This year, the Yellow Robin Award was presented to the extraordinary feature film debut of Alexandra Henao, ‘Mi tia Gilma’. Set on the brink of a revolution, the film intimately portrays the love and care between a girl and her aunt who is hospitalized due to domestic violence.
“The film features two strong female roles and an impressive combination of staged and covertly shot footage,” the jury stated. They continued, “The magical realist elements add an extra dimension to the film, serving as a beautiful metaphor for a country that is itself on life support.”
In addition to the award, ‘Mi tia Gilma’ received a cash prize of $5,000 and will also be showcased at the Morelia Film Festival in Mexico and Film by the Sea in the Netherlands.
Due to the high quality of the films nominated for the Yellow Robin Award, it was challenging to select a winner. Therefore, a special mention was given to ‘Memento Mori’ by Fernando Lopez Cardona. The jury, consisting of Jan Doense, director of Film by the Sea; Ailsa Anastatia, an established artist in Curaçao; and Sinuhe Oomen, a professional in culture and design and government counsel for the creative industry in Curaçao, was impressed by the film’s complex narrative structure that poetically interweaves various realities.