Last Saturday, July 9, was the prize-giving ceremony  of the 20th International Festival for Children and Youths, Divercine 2011, in Montevideo.

The International Jury conformed by Aldana Duhalde (Argentina), Alejandro Rojas (Chile) and María Angélica dos Santos (Brazil), with broad consensus gave the following awards and special mentions:

GURÍ Grand Award: “Luminaris”, Argentina, from Juan Pablo Zaramella, because the originality of the idea much complicated to be narrated, the coherent script and its perfect performance; for its universal target and fitting art direction, that ends in a film with strong personality. 

Cultural Diversity Award :“Imagina una niña con cabellos de Brasil” (Imagine uma menina com cabelos de Brasil), Brazil, from Alexandre Bersot, called ANTEL Award.

UNICEF Award to the Best Film that promotes the Rights of the Child: “Mi familia”, Argentina/Uruguay, from Walter Tournier.

Opera Prima Award: “La formación de nubes” (La formation des nuages), Canadá, from Marie-Hélène Turcotte.

Best Uruguayan Production: “Ana la rana”, Uruguay, from Diego Fernández, consisted in $U 25.000 and called ICAU Award.

Best Fiction Film:  “Los cocodrilos II” (Vorstadt Krokodile 2), Germany, from Christian Ditter.

Best Fiction Short Film: “En un periquete” (In a Heartbeat), Iceland, from Karolina Lewincka .

Best Animation Short Film: “El grandote”, Bolivia, from Jesús Pérez.

Animation Short Film Special Mention:  “El camino de las gaviotas” (O camino das gaivotas), Brazil and Cuba, from Alexandre Rodríguez, Bárbaro Joel Ortiz, Daniel Herthel and Sergio Glenes .

The Plan DENI Kids Jury, conformed by kids from different institutions from Montevideo, gave the following award:

Best Divercine Short Film: “El grandote”, Bolivia, from Jesús Pérez.

The SIGNIS International Jury, Carla Lima, Anibal Capoano and Eva Sanabria gave the following award:

SIGNIS Grand Award: “Las aventuras de Don Quijote”, España, from Antonio Zurera.

Children´s Audience Award from the 20th Divercine, after counting the votes, the Award went to “El grandote”, Bolivia , from Jesús Pérez.

Divercine is very satisfied with this edition success, in Montevideo as well as in the other Divercine´s headquarters inside and outside the country, where 50.000 kids had the pleasure of attending the Festival. We have received many compliments and thanks but the challenge does´t end there, the responsibility of programing each year the best production for kids and youths is huge and it keeps us fit.  We wish to continue improving the Festival in future editions and that Divercine could become more than a quality films week but expand itself into more sceens for our children.