MIAMI – “Bonsai,” directed by Chile’s Cristian Jimenez, won the best Ibero-American film award at Miami’s International Film Festival, which concludes its 29th edition on Sunday after the screening of about 100 films from 35 countries.

The coproduction by Chile, Argentina, Portugal and France also received the award for best screenwriting, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize, for the Jimenez’s work in his second feature length film based on the same-named novel by Alejandro Zamba.

As Miami Dade College, the organizer of the festival, said on Sunday, the $30,000 cash award for best film will be divided between the director and the U.S. distributor, Strand Releasing.

Jimenez said recently that “Bonsai” is not “just an adaptation of a novel, but a work whose theme is literary expression,” and in which books “play a role that goes far beyond their content.”

“It’s really been a memorable festival, with inspiring and educational films,” said Miami Dade College president Eduardo Padron in a communique discussing the only big international festival organized by an educational institution.

Festival director Jaeo Laplante agreed that this edition of the festival was “the most powerful” in the almost three decades it had been held, during which time it has become a entry conduit for Ibero-American filmmakers to the U.S. market.