On its Austrian outing in the Tyrolean Alps, the Asturian short film by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi takes the Audience Award for Best Narrative Short Film at Pillusion — its ninth international award.

IUS of Time, the Asturian LGBTQ+ short film directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, has won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Short Film at the 5th Pillusion Film Festival in Pill, in the Tyrolean Alps (Austria). The prize, voted directly by the festival’s audience, was announced just two days after the film held its Austrian premiere there on 27 August 2026.

IUS of Time award details at Pillusion Film Festival

IUS of Time: an award from the audience, in a barn in the Alps

There is a quiet symmetry to this win. IUS of Time is a story about a disappearing rural world — an ageing cheesemaker, a small village, a way of life holding on. Pillusion is a festival built inside a barn turned into a cinema in Pill, a village twenty-five minutes from Innsbruck, created by filmmakers Leo and Marina Decristoforo to bring independent cinema to an area where many surrounding towns and villages have no cinema of their own. This year the festival’s theme was Parallels — and few films could sit more naturally under that word.

That the award came directly from the audience makes it especially meaningful: a deeply local, rural Asturian story, chosen by the people of an alpine village gathered around a screen. Alongside its programme, Pillusion keeps analogue craft alive with hands-on workshops in 16mm filmmaking and large-format film photography — a festival, in its own words, of films worth the trip. IUS of Time screened in Block 4 on the second evening, followed by a Q&A in which the directors took part remotely from Spain. (The festival and the screening were covered in full in our Pillusion selection announcement.)

IUS of Time: nine awards across five continents

The Pillusion prize is the film’s ninth international award and distinction. Earlier honours include Best LGBTQIA+ Film at the 3rd Power24 International Film Festival in Durban (South Africa), the Director’s Choice Award at the 45th Thomas Edison Film Festival (United States), the Audience Award at the 24th Avilés Acción Film Festival (Spain), third place in the LQCW × CathayPlay Audience Choice Award at the 24th Beijing Queer Film Festival (China), and awards for Best Cinematography at the 4th Silicon Valley Queer Film Festival (United States) and the Piedad Isla Award at the Rural and Mountain Film Festival of Cervera de Pisuerga (Spain), along with a Certificate of Merit for Cinematography at the 68th Rochester International Film Festival (United States) and an Honourable Mention at the 1st Goitacá International Film Festival (Brazil). The full list of awards and selections is available on the film’s festival page.

IUS of Time: 71 festivals across 29 countries

Since its 2025 premiere, IUS of Time has now travelled to 71 international film festivals across 29 countries and five continents, establishing itself as one of the most internationally circulated Asturian fiction short films of recent years. Its journey includes Oscar- and Goya-qualifying events such as the 53rd Huesca International Film Festival, and screenings at the 31st Chéries-Chéris of Paris, the 43rd Reeling of Chicago, the 27th OUTshine of Miami, the 16th KASHISH Pride Film Festival of Mumbai, the 24th Beijing Queer Film Festival and the 63rd FICX of Gijón/Xixón, among many others. This autumn the film also travels to two Goya-qualifying festivals in Spain — the 15th K-Lidoscopi in Cullera and Octubre Corto in Arnedo.

About IUS of Time

IUS of Time (original title IUS del tiempo) follows Luca, a young photography student who arrives in a small village in Asturias to develop an artistic project and reconnect with his roots. He stays at the home of Xuan, an ageing cheesemaker whose apparent brusqueness gradually reveals a past shaped by silence, prejudice and unspoken histories. Through his camera, Luca becomes fascinated by Xuan’s hands and craft, and the encounter unfolds into an intimate exploration of memory, desire and belonging — a tribute to those who lived their relationships in the shadows, and to the transformative power of intergenerational connection.

The film was shot entirely on location in rural Asturias, in northern Spain — in the Picos de Europa, the cheese caves of Cabrales, and villages such as Biedes, Asiegu and Onís, in councils including Piloña.

Produced by Almost Red Productions with the support of the Department of Culture, Language Policy and Sport of the Principality of Asturias and the Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission, IUS of Time is a 25-minute fiction short with dialogue in Spanish and Asturian.

Discover more about IUS of Time