# Tatiana Huezo

Tatiana Huezo Sánchez (Latin American Spanish:; born 9 January 1972) is a film director of Salvadoran and Mexican nationality, residing in Mexico. Her first film, El lugar más pequeño [es] (2011), a documentary about the Salvadoran Civil War, has been awarded internationally. In 2016 she premiered Tempestad, the story of two women who suffer the consequences of human trafficking in Mexico. It received the 2016 Fénix Award for Best Documentary. In 2021, she premiered her first fiction film, Noche de Fuego, a story about three young girls in Mexico on their path to examine their adolescence in a town dominated by drug trade and human trafficking.

## Career

Born in El Salvador, Tatiana Huezo has lived in Mexico since she was four years old. She graduated from the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC), where she has since taught classes. In 2004 she completed a master's degree in creative documentary at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
After her first attempts—short films such as Arido (1992), Tiempo cáustico (1997), Familia (2004) or Sueño (2005)—she gained international renown with her first feature-length film, El lugar más pequeño (2011), presented as an international premiere at Visions du Réel in 2011 where it won the Grand Prix for the Best Feature-length Film. Her documentary, El lugar más pequeño is a testimony to the experience of the civil war in El Salvador. It has received numerous awards and has been exhibited at more than 50 festivals around the world.
In 2015 Huezo presented Ausencias, a 27-minute short film that recounts the pain of Lulu, a mother who loses her husband and son, who have disappeared due to organized crime.
In her work, she has portrayed the impunity of people before justice and institutions, humanizing the victims. About Tempestad, Huezo said:
   Against the vomit of figures, images, and discourses that make the victims invisible, turning them into numbers, it seems essential to return to the faces, to the intimate gesture, to their history and complexity, to return to people, to their dreams, pains and hopes. Maybe then from there we can return to empathy, to the capacity to move us.
Tempestad, which received the 2016 Fénix Award for Best Documentary, tells the true story of Mexican women Miryam Carvajal – who spent almost a year incarcerated in Matamoros prison, accused of human trafficking, a crime she did not commit – and Aldela Alvarado, who is looking for her missing daughter. "What happens in Mexico is close to the civil war that is taking place in Central America," explains Huezo.
   The mechanisms of terror [in El Salvador] are very similar to those that currently occur in Mexico. [...] We have begun to see corpses without heads, the development of femicide on the border with the United States. [...] Unfortunately in Latin America we find widespread corruption, and impunity continues to be exercised on the basis of profound economic inequality among people.
In 2021, after many years of focusing her craft on documentaries, Huezo premiered her first fiction feature, Noche de Fuego (2021). In a mountain town in Mexico, Ana, Paula and Maria live a childhood that oscillates between idyllic and dreadful, as they reach adolescence, they are faced with the growing pains of womanhood, and a threatening and cruel environment.
   Huezo, born in El Salvador and raised in Mexico, had already been researching the area for a documentary she’d been developing, so in the end it seemed like the perfect opportunity to step into fiction filmmaking, after a career made from award-winning socially committed documentaries.
This film was based on the Jennifer Clement novel, Prayers for the Stolen (2012). It premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and has received critical acclaim for its powerful storytelling and cinematography.

## Filmography

* Arido - 1992
* Tiempo cáustico - 1997
* El ombligo del mundo - 2001
* Familia - 2004
* Sueño - 2005
* The Tiniest Place (El lugar más pequeño) - 2011
* Ausencias - 2015
* The Empty Classroom (El aula vacia) - 2015
* Tempestad - 2016
* Prayers for the Stolen (Noche de fuego) - 2021
* The Echo (El Eco) - 2023

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 2011 | Ariel Awards | Best Documentary Feature | El lugar más pequeño | Won |
| 2011 | Ariel Awards | Best First Work | El lugar más pequeño | Nominated |
| 2011 | Mar del Plata International Film Festival | FIPRESCI Award - Special Mention | El lugar más pequeño | Won |
| 2011 | Mar del Plata International Film Festival | Best Latin-American Film | El lugar más pequeño | Nominated |
| 2012 | Cinema Eye Honors | Spotlight Award | El lugar más pequeño | Won |
| 2016 | Ariel Awards | Best Documentary Short | Ausencias | Won |
| 2016 | Fénix Awards | Best Documentary | Tempestad | Won |
| 2017 | International Emmy Awards | Best Documentary | Tempestad | Nominated |
| 2017 | Ariel Awards | Best Picture | Tempestad | Nominated |
| 2017 | Ariel Awards | Best Director | Tempestad | Won |
| 2017 | Ariel Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Tempestad | Nominated |
| 2017 | Ariel Awards | Best Documentary Feature | Tempestad | Won |
| 2017 | Ariel Awards | Best Film Editing | Tempestad | Nominated |
| 2021 | Cannes Film Festival | Un Certain Regard | Prayers for the Stolen | Nominated |
| 2021 | Cannes Film Festival | Un Certain Regard - Special Mention | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2021 | San Sebastián International Film Festival | Horizontes Latinos | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2021 | San Sebastián International Film Festival | RTVE Otra Mirada Award | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2021 | Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Next Generation Award | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2021 | Forqué Awards | Best Latin-American Film | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2022 | Directors Guild of America Awards | Outstanding First-Time Feature Film Director | Prayers for the Stolen | Nominated |
| 2022 | Satellite Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Prayers for the Stolen | Nominated |
| 2022 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best International Film | Prayers for the Stolen | Nominated |
| 2022 | Palm Springs International Film Festival | Young Cineastes Award | Prayers for the Stolen | Nominated |
| 2022 | Palm Springs International Film Festival | FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Feature Film | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2022 | Palm Springs International Film Festival | Best Ibero-American Film | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2022 | Platino Awards | Best Director | Prayers for the Stolen | Nominated |
| 2022 | Ariel Awards | Best Picture | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2022 | Ariel Awards | Best Director | Prayers for the Stolen | Nominated |
| 2022 | Ariel Awards | Best Adapted Screenplay | Prayers for the Stolen | Won |
| 2022 | Goya Awards | Best Ibero-American Film | Prayers for the Stolen | Nominated |
| 2023 | Berlin International Film Festival | Golden Bear Plaque | The Echo | Nominated |
| 2023 | Berlin International Film Festival | Berlinale Documentary Film Award | The Echo | Won |
| 2023 | Berlin International Film Festival | Encounters Award: Best Director | The Echo | Won |