The Havana Film Festival NY Announces Films Competing to Receive the Havana Star Prize

The Havana Film Festival NY (www.HFFNY.com), project of The American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba (AFLFC), announced the sixteen films competing to receive the Havana Star Prize for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Documentary, which will be awarded on Monday, April 15 at the AMC Loews 34th Street, 7:30 pm. The Festival takes place April 5-16 in venues throughout the city, including Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. All foreign language films are subtitled in English.

The 16 selected films reflect three necessary trends in contemporary filmmaking. The first is a new twist on the classic coming-of-age story, wherein young adults IN SEARCH OF their own identity begin to question the social and cultural stereotypes that defined their childhood and continue to structure their environment, be it within an indigenous community or societies guided by machismo and racism. The second is an attempt to reconcile current anxieties with the injustices of the past, leading filmmakers to call for a more TRANSPARENT social and political future. Lastly, the program is a celebration of the female directors who, from behind the camera, are carving out a space for their own often overlooked stories of resilience and determination, as well as those of future generations.

The 16 films selected come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Spain, and the United States, and four of them from a first-time filmmaker. Many of these filmmakers will be in New York to present their films.

The films competing for the Havana Star Prize in Fiction are:

SUEÑO FLORIANÓPOLIS / FLORIANOPOLIS DREAM

Ana Katz | Argentina, Brazil, France | 2018 | Fiction | 106min | NY PREMIERE

EL MOTOARREBATADOR / THE SNATCH THIEF

Agustín Toscano | Argentina, Uruguay, France | 2018 | Fiction | 94min | NY PREMIERE

LOS SILENCIOS

Beatriz Seigner | Brazil, France, Colombia | 2018 | Fiction | 89min | US PREMIERE

MIRIAM MIENTE / MIRIAM LIES

Natalia Cabral, Oriol Estrada | Dominican Republic, Spain | 2018 | Fiction | 90min | NY PREMIERE

NIDO DE MANTIS / MANTIS' NEST

Arturo Sotto Díaz | Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic | 2018 | Fiction | 118min | NY PREMIERE

INOCENCIA / INNOCENCE

Alejandro Gil | Cuba | 2018 | Fiction | 120min | US PREMIERE

EL VIAJE EXTRAORDINARIO DE CELESTE GARCÍA /

THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF CELESTE GARCIA

Arturo Infante | Cuba, Germany | 2018 | Fiction | 92min | NY PREMIERE

EL REGRESO / THE RETURN

Blanca Rosa Blanco, Alberto Luberta | Cuba | 2018 | Fiction | 105min | US PREMIERE

RETABLO / ALTARPIECE

Alvaro Delgado Aparicio | Peru, Germany, Norway | 2017 | Fiction | 95min | NY PREMIERE

ROJO

Benjamin Naishtat | Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, France, Switzerland | 2018 |

Fiction | 109min | NY PREMIERE

The films competing for the Havana Star Prize in Documentary are:

COUNCILWOMAN

Margo Guernsey | United States | 2018 | Documentary | 57 min | NY PREMIERE

ENTRE UN TANGO Y UN DANZÓN / BETWEEN A TANGO AND A DANZÓN

Marta N. Bautís | United States, Cuba | 2018 | Documentary | 60min | US PREMIERE

LEJOS DEL SENTIDO / AWAY FROM MEANING

Olivia Luengas | Mexico | 2018 | Documentary | 88min |NY PREMIERE

EL CAMINO DE SANTIAGO / SANTIAGO'S JOURNEY

Tristán Bauer | Argentina | 2018 | Documentary | 80min | NY PREMIERE

LAS CRUCES

Teresa Arredondo Lugon, Carlos Vasquez Mendez | Chile | 2018 | Documentary | 80min

ELIADES OCHOA: DE CUBA PARA EL MUNDO / ELIADES OCHOA FROM CUBA TO THE WORLD

Cynthia Biedek | Cuba, Mexico | 2018 | Documentary | 100 min | NY PREMIERE

HFFNY Venues:

ID Studio at the Bronx: April 5

The NY Institute of Technology: April 6 & 8

Museum of the Moving Image: April 7 & 14

SVA Theatre: April 9

AMC Lodews at 34th St: April 10-15

DGA: April 16

This year HFFNY turns 20, MAKING IT the longest-running and most established festival celebrating Latin American cinema in the New York tri-state area. HFFNY 2019 will run April 5-16, featuring award-winning films from Cuba and Latin America, many World, US, and NY premieres, accompanied by panel discussions, Q&A sessions, and other special events hosted by leading figures in Latin American cinema.

The 20th Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY) showcases the diversity of Latino voices and stories in a program that includes over 35 films. This year, HFFNY pays homage to one of Cuba's most celebrated storytellers, Fernando Pérez, with screenings of his most seminal works plus a special centerpiece presentation of his newest historical drama, INSUMISAS. The Festival furthermore remembers late Cuban director Rigoberto López with a showing of his classic YO SOY DEL SON A LA SALSA, treats NYC to the history of the city of Havana with a cinematic retrospective focused on the vibrant capital's architecture in honor of its 500th anniversary. Also included in the Festival's 20th anniversary is a program of shorts in cross-Caribbean conversation, featuring voices from New Yorkers in Havana, and Latinos in NYC.

HFFNY 2019 sponsors are: El Diario NY, Remezcla, ID Studio, New York Institute of Technology, the National Arts Club, the Copacabana Times Square, Aguijón Films, DGCine, Funglode, the Consulate General of Argentina in New York, Barceló, Café la Llave, Havana Music Tours, the American Chai Foundation, the Consulate General of Peru, Publimax, Bach Media, and IKAIKAKI Productions. HFFNY is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Honorable Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York State legislators and supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in collaboration with the City Council.

The Havana Film Festival New York is a project of American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba (AFLFC), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization building cultural bridges between the U.S. and Cuba through programs in the arts.