35th International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema

The opening gala of the 35^th edition of the International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema kicked off at Havana’s Carlos Marx Theater with words on the world leader Nelson Mandela, who passed away last week in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The inauguration counted on Omara Portuondo, with Quiéreme mucho, composed by master Gonzalo Roig, and the magisterial performance of dancers from Cuba’s Contemporary Dance Company that offered a selection Compas, by Dutch choreographer Jan Linkens.

The show was mainly backed up by cinematographic images, showing a look back at the history of the festival, a work carried out by Luis Ernesto Doñas to pay tribute to its founder and former president Alfredo Guevara. The collage –tribute also included fragments of cartoons created by Frank Padrón.

The father of Elpidio Valdés, National Humor Award, (2004) and National Movies Award (2008), received a Coral of Honor handed by Silvio Rodríguez, while the background song of the popular mambi fighter was played.

Perhaps it was more sober than previous inaugurations, but the opening of this Festival gave the green light to 11 exciting days of movies in Havana, a competition for the coveted Coral Award.

Since its first edition to date, the Festival has witnessed the development of a cinematographic world that began as a picturesque curiosity and has become a consolidated proposal.

Acclaimed films have been awarded here, such as Cidade de Deus or Fresa y Chocolate, thus positioning the Festival as a prestigious circuit of distribution and screening of freelance movies.

All in all, over 400 films are going to be screened, 150 competing and 21 contending for the Coral to the finest fiction feature film, in addition to the comforting award given by the public that year after year packs Havana’s  cinemas… fantastic...