Arkeofilms’ Leonor Will Never Die won the Special Jury Prize for Innovative Spirit at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival after premiering in the festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition.  The section  features “emerging filmmaking talents around the world that offer fresh perspectives and inventive styles.”

The Sundance jury citation says, “Switching in-between genres, this film within a film follows an ailing screenwriter who enters her unfinished screenplay of a gangster film to experience and edit her own creation. Constantly shifting in tone, the film is a playful display of the love of cinema. Its innovative and risk-taking spirit is especially commendable.”

The New York Times describes writer-director Martika Ramirez Escobar’s feature film debut as a “wonderfully unclassifiable movie” and a “heartfelt, zany tribute to the magic of movies and the power of love.” While Variety says that “Escobar is after something deeper than parody. She wants audiences to question how fictional strongmen have been idealized as real-world saviors.” Leonor Will Never Die is also included in the list of best films to come out of the 2022 Sundance by Letterboxd, The Atlantic, and Vogue.