Spanish Queer Drama ’Maspalomas’ Wins Top Prize at Sonoma Film Festival as Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Christophers’ Takes Audience Award

By Carole Horst

Carole Horst

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The 29th Sonoma Intl. Film Festival wrapped March 29 with Spanish film “Maspalomas” winning the Grand Jury Award for best narrative feature. In a statement, the jury noted that directors Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga’s film was “an authentic and rare depiction of an elder man confronting personal and physical crisis at the onset of the COVID pandemic” in this “nuanced and moving queer drama.”

Over five days, SIFF presented 104 films from 37 countries, mixed with filmmaker talks, panels (with guests including Barry Jenkins and Lulu Wang) and culinary pop-ups in the picturesque Northern California town. Filmmaker and artist Julian Schnabel was on hand to accept the Sonoma Intl. Film Festival Visionary Artist Award with a screening of his film “In the Hand of Dante,” with special guest Tom Waits.

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