Paraguayan filmmaker María Lorena Gamarra, has won the Audience Choice Award at the UK’s Lift-Off Sessions with her four-minute short The Luminary (La Luminaria) – While the Flame Burns. Chosen by international viewers during a two-week online screening, the film’s recognition has led to an official invitation to the London Lift-Off Film Festival 2025. This festival is an online showcase for independent films run by the Lift-Off Global Network.
Speaking after the result, Gamarra notes the prize felt “like a huge embrace”. Made independently and on a minimal budget, the short draws on her personal journey.
“People in other countries felt this story and voted for it,” she comments to The Asunción Times. “It confirmed to me that pain and hope are universal.”
Winning the Audience Choice Award
The Audience Choice Award is part of the Lift-Off Sessions, where visual artists gain global exposure as viewers vote for their favourite works in a fair, non-pay-to-vote system. Each year, the most outstanding pieces are celebrated through this award. Winners also receive recognition at the annual Season Awards.
María Lorena Gamarra submitted the entry via FilmFreeway, where it first passed a juried selection before advancing to the online showcase. After this stage, international viewers voted across a two-week period, and the most resonant works rose to the top.
“My short film reached the final group and, by the end of the screening period, it was chosen by the audience.”
The recognition comes with an invitation to screen at the London Lift-Off 2025 Film Festival. “This acknowledgment helps to place Paraguayan cinema in the international spotlight,” the artist states, adding that being the national winner was particularly moving. “It shows you do not need huge studios to produce stories that cross borders”.
A film of resilience and healing
La Luminaria – While the Flame Burns is a symbolic, poetic piece about a woman who discovers a violet candle in her darkest moment and enters a spiritual realm to confront inner wounds.
“In the middle of darkness, there is a light inside us that refuses to go out,” María reflects. “We can fall many times, but there is always a choice to get up and keep going.”
The title of the short is rooted in Gamarra’s candle-making venture, also named La Luminaria. She began the craft in 2022 to cope with anxiety, finding comfort in the flame’s light and eventually turning it into a small business. “Making them brought me calm,”
The director hopes the film acts as a mirror for audiences. “We should not wait for someone else to save us. The person who will save us is ourselves”, she explains. The shorts’ imagery seeks to turn private pain into a visual language that speaks of endurance and recovery.
María Lorena Gamarra’s journey
As María experimented with the candles, each of them gained symbolic meaning through colours and scents, lilac for calm or new beginnings, for example. This personal practice became a way of giving shape to emotions, transforming everyday objects into tools of expression.
That same symbolism later became central to the film. In the piece, a mysterious flame leads the protagonist through her inner struggles, reflecting the spark that once gave her strength. By translating her private ritual into animation, she developed a story that speaks to universal experiences of guidance and renewal.
She also links the project’s message to her own family history. The storyteller recalls that her mother often doubted her and, even after the award, did not react as she had hoped. The experience crystallised a lesson she repeats throughout the short. “We must focus on ourselves and believe in our own light”. That insistence on self-belief underpins the narrative.
Paraguayan cinema on the global stage
The director believes the recognition can help spotlight emerging voices from Paraguay. “This award is a step in positioning the country on the global audiovisual scene. I hope it encourages festival selectors to look our way and gives new independent creators confidence to share their stories.”
She also emphasises accessibility: “The Lift-Off Sessions festival is international and offers broad thematic freedom, what matters is connecting with audiences.” For her, that connection is built on honesty: “If a work is born from truth, it can travel.”
Looking ahead
Currently, Maria Lorena Gamarra is expanding the short into a 15-20 minute version to present at London Lift-Off 2025.
“I want the film to be more impactful: same heart, broader scope,” she remarks. Long-term, she dreams of developing the concept into a series or feature. “I hope to work with producers who see potential in this world.”
María balances multiple roles: mother, English teacher, police officer, and entrepreneur, yet remains focused on filmmaking. Her message to readers is simple: “Do not give up. Trust in yourself. When you nurture that strength, you can rise and shine again.”
To learn more about Paraguayan filmmakers, also read about Gaspar Insfrán: A Filmmaker With A Vision.
