That’s a Wrap on Pendance 2024 as the Accident Takes Top Prize
L’Indidente (Italy) by Giuseppe Garau grabs the Best Feature Film Award while Santiago Requaejo’s powerful drama 24/Siete becomes the fourth Spanish-language short film in seven years to win Best Short Film.
Una Gunyak is awarded Best Director for her powerful directorial debut, Excursion, and Montreal’s Victor Saucier-Magistry takes home Best Canadian Short Film honours for Jester’s Flamin Hot Mac n Cheese.
THE ACCIDENT & JESTER’S FLAMIN HOT MAC N CHEESE
On the surface, L’Incidente and Jester’s Flamin Hot Mac n Cheese are polar opposites. One film follows a female tow truck driver through the underworld of Italy, is shot on film, and features a slow-burn pace where the camera is locked off to almost exclusively focussing on the character’s profile.
The other is infused with snappy editing, quick witted zingers, a frenetic pace and action-packed-sequences as a young man falls into a series of situations, each more unrealistic than the last. However, at their core, they’re quite similar. They’re both comedies following extremely likeable and well-written characters as they descend into a world beyond their scope or understanding. There are a thousand ways to tell a story and these were two of our favourite films in Pendance history.
24/SEVEN WINS BEST SHORT FILM
Spanish films seem to dominate the awards at Pendance. From Emma (2017) to Cerdita (2019) to Tundra (2022), from Uruguay to Spain to Cuba, there seems to be a strong support from Spanish filmmakers towards Pendance, and 24/Siete may well be one of the best short films in our seven-year history.
Featuring an excellent and heart-breaking script to commanding performances from Manuela Veslasco and Ramon Barea, this film left the audience stunned and speechless. It headlined one of our strongest international shorts competitions ever, featuring Paris 70, Linda 4-Eva, Roped, and the chilling Serbian drama 5/3/0/
UNA GUNYAK WINS BEST DIRECTOR FOR EXCURSION
We started our tradition of Best Director awards in our first edition with Qiu Yang, and then Peter Brunner in 2019 for To the Night. in 2021. Sabrina Doyle took home the prize for Lorelei and most recently Laura Lehmus won the award for her comedy Sweet Disaster . It’s an award we give to a director whose vision and presence most elevated the project.
In introducing the film, festival director Robert Misovic called Una Gunyak one of the most important emerging directors in the world. And to that end we see no one more clearly deserving of our 2024 Best Director award than Una Gunyak for Excursion.