anniversary\u201d (2019), a best Ibero-American short film at Guadalajara. Prominent Uruguayan prod co Monteloni produces. Brazil\u2019s Kocria and Multiverso co-produce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2019El Surub\u00ed\u2019 is an ensemble story featuring a distinguished Uruguayan-Brazilian cast; that with humor and sensitivity, it portrays a hopeless community clinging to an illusory hope out of a need to survive,\u201d producer Pancho Magnou Arnabal told Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tA closer look at the other four First Look titles:<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnimal Budget\u201d (\u201cMaltrato animal\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tDir. Jos\u00e9 Dell\u2019Acqua Postiglione. Prod. Jos\u00e9 Dell\u2019Acqua Postiglione and Germ\u00e1n Ormaechea (Animista Cine). 81,\u2019 fiction<\/p>\n

\n\tShot over four years, one week a year, as a showcase for not only first-time feature director but a new generation of technicians, heading key craft categories. A slow burning thriller with a quirky edge and shocks set against Uruguay\u2019s dramatic economic crunch of 2022, \u201cAnimal Budget\u201d turns on Javier, an animal vet drowning in debt as Uruguay\u2019s peso plunges against the dollar and banks are closed to prevent more of a run on their funds. With no cash and literally starving, Javier starts peddling drugs and animals from his clinic. Meanwhile, an unexpected encounter, hints at a new chapter in his life.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOver eight years, I wrote, directed, and produced the film, seeking to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. It is also a celebration of the talent of a new generation of Uruguayan filmmakers, many of whom took on leading creative roles in their first feature film,\u201d told Variety.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAnimal Budget<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Other Side of the Net\u201d Dir. Maximiliano Mart\u00ednez Prod. Clara Charlo and Maria Zanocchi (Los Besos Contenidos), co-prod. Shoji Films (Spain) 80,\u2019 documentary<\/p>\n

\n\tJust before flying from Montevideo to Barcelona to visit his father, Maximiliano Mart\u00ednez hears him say \u201cI love you\u201d for the first time in 30 years. Filming him over time in Spain, Maximiliano attempts to connect. \u201cHe\u2019s so closed,\u201d he laments, but gradually his father opens up to his deep regret of hitting his mother. Through tennis, father and son search for a new way to reach out to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film explores emotional inheritance and the possibility of transformation.\u00a0What do we do with what we inherit? Are we destined to repeat it, or can we build something different?\u201d Mart\u00ednez asks, about his debut doc feature. \u201cIn this sense, \u2018The Other Side of the Net\u2019 brings a perspective that does not\u00a0dive on the past, but instead seeks to project itself towards the future. It is an attempt to build relationships that are more conscious, honest, and horizontal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Other Side of the Net<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur Little Band of Justice\u201d (\u201cLa peque\u00f1a Banda de la Justicia\u201d)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLavoragine Films<\/p>\n

\n\tDir. Guillermo Casanova\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tProd. Natacha L\u00f3pez Kneit (Lavor\u00e1gine Films), co-prod. Lagarto Cine (Argentina) 85,\u2019 fiction<\/p>\n

\n\tA kids & family departure for Casanova, behind Uruguay Oscar submissions \u201cSeawards Journey\u201d and \u201cAnother Story of the World,\u201d both produced by L\u00f3pez Kneit at their joint label Lavor\u00e1gine Films, founded in 1999. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSet in Montevideo, 1983, as Uruguayans push for an end of dictatorship, effervescent Luc\u00eda and best friend Ana imagine they\u2019re T-Fly and T-Splash, heroes of an American comic. Then Ana and her family suddenly disappear. Refusing to accept the adults\u2019 silence, Luc\u00eda creates with classmates a Little Band for Justice, plastering walls with drawings demanding Ana be brought back and soon joins adults\u2019 call for broader justice and truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur Little Band of Justice\u201d\u00a0tells the story of one of the darkest periods in Uruguay\u2019s history through the eyes of children, where imagination becomes a way of understanding a world they cannot yet explain,\u201d Casanova told Variety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPerkal\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDir. Paola Perkal<\/p>\n

\n\tProd. Valentina Baracco Pe\u00f1a (Monarca Films), co-prod. Sue\u00f1o Cine (Uruguay) and Insumisa Films (Spain) 75,\u2019 documentary,\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2019Perkal\u2019 is a long-postponed letter to my grandmother Boke, an immigrant and war survivor,\u201d director Paola Perkal begins the film, which tells her grandmother and father Isaac, a he decides to clear out his mother\u2019s flat eight years after her death, taking the stash of home videos shot by Boke and Isaac for Paola. \u201cA portrait of a family steeped in history, tradition and expectations and, says the director, \u201can intimate story that seeks to resignify inheritance,\u201d said the director. \u201cA film that clings to life and reflects on the many ways we continue to exist, even after we are gone,\u201d added Valentina Baracco Pena, producer at Montana Films, led by Barroco and Eugenia Olascuaga Fierro. Its recent titles include \u201cThe Fable of the Turtle and the Flower,\u201d a Sanfic 2025 premiere and \u201cNot to Forget,\u201da Switzerland\u2013Uruguay France doc-feature bowing at Visions du R\u00e9el 2023.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Perkal\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOCARNO, Switzerland \u2014\u00a0 Cross-ocean love story \u201cSpring Story\u201d and false miracle comedy \u201cThe Surub\u00ed,\u201d won big at Locarno\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,39333,420454,344,420455,420456],"class_list":["post-849521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-locarno-film-festival","tag-locarno-first-look","tag-movies","tag-spring-story","tag-the-surubu00ed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}