Category: Screenplay

Rugna, Demián

Nominations:

When Evil Lurks (Machaco Films, Aramos Cine, Shudder), Screenplay, 2023

BIO: Writer and director specialized in Fantastic & Horror films. His film When Evil Lurks, chosen as the best horror film of 2023, was the first Latin American film to win the Sitges festival.

He was born on September 13, 1979 in Haedo, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. At eight years of age, he begins to create his own comic books recreating his favorite movies. This leads him, several years later, to study comic drawings with Horacio Lalia, from whom he learns to visually capture his stories. In 2003, he received his “audiovisual design” at the University of Morón.

In 2005, and after making numerous short films within the horror genre, he wrote the original screenplay for the movie “Death Know Your Name”. In 2007 he directed his first feature film, based on one of his homonymous short films “The Last Gateway“, chosen one of the 10 best horror films of 2007 by the site buried.com) In 2008 he wrote the original script of “They Want my Eyes.” His second film as a director was “Malditos Sean!“, Co-written and co-directed with Fabián Forte; It was released commercially in national halls in the year 2013.

Then there will be a series of short films including “El Mate Amargo” winner of several awards and chosen one of the 3 best short films of the year at the INCAA Short Film Night.His third feature film: “You do not know who you’re talking“ is a black comedy that parodies fantastic movies. In 2017 he released his fourth film: Terrified, based on one of his first short films called “Tiene Miedo”.

In 2019, he showed the remake of his own movie “Terrified” under the production of Guillermo Del Toro for Searchlinght pictures, a project that had to be postponed due to the pandemic.

In 2022 Rugna participates in the “Satanic Hispanics” project, an anthology of horror stories by various Latin American directors, with his story called “I also saw it” and he shot shoots his 5th feature film entitled “When Evil Lurks”   which he won best movie in Sitges film festival and it was elected as the best horror movie of 2023 by rotten tomatoes site)

Castillo, Abia

Nominations:

Huesera: The Bone Woman (Disruptiva Films, Machete Producciones, MalignoGorehouse), Screenplay, 2023

BIO: Writer. She was born in 1983 in Mexico City. At her home there were not many books, so since she was a child, she dedicated herself to writing and drawing her own. Years later she studied Creative Writing at the SOGEM Writers School and Film and TV Screenwriting at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC).

She wrote with director Michelle Garza Cervera the feature film Huesera, a film that since its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022 has won more than thirty awards around the world, including the Nora Ephron Award at the Tribeca Film Festival -for female screenwriters- and the Ariel Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2023, granted by the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She has received awards from the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (IMCINE), the IBERMEDIA Program and the Bolivian Ministry of Cultures, among other institutions.

She has worked in the development of TV projects, teaching, animation and editorial writing: the essay Even the wind is afraid, who misbehaves? (Femmes Fatales: 13 female writers speak about horror films. Samsara Editorial and Festival Internacional de Cine Macabro. 2011), the article Yellowjackets. Voracious friends (Revista LENGUA. Penguin Random House. 2023) and the novel My lips will not be closed (Penguin Random House. 2021).

She also co-wrote with Garza Cervera The hand (a TV episode included in the anthology La hora marcada. VIX+ 2023), as well as the feature films Palizada and That summer in the dark -the latter an adaptation of the short story by Mariana Enríquez- (both in pre-production). She is currently working on feature films and collaborating on a television series for Amazon Prime.