'Monguen' and 'Narciso' Take Top Prizes at Sanfic as Festival Mourns Sebastián Lelio

Chile's Santiago Film Festival (Sanfic) named documentary "Monguen" Best Chilean Picture and Paraguay's "Narciso" Best International Feature at a pared-back closing ceremony on Nov. 8, days after the sudden death of Oscar-winning director Sebastián Lelio on Nov. 6.

Lelio, who won the Academy Award for "A Fantastic Woman," died as the festival was entering its final stretch. Organizers cancelled the red carpet portions of both the industry ceremony (Nov. 6) and the festival ceremony (Nov. 7). "We dedicate the rest of this festival to Sebastián," said festival director Carlos Nuñez and Sanfic Industria head Gabriela Sandoval.

"His films will remain as his legacy but his passing is incredibly painful, especially because he had been so close to the festival since its very beginning," Nuñez said. Lelio's family announced the Cineteca Nacional would open to mourners over the weekend. At the time of his death, Lelio was filming an adaptation of Alejandro Zambra's novel "Chilean Poet" for Fabula and pre-producing "Voyagers," with Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones.

Real life echoed Lelio's last film, the musical "The Wave" ("La ola"), about Chile's violent 2018 student protests: tear gas met panel participants outside a university, where students were protesting President Kast's education budget cuts and demanding the resignation of Justice Minister Fernando Rabat.

Who won the festival prizes?

Among nine Chilean films in competition, Best Picture went to "Monguen" by Antonio Caro — who, like Lelio, died suddenly during production, forcing his producer to finish the film. "It deals with a subject rarely addressed in Chilean cinema: Mapuche culture, the culture of the south and characters who don't often get represented on screen," Nuñez told Variety.

Thomas Woodroffe won Best Chilean Director for his debut "Erratics" ("Bloques erráticos"), featuring Denis Lavant as a filmmaker's ghost released from a glacier into futuristic Patagonia. "He's definitely a director to watch," said Nuñez. Sofía Paloma Gómez took Best Performance for "Black Corp," while a tearful Paulina García accepted the Best Actress award for "Love is the Monster," paying tribute to Lelio with the Berlin Silver Bear she won for his 2013 film "Gloria."

In international competition, Marcelo Martinessi's "Narciso" — the story of a Paraguayan LGBT rock star found dead at his peak, set during the Stroessner dictatorship — won Best Feature. "Martinessi is one of the most interesting filmmakers to emerge from Paraguay in recent years," Nuñez said. Lukas Dhont's "Coward" won Best Director, with a special mention for Diego Luna's "Ashes." Ariel Amor's "Reina de Puerto," about a 60-year-old trans woman in Valparaíso, won Best Short from 21 contenders.

What happened in the industry section?

Sanfic Industria handed out awards, mostly in kind, to over 100 participants. Armin Marchesini Weihmuller's "Hot Springs" — a portrait of Evangelina and her brother Luis, both over 80, at a hot springs spa — swept three WIP Iberoamericana prizes, including the only cash award. Yull Núñez's Indigenous eco-thriller "The Cry of Serankwa," set around a mining project in Colombia's highest mountains, also took three prizes.

Genre lab Mórbido split honors between "Tonalli" (folk horror in Mexico City's Tepito district), Roberto San Sebastián's "The Hostess," and "L4IK4," a stop-motion/pixilation odyssey from Chilean animator Simón Bucher.

Distributor Cineplex boarded two WIP titles: "La Residencia" by Mariel García Spooner (North and South American sales rights) and "The Cry of Serankwa" (Colombian and Latin American rights). "We immediately connected with the story of these three friends who, at a more mature stage of their lives, decide to reinvent themselves," said managing partner Diana Dudek.

A festival on the rise

Despite the grief, attendance rose 10%-15%, with final figures between 35,000 and 40,000. "It's been a very lively week... we've seen packed cinemas," said Nuñez.

Spain's Alex de la Iglesia presented his absurdist comedy "The Misunderstanding," his first shoot in Chile, starting Nov. 9 in Santiago for four weeks, starring Benjamín Vicuña. Industry panels pressed a harder question: how do films actually get made? "I'm not interested in being a cultural travel agent," said Grupo Mórbido's Pablo Guisa, while DocsMX's Arizbeth Becerril told the audience: "We don't have a fucking clue" what the algorithm wants. Sitges director general Mónica García argued festivals still offer what streaming can't: "Visibility and legitimacy."

With rising attendance, new distributor deals and a grieving but galvanized local scene, Sanfic closes as both a memorial to Lelio and a signal of Chilean cinema's momentum.