Temps Noir, the French documentary production powerhouse behind Mediawan Rights sales hits “Kubrick by Kubrick” and “Cinecittà: Making of History,” has boarded “Passengers for the Last Trip,” the fiction feature debut of Cuba’s Marta María Borrás (“Atardecer en el Trópico”).
It will hit Spain’s Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (Maff) this March as the most laureled of Latin America’s projects in the showcase.
Put through a near-dozen development programs, and scooping plaudits at Guadalajara’s Co-Production Meeting and Ventana Sur’s Punto Género, it has won at least six prizes.
Now in advanced development, “Passengers for the Last Trip” (“Los pasajeros del último viaje”) is produced by Dany Celeiro Rodríguez, a Cuban Mexico-based visual artist, executive producer and alum of Cuba’s San Antonio de los Baños International Film-tv School (Eictv). It is now co-produced by Colombia’s Galaxy 311 and France’s Temps Noir.
Also written by Borras,...
It will hit Spain’s Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (Maff) this March as the most laureled of Latin America’s projects in the showcase.
Put through a near-dozen development programs, and scooping plaudits at Guadalajara’s Co-Production Meeting and Ventana Sur’s Punto Género, it has won at least six prizes.
Now in advanced development, “Passengers for the Last Trip” (“Los pasajeros del último viaje”) is produced by Dany Celeiro Rodríguez, a Cuban Mexico-based visual artist, executive producer and alum of Cuba’s San Antonio de los Baños International Film-tv School (Eictv). It is now co-produced by Colombia’s Galaxy 311 and France’s Temps Noir.
Also written by Borras,...
- 1/9/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...
Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...
- 11/2/2023
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Fidel Castro (Courtesy: Jorge Rey/Getty Images)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
No matter how you felt or reacted when you heard the news, Fidel Castro’s death on November 25 shook the world. There’s no argument that the late Cuban leader definitely left a legacy, but what was the state of the film industry throughout his reign — and where does it go from here?
Castro was a controversial and revolutionary ruler who served as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 as well as President from 1976 to 2006 and turned Cuba into a one-party socialist state. Siding mostly with Russia (previously the Soviet Union), he largely opposed the U.S. throughout his dominion. In 2006, health issues forced Castro to hand over control of the country to his younger brother, Raúl. Raúl is the last surviving Castro brother as the eldest, Ramón, passed away earlier in 2016. Now, Castro has been cremated with little details about his death known.
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
No matter how you felt or reacted when you heard the news, Fidel Castro’s death on November 25 shook the world. There’s no argument that the late Cuban leader definitely left a legacy, but what was the state of the film industry throughout his reign — and where does it go from here?
Castro was a controversial and revolutionary ruler who served as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 as well as President from 1976 to 2006 and turned Cuba into a one-party socialist state. Siding mostly with Russia (previously the Soviet Union), he largely opposed the U.S. throughout his dominion. In 2006, health issues forced Castro to hand over control of the country to his younger brother, Raúl. Raúl is the last surviving Castro brother as the eldest, Ramón, passed away earlier in 2016. Now, Castro has been cremated with little details about his death known.
- 11/29/2016
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
** New Update: Two more American films have come to my attention through readers of the blog:
Alison Klayman wrote to say "I know you said at least two films, but I wanted specifically to alert you to the fact that my film "The 100 Years Show" is also playing in the Panorama Documental sections (same as Pj Letofsky's film). "The 100 Years Show" is about 100-year old Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera, and was produced with RatPac (Brett Ratner) Documentary Films. I'll be attending the festival too.
Alex Mallis wrote in to say: "Our short narrative, "La Noche buena" (the first American-directed since the embargo) is also screening at the festival.
Original Blog:
At least two films by American filmmakers will screen this year at the Havana Film Festival, whose official name is Festival de Cine Nuevo Latinamericano. As the Centerpiece Film, Bob Yari, producer of almost 50 films, will screen his second directed film “Papa” about Ernest Hemingway. It can be called “the first [official or legal] American film made in Havana in the last fifty years”, though underground films have been made (e.g., “Love & Suicide”). “Papa” is being sold at Afm by Elias Axume’s Premiere Entertainment.
