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:

"A special and complex character study of an ageing man, his wife and the village they live in. One can only admire the strong cinematic and dignified approach the director uses to tell the story. The protagonists are at ease with the filmmaker and his camera. The film captures moments of beautiful reality and genuine grace. Things you find rarely in documentaries. The filmmaker manages to intertwine the story of Pablo and his wife with the history of their village and family. He makes us remember the past. This resolves in a beautifully structured, mature story in which sadness is always shown with dignity and respect.

"The jury congratulates Chico Pereira and his crew on a beautiful, cinematic, intelligent and truly special documentary." (Source: IDFA)

Scottish Documentary Institute's Finlay Pretsell commented: 

"We're thrilled that Pablo's Winter won the Student Award at IDFA – the film has a bold matureness seldom seen in this kind of category. As soon as we saw a 20-minute edit at one of our rough cut screenings we hold annually during the Edinburgh Pitch we knew the film was totally unique and special – it deserved a large audience. We couldn't help but get involved in shaping the final piece."