British Director Luna Carmoon’s ‘Hoard’ Scores Three Venice Critics’ Week Awards, ‘Malqueridas’ Takes Best Film

Nick Vivarelli
·1 min read

British director Luna Carmoon’s first feature “Hoard” has scored three prizes at the Venice Critics’ Week where the other standout title is Chilean documentary “Malqueridas.”

In “Hoard,” which is set in 1984 London, 7-year-old Maria and her mother live in their own loving world built on sorting through bins and collecting shiny rubbish. One night, their world falls apart, and the film joins Maria a decade later, living with her foster mother. An older stranger, Michael, then enters their home, opening the door to past trauma, magic and madness.

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“Hoard,” which is being sold by Alpha Violet, took the section’s two separate audience awards, plus a special mention for its protagonist, Saura Lightfoot Leon, who plays Maria when she is older.

Another special mention went to Greek-born French actor Ariane Labed for her role in French fashion stylist Adrien Beau‘s offbeat vampire movie “Le Vourdalak,” based on a Tolstoy novella.

Meanwhile “Malqueridas,” which is directed by Tana Gilbert – and was shot entirely on clandestine cell phones by the inmates of a women’s prison in Chile – scooped the prize for best film awarded by the section’s main jury as well as a “technical prize” awarded by another jury, which praised the film’s complex post-production process.

“Malqueridas,” which roughly translates as “the unloved,” provides a rare, if not unique, window into the prison lives of women, many of whom with children. In prison, they find affection in other partners who share their situation and forge a mutual support system. The doc is being sold by Vienna-based sales agent Square Eyes.

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