Escalante; Amat

A self taught filmmaker, he spent the first years of his life in Guanajuato, Mexico, and began working in film at 15 years old. His work has been presented at numerous film festivals around the world, including four editions of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). He made his debut as a filmmaker with his short fiction film Amarrados (2002), presented at the 10th FICM in the special series “Ten Years of Mantarraya.” His first feature film Sangre (2005) premiered at the 3rd FICM and won, among other awards, the FIPRESCI Prize at the 58th Cannes Film Festival, France, in the “Un Certain Regard” section, and the Silver Alexander Award at the 46th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), Greece. He worked as a director’s assistant on the second feature film by Carlos Reygadas, Batalla en el cielo (2005), which won the Best Picture, Best Photography and Critics’ Award at the 9th Film Festival of Lima PUCP, Peru; Best Picture at the 11th Festivalíssimo, the Latin American Film Festival of Montreal, Canada; and the Screen International Award at the 17th European Film Awards Ceremony by the European Film Academy (EFA). He participated in the 61st Cannes Film Festival with his second feature film, Los bastardos (2008), which won the Best Mexican Feature Film Award at the 6th FICM; the Student Jury Award for Best Picture and Best Director at the 10th International Film Festival Bratislava (IFF Bratislava), Slovak Republic; and the Second International Critics Award at the 12th Film Festival of Lima PUCP, Peru, among others. He participated in the 8th FICM with his short film El cura Nicolás colgado in the collective work Revolución (2010), that was also presented at the 49th Critics’ Week, Cannes, and that won the Abrazo award for Best Feature Film and the French Union of Film Critics Award at the 19th Biarritz Festival of Latin American Cinema and Cultures, France. His third feature film Heli (2013) won the Best Director Award at the 66th Cannes Film Festival; the ARRI/OSRAM Award for Best Foreign Film at the 31st Munich Film Festival, Germany; Best Director Award at the 56th Ariel Awards Ceremony, Mexico; and the Cine Latino Award at the 24th Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF), California, among others. Heli was shown at a special screening at the 11th FICM, where Amat Escalante received the Tradicional Cuervo Award for Best Director of the Year 2013.