Merry Christmas (or whatever you're celebrating) and best wishes for 2013. The entire team of Pablo's Winter would like to thank you for supporting the film – and with your help, we can bring it to many more people next year.  If you like, you could make a donation to help get the film out there, or you could host a screening, or share the trailer with your friends – or, for now, just share our Christmas clip below. ¡Feliz Navidad!

When I watched Pablo’s Winter on the big screen at DOK Leipzig for the first time, I felt that it was exactly at that moment that a new project should start for me. The director-film cord had finally cut, and the immortalised seventy-year-old Pablo could now explore the world without my direction. We will still have to look after the creature, taking it to places where the film could meet other films and other audiences, where it could grow. But what about the father-director now?

Beyond good and responsible fathers, who can be a bit flat for writing purposes, annoying fathers can take many shapes. There are those who are so busy with work that don’t even have the time to phone their sons for their birthdays. On the other end of the scale, you find those fathers who are such control freaks that always need to have their sons by their sides, at their feet, like a dog by the fireplace… I'd rather be a good father, but I have to say that I recognize myself as both types of bad father when it comes to my own film-creatures. I have been terribly ungrateful to some films that I have made, leaving them behind, burying them in a messy desk until dust consumes them, without showing them to anyone. They had defects, or were not very pretty. I almost denied paternity and went instead onto trying to make prettier ones. I treated another films like dogs by the fireplace, admiring my good work in a dressing gown and sleepers, but without really giving them a life of their own. Now I want to be a father again! Hopefully, I might learn from my previous mistakes. 

At IDFA in Amsterdam, the world's largest documentary festival, Pablo's Winter by Chico Pereira just won the award in the IDFA Competition for Student Documentary.

Just three weeks earlier, Pablo's Winter won an award plus an honourable mention at DOK Leipzig where it had its world premiere.

The film was made at Screen Academy Scotland at Edinburgh Napier University, supported by Creative Scotland, and is exec-produced and distributed by Scottish Documentary Institute.

Congratulations to Chico and the entire crew! And a big thank you to IDFA for a wonderful festival.

Here's what the jury had to say on the film:

Last night in Amsterdam, Pablo's Winter was announced as one of three films nominated for Best Student Documentary at IDFA, the largest documentary festival in the world (video here).

We'd like to share this question & answer session with director Chico Pereira which followed the first screening of his film at IDFA.

We'd just like to share the synopsis of PABLO'S WINTER written by IDFA staff for their festival catalogue, as we really like it... 

In Pablo's mind, "The more you listen to doctors, the sooner you die."

Pablo is a grumpy septua-genarian who believes he is now living on borrowed time after suffering several heart attacks, so he pays no heed to the well-intentioned advice of his doctor and family. Filmed in the Spanish town of Almadén, Pablo's Winter looks like a polished art house film in terms of image and structure.