Mexican Oscars: Duck Season with Diego Cataño, Daniel Miranda & Enrique Arreola. Fernando Eimbcke’s feature debut – a black-and-white comedy-drama about four people spending a dark night in a Mexico City apartment – was the Ariel Awards’ big winner.- “Mexican Oscars” sweep: Written and directed by feature film newcomer Fernando Eimbcke, the four-character, black-and-white comedy-drama Duck Season was the big winner at this year’s Ariel Awards, scoring a total of 11 trophies.
- Luis Mandoki’s El Salvador Civil War drama Innocent Voices was the Mexican Oscars’ runner-up, with three wins.
Fernando Eimbcke’s feature film debut Duck Season has won 11 ‘Mexican Oscars’
Writer-director Fernando Eimbcke’s feature film debut, Duck Season / Temporada de patos, about a couple of adolescent friends and two strangers spending one long (black-and-white) Sunday’s journey into … something, swept the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2005 Ariel Awards – a.k.a. the “Mexican Oscars” – held on March 29 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
Duck Season topped a total of 11 categories, including Best Film, Best First Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Enrique Arreola), Best Actress (Danny Perea), and Best Original Screenplay. Last November, Duck Season was the Grand Jury Prize winner at Los Angeles’ AFI FEST.
The recipient of three Ariel statuettes (Best Supporting Actress for Ofelia Medina, Best Special Effects, and Best Makeup), Luis Mandoki’s Salvadoran Civil War-set Innocent Voices / Voces inocentes was Mexico’s submission for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Below is the full list of this year’s Ariel Award winners and a partial list of nominees.
Ariel Awards: Winners & nominations
Film
Manos libres.
* Duck Season.
Innocent Voices.Iberian/Iberoamerican Film
Machuca (Chile).
Take My Eyes / Te doy mis ojos (Spain).
* Whisky (Uruguay).Direction
José Buil – Manos libres.
* Fernando Eimbcke – Duck Season.
Luis Mandoki – Innocent Voices.Actor
Silverio Palacios – Cero y van cuatro.
Alejandro Calva – Manos libres.
* Enrique Arreola – Duck Season.Actress
Ana Paula Corpus – Manos libres.
* Danny Perea – Duck Season.
Leonor Varela – Innocent Voices.
Vanessa Bauche – Digna… hasta el último aliento.Supporting Actor
* Carlos Cobos – Conejo en la luna.
Raúl Méndez – Matando Cabos.
Joaquín Cosío – Matando Cabos.Supporting Actress
Yuriria del Valle – Manos libres.
Paloma Woolrich – Santos peregrinos.
* Ofelia Medina – Innocent Voices.Original Screenplay
Iván Ávila Dueñas – Adán y Eva (Todavía).
Jorge Ramírez-Suárez – Conejo en la luna.
José Buil – Manos libres.
* Fernando Eimbcke – Duck Season.Adapted Screenplay (only one nominee)
* María Elena Velasco, Iván Lipkies & Ivette Lipkies – Huapango.First Film
Adán y Eva (Todavía), dir.: Iván Ávila Dueñas.
* Duck Season.
Santos peregrinos, dir.: Juan Carlos Carrasco.Cinematography
Alejandro Cantú & Ciro Cabello – Adán y Eva (Todavía).
* Alexis Zabé – Duck Season.
Juan Ruiz Anchía – Innocent Voices.Editing
Alberto de Toro – Matando Cabos.
* Mariana Rodríguez – Duck Season.
Aleshka Ferrero – Innocent Voices.Music
* Alejandro Rosso & Liquits – Duck Season.
Eduardo Gamboa – Rabbit on the Moon / Conejo en la luna.
Rosino Serrano – Adán y Eva (Todavía).Art Direction
* Diana Quiroz & Luisa Guala – Duck Season.
Ivonne Fuentes – Adán y Eva (Todavía).
Antonio Muño-Hierro – Innocent Voices.Costume Design
* Junior Paulino & Lourdes del Vale – Adán y Eva (Todavía).
Lissi De la Concha – Duck Season.
Alejandra Dorantes – Manos libres.Documentary Feature
* Digna… hasta el último suspiro, dir.: Felipe Cazals.
Los niños de Morelia, dir.: Juan Pablo Villaseñor.
Trópico de cáncer, dir.: Eugenio Polgovsky.First Work – Documentary
* Trópico de cáncer.
Milagros concedidos, dir.: Luciana Kaplan.
Tales from the Inside / Relatos desde el encierro, dir.: Guadalupe Miranda.Sound: Duck Season.
Special Effects: Innocent Voices.
Makeup: Innocent Voices.
Documentary Short: Soy, dir.: Lucía Gajá.
Animated Short Film: De raíz, dir.: Carlos Carrera.
Short Narrative Film: The Trip / Un viage, dir.: Gabriela Monroy.
Golden Ariel: Carmen Montejo & Julio Pliego.
“Mexican Oscars” endnotes
‘Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.
Image of Diego Cataño, Daniel Miranda, and Enrique Arreola in Fernando Eimbcke’s feature debut Duck Season: CinePantera.
“Mexican Oscars: Low-Key Feature Debut Sweeps Ariel Awards” last updated in September 2021.