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28th
Havana Film Festival
A new generation begins winning awards
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Collateral prizes mostly to Argentina, Brazil and
Cuba
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Documentaries well-represented
BY MIREYA CASTAÑEDA – Granma
International staff writer –
SOME 20
international and Cuban organizations have awarded
their prizes, parallel to the official competition,
demonstrating that a new generation of filmmakers is
taking over the big screen and its awards, and at
the same time, that Argentine, Brazilian and Cuban
filmmaking remains a powerful force on the
continent.
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PHOTOS: OTMARO RODRÍGUEZ
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While
feature-length fiction films are the kings, as they
are in all festivals, of the attention of juries,
critics and the public, in Havana, documentaries
have a preferential position, with their own
official section, and that is why they also appear
among these initial awards.
At the
festival press room, films by five Argentine
directors were awarded; unfortunately, none were
present Carlos Sorín, (the only one from the
founding generation), for El camino de San Diego
(the Caminos Award from the Martin Luther King, Jr.
Center); Pablo Trapero, for Nacido y Criado
(the Ibero-American Federation of Image and Sound
Schools); Rodrigo Moreno for El custodio (the
Cuban Film Media Association); Israel Adrián Caetano
for Crónica de una fuga (Educational
Filmmaking and the University of Havana) and
Alejandro Doria for Las manos (Vigía Award,
of Matanzas).
For
Cuba, the director who received the most prizes was
Pavel Giroud and his film La edad de la peseta
(Glauber Rocha Foreign Press Award; the Writers
and Artists Union Association of Film, Radio and TV,
and the new cyber-vote organized by the
recently-inaugurated website of the New Latin
American Cinema Foundation
—www.cinelatinoamericano.org—).
For his
part, Cuban Jorge Luis Sánchez, with his debut film
El Benny, won awards from Cubadisco; the
Mégano Prize of the Cuban Film Club Federation, and
from the Radio Progreso radio station.
Brazilian filmmaking, always so distinguished at
these festivals, was represented by the young
director Tata Amaral and her picture, Antonia
(Roque Dalton Prize from the Radio Habana Cuba radio
station) and Breno Silveira and his Dos hijos de
Francisco, a film that is not part of the
official competition (Radio Progreso Listeners
Award).
The
documentaries won awards from the Pablo de la
Torriente Brau Center (Diario de Naná, by
Paschoal Samora, of Brazil); Cubadisco (Música y
Perfume, Brazil); the Casas de Cultura Council (Buscándote,
Habana, by Alina Rodríguez, Cuba); the
UNEAC Film, Radio and TV Association (San Ernesto
nace en La Higuera, Isabel Santos-Rafael Solís);
Revolución y Cultura Magazine(Tocar y
luchar, by Alberto Arvelo, Venezuela) and the
New Latin American Cinema Foundation Website (En
el Hoyo, Juan Carlos Rulfo, Mexico).
For the first time, the satellite television network
Telesur awarded a prize in Havana, for two
documentaries: Colegiales, by Gustavo Lasker
(Argentina) and San Ernesto nace en La Higuera,
by Isabel Santos-Rafael Solís (Cuba); while the
Cuban Journalists Union’s Cultural Circle awarded
its prize to the San Antonio International Film
School on its 20th anniversary. |
