Aaron Salgado’s drama Magic City Memoirs walked away with the best film, best screenplay and best actor awards at the fifth Ibiza International Film Festival on Sunday, while Ed Gass-Donnelly won best director for Small Town Murder Songs.

Salgado wrote and directed Magic City Memoirs, a coming-of-age drama set in Miami about three high school students on the verge of graduation who get into trouble. The film’s stars JR Villareal, Michael Cardelle and Andres Dominguez shared the best actor prize.

Gass-Donnelly’s Small Town Murder Songs is a modern, gothic criminal drama about an aging cop who hides a violent past. Cast member Jackie Burroughs, who died recently, was recognised with a special jury award at the Ibiza festival.

Other notable award winners at the Spanish festival, which celebrates films with independent spirit, were Melinda Shankar who picked up the best actress prize for her role in Shundell Prasad’s Festival Of Lights about an immigrant family living in Queens, Dmitri Mass won best cinematography for Igor Kopylov’s I’m Not Telling (Ne Skazhu) and Fergus Riordan received a special mention for his role in Christian Molina’s violent drama I Want To Be A Soldier.

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