On Sunday 7 April, the closing night of the second Curaçao IFFR edition, the jury gave the first Yellow Robin Award to No quiero dormir sola (She Doesn’t Want to Sleep Alone) by Mexican filmmaker Natalia Beristáin. The award comes with a cash prize of $10,000 and a selection for the upcoming IFFR.

Curaçao IFFR 2013 counted 8,500 visitors to festival location The Cinemas in Willemstad. Organizer Fundashon Bon Intenshon and co-organizor International Film Festival Rotterdam are extremely delighted with this large audience interest. The third edition of Curaçao IFFR will take place from 3 to 6 April 2014.

The Yellow Robin Award Competition, supporting talented filmmakers from the Caribbean, Mexico and the neighbouring Latin American countries, included five feature films selected by the regional partners of Curaçao IFFR: Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC), Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO), Bahamas Film & Television Commission and Morelia Film Festival of Mexico (FICM). The jury consisted of Rutger Wolfson (Director International Film Festival Rotterdam), David Pinedo (film critic and script advisor) and Bernadette Heiligers (text producer and public relations expert).

Yellow Robin Award winner No quiero dormir sola was selected for competition by Morelia Film Festival of Mexico, where it was distinguished as Best Film. The fiction feature debut by Natalia Beristáin is a restrained drama about loneliness, memories and family relationships. Thirty-something Amanda’s life changes dramatically when she has to care for her alcoholic grandmother. After a difficult beginning, the two women discover they have more in common than they thought.

In the young people’s competition Short Films, BIG Stories the Jury Prize for Best Fiction Film went to La Trinitaria Marchita by Elyse Isebia and Inez Loods; the Jury Prize for Best Music Video went to AnwarBeatz feat. Gilberto by Anwar Braaf, Gilberto Morishaw and Jordan Isenia. Both winning teams receive a cash prize of Nafl. 1,000. From these two winning short films, the festival visitors chose La Trinitaria Marchita as winner of the Audience Award 2013. The Audience Award consists of a fully paid trip to the 43rd IFFR (22 January – 2 February 2014) where the winning short film will be screened.

The second Curaçao IFFR screened 42 feature length and short films in multiplex The Cinemas in Willemstad. Along with the films, the festival, organized by Fundashon Bon Intenshon in collaboration with International Film Festival Rotterdam, offered Q&A sessions with attending filmmakers, a performance by the Dennis Aalse Youth Orchestra, workshops on filmmaking, the Magic Lantern exhibition and student screenings.