SPANISH filmmaker Isaki Lacuesta’s “Between Two Waters” topped the international competition at the 33rd Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina, where it also picked up the best actor award for Israel Gómez Romero.

A follow-up to Lacuesta’s 2006 film “The Legend of Time” and a winner at the San Sebastian Film Festival, “Between Two Waters” follows the lives of two young gypsy brothers in the San Fernando Island in the form of a documentary-fiction hybrid. The jury awarded Lacuesta’s ninth film “for its cinematographic power when exploring a social, political and racial reality through a strong link with the characters throughout time.”

Roberto Minervini’s intense documentary “What You Gonna Do When the World Is on Fire?” grabbed a best director award and a best actress honor for its non-professional star, Judy Hill, who was present at the festival. The film, which premiered in Venice, continues Minervini’s dissection of the American South and the everyday effects of racial and social inequality.

The Special Jury Award was shared by J. Salaviza and R. Nader Messora’s “The Dead and the Others” and Ivan Fund’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.”

With France honored as guest country, Mar del Plata welcomed several French personalities, including legendary Nouvelle Vague actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, art house filmmaker Léos Carax and popular comedian Pierre Richard, all of whom presented a selection of their most popular films and received lifetime achievement awards.

Gender inequality and government funding of culture were also issues at the event. While opinions criticizing the government’s cultural policies resonated during the fest’s opening and closing nights, the event, in its first year under new artistic director Cecilia Barrionuevo, took a stand for women’s rights in the film industry, organizing the first Film and Gender Perspective Forum, an area for collective reflection on gender inequalities in the world of cinema. The initiative included open debates with local film professionals and personalities including Lucrecia Martel (Zama) and Mercedes Moran (El Angel).

“Inequalities between men and women are very alive both in Argentina and in the rest of the world, and very strong things are happening in this regard,” said Barrionuevo.

“Thanks to the struggle of women throughout all of these years, we’ve built new spaces of visibility and construction. We at the festival want to take those spaces and transcend the typical roundtable about ‘women in cinema,’ going a little bit further and bring forward analysis and action strategies.”

The 33rd Mar del Plata International Film Festival ran from Nov. 10 to 17.

(SD-Agencies)