L.A-based writer-director Carlos Marques’ Long Distance (10,000 Km) swept Spain’s Malaga Film Festival, the country’s biggest showcase of Spanish cinema, scooping its top award, the Golden Biznaga, for best movie, best director, best new screenwriter, a critics’ award and best actress to Natalia Tena (a prize she shared with Elena Anaya for her work in Everybody is Dead’s (Todos están muertos).
Long Distance and Tena (who plays Osha in Game of Thrones and Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter films) had previously been honored at SXSW. Co-produced by L.A. based Spanish production house La Panda Productions, Long Distance chronicles a couple’s attempts to maintain a long-distance relationship between Los Angeles and Barcelona. The story also reflects the actual future of the Spanish cinema, made in Spain but longing for an international scope.
Other awards included the one for Nightfall in India, film about a cantankerous 60-year-old close to his death, that earned the Spanish veteran Juan Diego the best actor prize, and
321 Days in Michigan, recognized with the Audience Award and best supporting actor honors to Salva Reina and Héctor Medina (ex aequo).
Rocío Ayuso