Narciso, Marcelo Martinessi’s drama about a rock’n’roll radio star found dead in 1959 Paraguay, has won best film in the international competition at Sanfic, the Santiago International Film Festival. The Chilean competition went to Monguen, a documentary by the doctor and filmmaker Antonio Caro Berezín, who died before he could finish it. The awards were presented on Saturday 7 November at the Teatro Oriente, according to the festival’s release, at the close of a 22nd edition overshadowed by the death of Sebastián Lelio the day before.
SANFIC Industria, the festival’s industry strand, had handed out its own prizes on the evening of 6 November. In its flagship showcase, the WIP Iberoamericano, two films took six of the nine awards. Armin Marchesini Weihmuller’s Las termas, from Argentina, won three of them, including the section’s only cash prize.
Key facts
- Festival: Sanfic 22, Santiago, Chile, 2–8 November 2026; festival awards 7 November, SANFIC Industria (15th edition) awards 6 November
- International competition, best film: Narciso (Marcelo Martinessi; Paraguay and six co-producing countries)
- Chilean competition, best film: Monguen (Antonio Caro Berezín); audience award: Latir (Patricio Loutit)
- FilmBunch-established: the WIP Iberoamericano offered $5,000 in cash, all of it to Las termas, and services valued at about $76,700, of which Las termas took $51,500, or 67%
- Attendance rose 10–15% to between 35,000 and 40,000, the festival told Variety
The feature winners
Narciso arrives in Santiago with a record. It premiered in the Berlinale’s Panorama in February, where it won the FIPRESCI prize, and in September the Paraguayan Film Academy chose it as the country’s entry for the 2027 international feature Oscar and the Goya for best Ibero-American film, according to its German co-producer, Pandora Film. Adapted from Guido Rodríguez Alcalá’s novel, it stars Diro Romero, with Nahuel Pérez Biscayart; La Babosa Cine produced it with partners in six countries, and Luxbox handles world sales.
Monguen, whose title means “life” in Mapudungun, follows Fresia, a young Pewenche woman who must leave her mountain community in Alto Biobío to give birth in the city. Caro drew on his years as a doctor at an intercultural maternity home in Santa Bárbara, in the Biobío region. The film was produced by his company, Lemuntu Producciones, and co-produced by Michel Toledo Veche of Tótem Producciones; Variety reports that the producer took over after Caro’s sudden death. Miradoc Estrenos will release it in cinemas and independent venues across Chile from Thursday 14 January 2027.
Paulina García was named best performer in the international competition for Neto Villalobos Brenes’s Love Is the Monster (Amor es el monstruo). She accepted while holding the Silver Bear she won at Berlin in 2013 for Lelio’s Gloria, the festival said. Lukas Dhont took best director for Coward, whose two leads shared a special mention. Thomas Woodroffe won the Chilean competition’s directing prize for his debut, Erratics (Bloques erráticos).
The works in progress
The WIP Iberoamericano is where Sanfic’s prize money sits, and most of it comes as services. Eight features in post-production competed this year, and four left with awards. Las termas, the first feature by a cinematographer turned director, follows two siblings in their eighties on a short break at a hot-springs hotel. Alongside Río Fundación’s $5,000, it won a grading, mastering and sound-design package that the post house Chemistry values at $50,000, and an advertising page from LatAm cinema valued at $1,500.
Yull Núñez’s El grito de Serankwa (The Cry of Serankwa), a Colombian eco-thriller set among the Indigenous communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, also won three: a score from MOWAT valued at $15,000, a release strategy and music supervision from Buenas Pelis and ScriptSounding, and a direct place in Málaga Work in Progress in 2027. Within days the distributor Cineplex had acquired Colombian and Latin American rights, Variety reported on 9 November.
The two Chilean winners shared the rest. Paula Leonvendagar’s Zambra análogo won a 5.1 sound mix from Yagán Films valued at CLP10m (about $10,200), and Fernando Lavanderos’s La hierba de los caminos took the Distrito Pacífico and Sudamerican Voices prizes. The organiser puts no value on those two prizes, the Málaga place or the Buenas Pelis package, so FilmBunch’s totals count only stated values.
The full list of winners
As announced by the festival and by SANFIC Industria.
