Forty equals twenty plus twenty

The 40th edition of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema will take place between December 6 and 16 and there will be twenty fiction feature films, twenty-two short and medium-length films, eighteen raw operas, twenty-five documentaries, twenty-six animated films, nineteen unpublished scripts, seven films in post-production and twenty-four posters, according to a press conference held at the Taganana Room of the Nacional Hotel of Cuba by the president of the organizing committee, Iván Giroud.

"We wanted to acknowledge - he expressed - the brotherhood that has always existed between the Festival and the National Hotel of Cuba, which has been our headquarters during these forty editions. And that has been possible because of the interest that this hotel facility has shown over the years for Cuban culture, and for the close relationship that was built over many years between Toni Martínez, its director, and Alfredo Guevara, the founder of the Festival. That is why we want to take this moment to grant a Special Coral to the National Hotel for that support of forty years».

On this occasion, and coincidentally in line with the theme of this meeting - "20/20 a los 40" -, twenty Latin American countries and twenty from other regions of the world participate. Will travel to Cuba personalities such as Michel Moore, Benicio del Toro, Emir Kusturica, Geraldine Chaplin and Iciar Bollaín.

In the section Galas will be present some of the most important films appeared so far this year in the international arena, such as Un asunto de familia (Hirokazu Kore Eda, Japan, Palme d'Or in Cannes), Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico, Golden Lion of Venice), The sisters brothers (Jacques Audiard, United States-France-Romania-Spain, second prize in Venice), Infiltrado en el KKKlan (Spike Lee, United States), Non Fiction (Oliver Assayas, France) and La dernière folie de Claire Darling (Julie Bertuccelli, France). To these is added the feature film Yuli (Iciar Bollaín, Spain-Cuba-Great Britain-Germany), highly anticipated in the largest of the Antilles, since it deals with the life and work of the Cuban dancer and choreographer Carlos Acosta, which will be exhibited in a special performance at the Karl Marx Theater on Friday, December 7.

On the 8th, at the Fresa y Chocolate Cinematographic Cultural Center -23 e / 10 and 12, El Vedado-, the Animation Studios of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (Icaic) will present the new videogame ¡Cine en Cuba !, « of knowledge about cinema produced and exhibited in our country, which also includes works awarded in the thirty-nine editions of the Havana Film Festival ». Important: it can be downloaded on the site www.videojuego.cu by anyone who cannot go to its official presentation.

Again the cinematographic appointment gives space to numerous exhibitions. The cinema lobby 23 and 12 will accommodate Cuarenta años en carteles, with the official posters of each of the appointments. The Saúl Yelín Gallery, from the Casa del Festival -19 and 2, El Vedado- will present another exhibition of posters: Titón, 90 aniversario one of the many tributes that in those days will be made to Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The Fresa y Chocolate Gallery, of that Cinematographic Cultural Center, will host the exhibition Los caminos, a retrospective of the plastic work of the renowned set designer Pedro García Espinosa, which will be open until January 2019. In the Cuba Pavilion there will be a show (Soñar con los ojos abiertos) in homage to the recently deceased Fernando Birri, first director of the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños. Finally, as usual in those days, the posters in competition will be displayed in the Chaplin Cinema gallery.