Madrid ECAM Forum Closes in Upbeat Mood, Gods of Stone, Estrella del Green Scoop Awards  

Under the auspices of Comunidad de Madrid and the prestigious ECAM film school, the four day ECAM Forum co-production market got off to a flying start with its inaugural session, closing June 13 with an awards ceremony at Madrid’s historical Matadero cultural space.

One of eight features in work in progress, the creative documentary “Gods of Stone” (“Deuses de Pedra”) by the Spanish Iván Castiñeiras Gallego scooped the new Comunidad de Madrid award and its €15,000 ($16,000) cash prize earmarked towards its post-production.

A trained cinematographer/filmmaker, graduate from ESTC in Lisbon, the Louis Lumiere School in Paris and ESCAC in Barcelona, Castiñeiras Gallego earned festival attention for his short docs “A raia” (2013) and “Where the Jungle Is” (2016).

Shot on 16mm, the Spain-Portugal-France co-production “Gods of Stone” is a non-linear compendium of stories portraying the way of life of a rural community located between Galicia and Portugal, on the oldest border in Europe. There, children’s stories merge with legends. Among the young people, Mariana grows up and aged 17, faces the decision to abandon her village and family to study abroad.

“The film we want to award tries to capture the essence of a timeless place and its people through a poetic and sincere gaze,” said the jury about the documentary produced by Spain’s Amateurfilms, with France’s  Promenon-nous dans les Bois and…