Diego Luna and Alfredo Castro, awarded at the closing ceremony of the Guadalajara Film Festival

Actors Diego Luna and Alfredo Castro received tributes for their careers at the closing of the 39th edition of the Guadalajara International Film Festival (western Mexico), in a ceremony marked by political speeches against the governments of Israel and Argentina.

Upon receiving the Mayahuel Silver Award for his career as an actor, director and producer, Mexican Diego Luna said that the film community in his country has made him keep his feet on the ground to advance in his international career.
He recalled the importance of cinema to show diversity in a polarized world.

“At this moment in which we are living, where the world is experiencing brutal polarization and it seems that there is no room for nuances, a festival like the one in Guadalajara shows us that yes, we can have different beliefs or political commitments,” he declared. .

Request for peace from Guadalajara

The Chilean actor Alfredo Castro received the Ibero-American Mayahuel Tribute with the demand for peace for the Palestinian people and the repudiation of what he described as genocide by Israel.

“I cannot help but express my repudiation of the genocide of the Israeli Army against the Palestinian people. (…) In front of you I ask for humanity, respect and peace for the Palestinian people,” he expressed, provoking applause from the public.

‘Pedágio’, winner of the festival

During the closing gala, the Brazilian film ‘Pedágio’, by director Carolina Markowicz, was the biggest winner of the festival, taking home the awards for Best Ibero-American Fiction Feature Film, Best Performance for actress Maeve Jinkings, and the Maguey for Best Film on Sexual Diversity.

The award for Best Ibero-American Documentary Feature Film went to the Chilean film ‘The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine’, by director Alfredo Pourailly, who also won the Prize from the Federation of Image and Sound Schools of Latin America.

The awards section for Ibero-American cinema included speeches rejecting the anti-cinema policies of the Argentine president, Javier Milei, and a poster with the legend ‘Fuera Milei’.

The Mezcal Award for Best Mexican Film went to the fiction ‘They will not move us’, by director Pierre Saint-Martin, who also won the Audience Award.

The festival lowered the curtain with the screening of the film ‘Kind of Kindness’, by director Yorgos Lanthimos, in a premiere for Mexico.

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