The Guadalajara International Film Festival announced its winners. The award for Best Ibero-American Short Film went to *Bodas de oro*, directed by Lorenzo Tocco, a senior in the Bachelor of Arts in Audiovisual Communication program.
The jury felt that *Bodas de oro* deserved the award “for being an effective comedy that makes effective use of the short-form format through an everyday story, and is very well directed, narrated, and acted.”
The story follows a married couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. The couple “hires a video production service to document the event and record testimonials from family and friends: their children, grandchildren, her friends, his friends…,” Tocco explained. “These people start talking a little too much and cause minor conflicts because the testimonials turn into confessions, so to speak. Dirty laundry starts coming out. That’s kind of the initial premise of the short film.”
Tocco wrote the first draft in 2015, submitted it to the National Film and Audiovisual Directorate (ICAU) for funding, and received an honorable mention. “That was great, but it didn’t cover the costs of filming, so we kept applying until we were awarded the grant in 2017.”
Basically, I was inspired by a whole host of personal situations—both within my own family and in others’—where the same thing always happened: a small action, a word spoken at the wrong moment, an out-of-place comment that ended up causing family chaos. It was about playing with that feeling that at those celebrations, where we all pretend to love each other and there’s a very fake, very hypocritical sense of harmony, what’s really at stake is survival—so the family can continue to exist peacefully. All of this is a lie, like a charade we put on to survive, but in reality we all hate someone—we have an uncle or an aunt we can’t stand, or a friend we hold a little grudge against because of something that happened in the past.
Laughter as the key
When they finished the short film, the director says, they set themselves certain goals regarding the biggest festivals. “And Guadalajara was like ‘the’ festival in Latin America,” he admits. “If we made the cut, great. If not, oh well.”
Being selected for the short film competition was a huge joy for the whole team: our number one goal achieved. And premiering in Guadalajara was amazing: being able to show it there felt like we’d more than achieved our goal.
He said he was nervous about the audience watching the short film, given that *Bodas de oro* is a comedy. “It can only work if people laugh. There’s no other way to look at it. And since comedy is very culture-specific and varies greatly from country to country, I was afraid that when we premiered it, people wouldn’t laugh at any of the jokes. That wouldn’t have been good, even though we were in Guadalajara.”
But that didn’t happen. Over the course of five screenings, the festival showed 39 short films. “We closed out Monday’s program. And people laughed—they really laughed. I’d shown it to my family and friends here in Uruguay, and the festival audience laughed a lot more than they did; after all, they probably felt they had to laugh out of politeness.”
Tocco says that, at that point, he was already “very satisfied; I didn’t need anything else.” During the Q&A session with the audience, questions focused on the technical aspects of the short film, in addition to praise for the performances and the screenplay. “That’s it—what more could I want? I couldn’t ask for anything more…”
Golden Anniversary (The Anniversary) - TRAILER by Lorenzo Tocco on Vimeo.
“When we win…”
Since writing the script, Tocco said the short film was conceived with the actors as the central focus: “The emphasis and weight were placed on the acting.” In that regard, he noted that “what people appreciate most is the narrative, the direction, and the actors’ performances.”
Tocco and the production company used to joke about what would happen if they won the award. “Just for fun, when we win…,” he says, while acknowledging that it wasn’t part of the plan.
There were 39 short films: one had won a Goya in Spain, another was directed by a five-time Goya nominee, a Mexican film featured two Netflix actors—one from *La casa de las flores* —and an actress with about half a million followers on Instagram. That same short film featured a computer-generated, animated dragon that was every bit as impressive as a dragon from *Game of Thrones*…
"The competition was very strong," the Uruguayan director emphasized. "Our goal was simply for the short film to work—for people to watch it and laugh. I never thought we'd win the award; it was a wonderful surprise."
In his acceptance speech at the festival, Tocco took the opportunity to acknowledge the support of his family and friends. Those closest to him, he said, are the ones who witness “the first and the worst things” he does—the things “that are hardest to watch.”
To study at ORT, Tocco entered the “Yo propongo” contest, which required submitting a short film. “When I was 16, I grabbed a standard Sony travel camera and made a suspense short film starring my sister.” In the end, he won a scholarship to study for a Bachelor’s degree in Communication with a focus on Audiovisual Media. “Basically, if my sister hadn’t acted in that short film, I wouldn’t have had a chance to even shoot it.”