Many international celebrities will be attending this year’s Havana International Film Festival which opens on December 6 in the Cuban capital. The event is organized by the Ministry of Culture with corporate sponsorship from KLM, Havana Club, Air France, Aracne Digital Cinema, the Swiss embassy, Copa Airlines, the British Counsel, and the Goethe Institute.
The 40th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema (also known as the Havana Film Festival) will run from December 6 – 16 , 2018. This is the largest Latin American film festival in the region.
Attending the Festival this year will be director Michael Moore, actors Matt Dillon, Geraldine Chaplin, Benicio del Toro, Serbian actor and director Emir Kusturica who will be presenting his documentary film “El Pepe, a Supreme Life” on opening night. Spanish filmmaker Icíar Bollaín’s film Yuli (2018), inspired by the life of Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta will premiere at the film festival.
Iván Giroud, President of the Havana Film Festival said at an event press conference, “The 40th anniversary of the Festival obligates us to make a series of recognitions to institutions and people who have supported the Festival. The event has managed to adjust to the times and the needs of the cinema itself. ”
The Festival honors not only Cuban film but those works whose centrality and imaginative qualities add to, improve, and reaffirm the Latin American and Caribbean social culture and identity. This year’s edition of the Festival is dedicated to the Cuban filmmaker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, with a tribute to the father of New Latin American Cinema, Fernando Birri, who recently passed away.
This year 40 countries have entered 373 films to the Festival. Competing for the Havana Film Festival’s Coral (Premio Coral) award, will be 20 feature films, 22 short and medium-length film and 18 raw operas. The Havana International Film Festival grants awards for best fiction film, best direction, best fiction short film, best animation, best documentary, short and long documentary films, best poster and best unpublished script.
Each year, the Festival calls for new films to compete in the following areas: Fiction, Documentary, Animation, Opera Prima, Unproduced Script, and Poster production.
Latin American in Perspective: film production in Latin America, Contemporary world Panorama, documentary films, retrospectives dedicated to film movements and outstanding persons in the world of film.
Premio Coral Prizes will be awarded at a gala event at the Mella Theater on December 14, though the festival’s films will continue to be shown until closing date.
The films of the Havana Film Festival will be shown in the followed movie theaters around Havana:
23 y 12 | 23 entre 12 y 14, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 833 6906
Acapulco | 26 entre 35 y 37, Nuevo Vedado, La Habana. – 7 833 9573
Centro Cultural ICAIC | 23 entre 10 y 12, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 833 9278
Charles Chaplin | 23 entre 10 y 12, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 831 1101
Multicine Infanta | Infanta entre Neptuno y San Miguel, Centro Habana, La Habana. – 7 878 9323
Karl Marx | 1ra y 10, Playa, La Habana. – 7 203 0801
La Rampa | 23 entre O y P, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 836 6146
Pabellón Cuba | 23 y N, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 835 3768
Riviera | 23 entre G y H, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 830 9564
Yara | L y 23, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 832 9430
Sala Caracol de la UNEAC | Calle 17 esq H, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 832 4551
Sala Charlot | 23 entre 10 y 12, Vedado, La Habana. – 7 831 1101
Sala Walfredo Piñera | Calle Tacón entre Chacón y Mercaderes, Habana Vieja, La Habana. –
7 862 6989
For film schedule – visit the Havana Film Festival website.
Find out how to get a press visa – accreditation for journalists attending the Havana Film Festival – International Festival of New Latin American Cinema 2017.
From our staff writers and editors.