International competition (jury: Daniela Ramírez, Mara Fortes, Ignacio Rey)
Best film: Narciso, Marcelo Martinessi (Paraguay, Uruguay, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, France)
Best director: Lukas Dhont, Coward (Belgium, France, Netherlands)
Special mention, direction: Diego Luna, Ceniza en la boca (Mexico, Spain)
Best performance: Paulina García, Love Is the Monster (Amor es el monstruo), Neto Villalobos Brenes (Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, Chile, Mexico)
Special mention, performance: Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, Coward
Chilean competition (jury: Alejandro Ugarte, Josué Méndez, Lucía Meik)
Best film: Monguen, Antonio Caro Berezín
Best director: Thomas Woodroffe, Erratics (Bloques erráticos) (Chile, France, Argentina)
Best performance: Sofía Paloma Gómez, Cuadro negro, Carolina Adriazola and José Luis Sepúlveda
National short film competition (jury: Julia Lübbert, Joana Nin, Jérôme Blesson)
Best short: Reina de Puerto, Ariel Amor
Special mentions: Ruidos molestos, Felipe Salinas Kraljevic; Que no te alcancen los lobos, Josefa Berenguela Araya
Audience award: Latir, Patricio Loutit (Chilean competition)
SANFIC Industria: WIP Iberoamericano
Río Fundación ($5,000 cash): Las termas
Chemistry (grading, digital masters and sound design, valued at $50,000): Las termas
LatAm cinema (advertising page, valued at $1,500): Las termas
Yagán Films (sound post-production with 5.1 mix, valued at CLP10m): Zambra análogo
Distrito Pacífico: La hierba de los caminos
Sudamerican Voices: La hierba de los caminos
Buenas Pelis and ScriptSounding (release strategy and music supervision): El grito de Serankwa
MOWAT (score, valued at $15,000): El grito de Serankwa
Málaga Work in Progress, MAFIZ 2027 (direct selection): El grito de Serankwa
SANFIC Industria: Santiago LAB, fiction and documentary
EGEDA Chile ($3,000 for development and international circulation): Piel
Syncro, fiction (music supervision): Dedé
Syncro, documentary (music supervision): Crónica de Oblivion
Marketing Movie Runner (script clinic): La niña (fiction); La fragilidad de los cangrejos (documentary)
Música Pablo Mondragón: Donde las casas miran al sol; La niña; La fragilidad de los cangrejos
FIPCA–FORMA, fiction (specialisation grants): Los otros; Dedé; Partir y renunciar; Cachalote; La rueda de Chicago
FIPCA–FORMA, documentary (specialisation grants): La fragilidad de los cangrejos; Rebelión de la memoria; Carniceros de la belleza
OA (sound post-production): Bajo la cúpula
Cina Cina (residency in José Ignacio, Uruguay, 2027): La niña
Algo en Común (direct place at the 2027 Encuentro de Producción): Donde las casas miran al sol
Distrito Pacífico: Carniceros de la belleza
DocsMX (direct selection for DocsLab 2027): Antes de que mueras ahórrate tus ausencias
MAFF, Málaga Fund & Co-Production Event (direct selection, accreditation and accommodation): Los profesionales
Link: El último centro espacial
Industria FICG, Guadalajara (co-production meeting): La rueda de Chicago
We Are South (five documentary shooting days, valued at $5,000): Mi tía lesbiana me pena
SANFIC Industria: Series LAB
Conecta Fiction & Entertainment (market accreditation for two): Asistiré
Series Mania (market accreditation for two): La ira de las mariposas
SANFIC Industria: ODS LAB
TAL, the network of Latin American public and cultural broadcasters (follow-up and advice): El costo humano de los agrotóxicos; feature, Chemamul
SANFIC Industria: Series LAB and ODS LAB, joint prizes
FAM and ECM Lab (direct place at ECM Lab 2027): Los otros (ODS Lab)
FICCI Industria, Colombia (two premium accreditations): Asistiré
Suaya, Memelsdorff y Asoc. (legal advice): José Ignacio (Series Lab, Uruguay)
PULSAR Santa Fe (2027 accreditation): Los otros (ODS Lab); special mention, Los asuntos de Martín (Series Lab)
SANFIC Industria: Mórbido Lab
Mórbido co-production prize: Tonalli
Fantastic Pavilion Cannes: La anfitriona
Fantastic Pavilion Cannes, Round Robin participation: L4IK4
ScriptSounding (music composition and production): Chupacu
Marketing Movie Runner (script clinic): Maldición en primavera; La anfitriona
FIPCA–FORMA (specialisation grants): La anfitriona; L4IK4
SAPCINE, producers’ forum of the 2027 Cali Film Festival (direct selection): Tonalli
SANFIC Industria: Fantastic WIP
Sudamerican Voices: Viviendo con los muertos
Mórbido Fest (direct pass): Hiena
Mantícora Distribución MX: Ruta al sol
Fantastic Pavilion, Fantastic Gala: Ruta al sol
SoundLab (composition and production of one song): Extinción
LatAm cinema: Extinción
SANFIC Industria: Woman in Fan
Cartagena de Indias prize: Carnívora
SANFIC Industria: Incubadora Queer
FIPCA–FORMA (specialisation grants): Pulso; No culpes a la bestia; Lo que una chica siente; Un funeral fantástico; Decoración de interiores
Ventana Sur: Pulso
Books at Berlinale 2027 (direct selection to represent Chile, with accreditation, travel and accommodation): Bachelet; Las lloronas
SANFIC Industria career award: Mariana Rondón and Marité Ugás
Our reading
The top international prize went to a film the circuit already knew: Narciso came to Santiago with a Berlinale award and an Oscar submission behind it. The works in progress tell more about the market. In a section paid mostly in services, Las termas collected the only cash and the largest package, enough to cover much of a debut’s finishing costs. El grito de Serankwa left with a score, a launch plan, a Málaga slot and, within days, a regional distributor.
For Monguen, the prize matters most at home, where it opens in January through a release programme built for Chilean documentaries. The festival dedicated the rest of its week to Lelio, whose death on 6 November led it to cancel the red carpets at both closing ceremonies, Variety reported. Next in the region, Mar del Plata’s 41st edition names its winners when it closes on 15 November.
The Chilean peso value is converted at the mid-market rate on 9 November 2026 ($1 = CLP977). Dollar values for the other prizes are as stated by the organiser.
Sources
- Sanfic awards release with the full festival winners and juries, as published by El Mostrador, 8 November 2026 (Spanish)
- SANFIC Industria closing release with the full industry winners, as published by Aquí te dateamos, 7 November 2026 (Spanish)
- SANFIC Industria, prizes page (prize terms)
- SANFIC Industria catalogue pages (Las termas; El grito de Serankwa)
- Sanfic film page, Monguen
- Variety, Sanfic prizes report, 8 November 2026
- Variety, The Cry of Serankwa distribution deal, 9 November 2026
- El Ciudadano, Monguen premiere and Miradoc release, 3 November 2026 (Spanish)
- Pandora Film Produktion, Narciso film page and news (Berlinale FIPRESCI prize; Paraguay's Oscar entry)
- Luxbox, Narciso film page