Peruvian filmmaker Javier Corcuera's documentary "Uyariy" won the award for best film in the Latin American competition and the award for best sound at the Festival de Cine de Tucumán in Argentina. The festival ran from late July into early August this year.
The double win adds to a growing list of honors for the documentary. Earlier this year, "Uyariy" was named best Peruvian film of 2025 by Apreci, the Peruvian association of film critics.
The film takes its title from a Quechua word meaning "listen." It focuses on the Juliaca massacre, which took place on January 9, 2023, in southern Peru. The Tucumán award shows that the subject resonates beyond Peru's own borders, and the festival's recognition of the film's sound design highlighted one of the project's central elements: its music.
What the jury said
According to fragments of the jury's citation reproduced by the source, the panel described "Uyariy" as a film of enormous testimonial value that engages with Latin America's present, holding up listening and empathy as essential practices for the collective defense of territory. The jury said that from its title alone, in Quechua, the film issues an explicit and unavoidable invitation to listen, drawing viewers into a sound and social world impossible to remain indifferent to.
The jury said that with clear political and narrative commitment, the film becomes a vehicle of popular resistance against a system of power that has historically sought, and continues to seek, to silence it. It said "Uyariy" spreads like a cry for justice that makes itself heard, adding, in the jury's words, that as Argentine director Lucrecia Martel has said, one cannot close one's ears.
Sound and testimony
The jury said the documentary's value lies first in the courage and commitment of its team in recording events in the middle of the violence itself, producing what it called a key document for historical memory. It said the sound design captures the fortitude of the testimonies with sensitivity, weaving in atmospheric elements as the story requires.
The jury also praised the harmonious integration of popular music as a narrative language, describing the film's treatment of the pulse of the struggle, the experience of grief, the vastness of the altiplano's silences, the rootedness carried by the Quechua language, and the living presence of the surrounding environment. It called "Uyariy" an indispensable testimonial and identity-driven work of sound in the contemporary landscape.
Peruvian cinema under pressure
The recognition adds to a string of awards Peruvian cinema has collected in recent years. A film law passed by Congress during the previous five-year legislative period has sought to curb regional production by reducing state financing, according to the source. Despite that, the quality of Peruvian film continues to draw both aesthetic admiration and considerable public debate, a dynamic the source says "Uyariy" itself exemplifies.
