At the 51st Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival held in the southern Spanish port city from November 14th to 22nd, Brazilian writer and director Anna Mouiraert’s “A Melhor Mãe do Mundo” won the Golden Columbus Award for Best Film.
With the world premiere of Berlinale Special and the strong festival run that followed, the win in Huelva cemented the Brazilian-Argentine drama as one of the year’s outstanding Ibero-American titles, helping to elevate the status of Muirato, who shot to fame with his 2015 film The Second Mother. The film won awards at both Sundance and Berlin, and has sold internationally as one of Latin America’s greatest arthouse breaks of the past decade.
The top prize capped an edition that festival director Manuel H. Martín claimed was one of Huelva’s strongest lineups in recent times, including not only the main competition but also Acento. Cine Español and Talento Andaluz are sidebars, further deepening the event’s role as a promotional platform for acclaimed Ibero-American titles seeking broader international exposure.
Combining social realism and emotional suspense, “The Best Mother in the World” is set on the streets and recycling warehouses of São Paulo and follows Gal (Shirley Crews), an underpaid waste collector who escapes from her abusive husband and tries to rebuild her life by pushing her two young children around town in a cart and framing her escape as an epic adventure.
Cruz’s performance was one of Huelva’s acting triumphs, winning him the Silver Columbus Award for Best Performance and cementing the production’s status as the edition’s major discovery.
“The Best Mother in the World” is being distributed worldwide by Galeria Distribuidra, which is also the film’s producer along with Brazil’s Bionica Films and Argentina’s Telefilms.
The jury split the honor in the acting category between Dominican actor Jean Cruz, London Spanish Film Festival director Joana Granero, and Nantes Spanish Film Festival president Pilar Martínez Vasseur, while Chilean actor Pedro Fontaine was also praised for his role as a doctor caught up in his brother’s case in Santiago Estevez’s Los Renacidos. A fake death scam that quickly sends two people on the run from a mob on a propulsive action-actor set against the backdrop of Mendoza’s imposing Andes mountains.
Bendita Film Sales Pickup
On the director side, Mexico’s Mayra Hermosillo won the Silver Columbus Award for Best Director for “Vainilla.” This work is an ensemble drama set in the 1980s that depicts several generations of women banding together to save their family home from foreclosure through the eyes of an 8-year-old girl.
Produced by Mexico’s Redrum and Huasteca Casa Cinematográfica, one of Mexico’s top players, and handled worldwide by Bendita Film Sales, the Huelva hit Venezia Giornate degli Autori’s title hit was the standout winner at last year’s Primer Corte Showcase in Ventana Sur.
Hermosillo’s ensemble female cast also won a Silver Columbus for Best Supporting Actor, underscoring Huelva’s growing focus on collective performance in front of the camera.
That focus on performance extended to the Special Jury Award, which went to “Nights in Caracas,” a Mexican-Venezuelan collaboration by Mariana Rondon and Marite Ugas, starring Natalia Reyes (“Terminator: The Fate”) and Edgar Ramírez (“American Crime Story”).
Adapted from the novel La hija de la española by Karina Sainz Borgo and internationally re-staged by CAA, the film, a Venice Spotlight and Toronto selection, centers on a woman whose life was shattered by the 2017 Caracas riots, offering a devastating depiction of everyday resistance amid political and social collapse in Venezuela.
The Audience Award went to Alejandro Zuno’s Mexican feature film “Un mundo para mí.” The film, sold internationally under the English title Newborn and represented by Madrid-based Feel Sales, follows a young couple who are forced to confront familial, medical and social prejudices after the birth of an intersex baby. It also won the Manuel Barba Screenplay Award and the Queer Camilo 2025 Award.
parallel prizes
Parallel prizes further widened the scope of the official contest. Lucia Garibaldi’s Un futuro brillante, a Uruguayan-Argentine-German sci-fi retro-futurist fable recreated by Montevideo-based Compaña de Cine, won the Ibero-American Press Award from PIC members, while Tomás Corredor’s Toronto premiere, Un futuro brillante, was set almost entirely in wartime toilets. The 1985 Siege of the Palace of Justice in Colombia was distributed internationally by Elva McAllister’s Cineplex USA and received a special award from the same jury and the Casa de Iberoamerica Award.
Huelva’s Spanish Film Showcase also has a strong lineup. The Acento Award is given to the best Spanish coach, decided by audience voting at the Acento. In the Cine Español series, the Movistar Plus+ original “Los tigres” was directed by Alberto Rodriguez. The film follows a brother and sister, two industrial divers working in the port of Huelva, as the older brother senses his diving days are over and steals a drop of cocaine in order to build a future.
“Los Tigres,” written by Rafael Cobos and Rodriguez, who captivated Spain with the television series “Anatomy of a Moment,” has the weight of straight action. However, this work contains the social commentary that is characteristic of its creator. A casual conversation with other divers about why they steal cocaine in the first place – Antonio has no expectation of a pension after a lifetime of diving – exposes the precariousness of this profession, like much of Spain’s gray economy.
In the Talent Andaluz sidebar, Huelva-born filmmaker Paco Ortiz was awarded the Juan Ramón Jiménez Award for his documentary “Antonio, el bailarín de España” about the legendary dancer and choreographer Antonio Luis Soler.
Looking ahead, organizers used the closing night to finalize Huelva’s place on the Ibero-American calendar. The 52nd Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival will be held from November 13 to 21, 2026.
