The documentary, directed by Alfredo Pourailly and co-produced by JUNTOS with 55 Sur Media and Windmill Films (Netherlands), competes in the categories of Best Feature Documentary, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Music, and Best Sound Design.
Created in 2006, the Pedro Sienna Awards seek to recognize Chilean film production from within the industry itself. They are currently organized by the Chilean Film Academy and the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage.
The awards pay tribute to the pioneer of Chilean cinema, Pedro Sienna: National Art Prize in 1966 and author of El Húsar De La Muerte (1925), the silent film he wrote, directed, and starred in as Manuel Rodríguez. In 1998, the film became the only Chilean feature declared a National Historic Monument.
The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine was one of the 42 films submitted to this year’s edition, with more than 350 industry professionals participating in the nomination process. The story follows Toto, a miner in Tierra del Fuego who, despite adversity and driven by persistence, continues to pursue artisanal gold extraction, while his son builds a machine to ease the burden of his labor.
Premiered in 2024 as part of Hot Docs Official Selection, the film is nominated for Best Feature Documentary, alongside Aullido de Invierno, Memoria Implacable, OASIS y Una Sombra Oscilante.
In the Best Direction category, five filmmakers compete, among them Alfredo Pourailly stands out as the only nominee from the documentary field. It is an exceptional achievement, as this is his first feature film, the result of eight years of work and a career shaped by research and filming in Chile’s Magallanes region.
The movie, also nominated for Best Cinematography, was shot primarily with a DSLR camera that Pourailly himself carried on countless trips to Porvenir. Within those images lies an intimacy: Toto, his son, and the gold nuggets, captured with the closeness only possible through a handheld camera.
Francisco Hervé, Javiera Veloso, and Pourailly share the nomination for Best Screenplay. The film began with an initial script, a map that guided the journey. Years later, in the editing room, that writing was redrawn, weaving together word and image in a single process.
In the same line, The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine is also nominated for Best Editing, for the work of Veloso, Pourailly, and Melisa Miranda, whose sensitivity transformed a story from the end of the world into a documentary that goes beyond the tale of a gold miner to reflect on memory, fragility, and persistence.
Thanks to the co-production with Windmill Films, the project connected with Dutch actor and composer Karl Heortweard. From his home deep in the forest, and with an experimental approach, Karl created the soundtrack that has earned the film its nomination for Best Original Music.
Finally, the sound design has the signature of Roberto Espinoza and his team at Sonamos. With more than 70 feature films in his career and previous collaborations with us on projects such as El Poder de la Palabra (2009), Hija (2011), La Ciudad Perdida (2014), Los Castores (2014) y El Otro (2020), Espinoza now receives the nomination for Best Sound Design for a work that upholds atmospheres and silences as much as it does with images.
The Pedro Sienna Awards ceremony will take place on Friday, September 26, at the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM). The documentary will also be available for streaming on Ondamedia.cl starting September 9.