João Gonzalez’s short film Ice Merchants, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week, has won the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for short film.
Ice Merchants was one of ten (mostly live action) shorts selected to compete, and the first-ever Portuguese animated film to win an award at Cannes. In addition the honorific, the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize comes with a €4,000 ($4,300) purse.
In the film, a father teaches his son the ways of collecting and transporting ice from their cabin on the edge of a cliff to a village far below them. Although the two share a close relationship, it’s clear from early on that there is a past trauma looming over the cliff-dwelling pair, emphasized by the film’s spare yet impactful color palette.