The Montreal Film Festival, held from 21 August to 1 September, has awarded the Audience Award to the film Rastres de sàndal (Traces of Sandalwood) by the Catalan film-maker Maria Ripoll, in the Focus on World Cinema section. The film, based on the novel of the same name by Anna Soler-Pont and Asha Miró, started to be filmed last year and will not be premiered officially until October, as part of the official selection of the 59th Semici in Valladolid.

The TV3 series Descalç sobre la terra vermella (Barefoot on Red Soil) has also been acclaimed beyond Catalan borders. In this case, the 9th Seoul International Drama Award gave it the Golden Bird Prize to the best TV film and the prize for best screenplay, the two categories for which Oriol Ferrer’s film was nominated. The miniseries is a co-production of Minoria Absoluta, Televisió de Catalunya, Raiz Produçoes, Televisión Española and TV Brasil and is based on the book of the same name by Francesc Escribano.