Doc filmmaker Pj Letofsky will also be screening his film “ Tarkovsky: Time Within Time” which just premiered at the Sao Paolo Film Festival.
Many U.S. citizens are now interested in going to Havana. To give an in-depth look at Cuba’s film business, I am publishing a [long] chapter of what I hope will soon be published, my book on Iberoamerican film business. I will also be publishing another [shorter] interview here soon with Havana Film Festival Director, Ivan Giroud.
Cuba (Chapter Seven)
Officially the Republic of Cuba, or in Spanish, República de Cuba, the nation is comprised of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. To the north of Cuba lies the United States; the Bahamas are to the northeast, México to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica to the south, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic are to the southeast.
Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, and with over 11 million inhabitants.
Cuba is undergoing a transition into a market, entrepreneurial economy under the Presidency of Raul Castro. With this transition, the cinema industry is also undergoing great changes. The state mandated organization, Icaic, which has been running the cinema industry, is now under scrutiny. New legislation concerning the film industry is slowly underway as a result of discussions ongoing within the film community. Hopefully the establishment of diplomatic relations will the U.S. last October will propel changes, though without lifting the embargo, it may not.
History of Cinema of Cuba
Cuba’s elite has always stayed in touch with the latest in culture as it developed in Europe during the Spanish colonial era. Cuba’s tradition of cinema dates back to 1897 when the Lumiére Brothers representative from France stopped in Havana to show their films on a tour of the Antilles Islands, México, Venezuela, and the Guineas. Cuba’s particular style of cinema, called the “Cinema of the Greater Antilles”, evolved from the theater of melodrama and comedy and from the radio dramas of Felix B. Caignet, all of which formed the popular melodramas and comedies we still see today.
Mexican coproductions and U.S. filmmakers escaping the monopolistic Edison came to Cuba as well as to California in the early days of film. Federico Garcia Lorca arrived in Cuba in 1930 with a screenplay, “Voyage of the Moon”, and a print of “Un Chien Andalou” hoping to break from the Paris-Berlin monopoly, but his plans never took shape. Many films from Spain, México, Argentina and Uruguay also played in Cuba. Some leading Cuban actors had a strong presence in México and Argentina. Musicians such as Ernesto Lecuona, Bola de Nieve and Rita Montaner performed in movies in several countries.
Cuba, along with Mexico and Argentina, has the most developed cinema culture of Latin America. At its most prosperous, it had the third largest number of theaters in Latin America until the special period when Ussr withdrew its support. Today it has 39 movie theaters. Three of them, including the Yara in Havana, had been built especially for 3D in the 1950s.
Movie going is one of Cuba’s national pastimes, rating perhaps as high as baseball. The average Cuban sees one and a half films a year. However, the lack of international appeal for most of its comedies and melodramas has held its international growth in check up to today. That is now changing.
The international nature of Cuban cinema was consciously defined after the Revolution of 1959 when the Institute for Cuban Art and Industry Cinematography (Icaic) was created by Fidel Castro and entrusted to his university classmate, Alfredo Guevara. The law creating Icaic was incorporated into the Cuban Constitution itself just three months after the Revolution and was an important part of the Nuevo Cine Latinoamerico, a movement throughout Latin America as the Latin American nations threw off their dictatorships. Film, according to this law, is "the most powerful and provocative form of artistic expression, and the most direct and widespread vehicle for education and bringing ideas to the public.”
Cinema was created for theatrical exhibition, for individuals and groups to share in smaller collectives, and for television.
The law ordaining Icaic to control every cinematographic activity created no further rules about financing, about submitting, reading and approving project proposals or regarding any required time frames. Icaic functions very internally with no outside surveillance.
Actually it is possible to make films without Icaic participation, the point is that without Icaic a film cannot get national distribution.
Over the past decade Icaic has loosened its monopolistic administration. Every sector and every level of cinema is discussing the concept of a new Law of Cinema with the government’s interest in formalizing as law a more inclusive infrastructure with more transparent rules and regulations.
Under the leadership of Raul Castro, the island has been undergoing a gradual economic reform process allowing entrepreneurs to license their own businesses after decades of state monopoly. The measures include the authorization of self-employment in more than 200 small trades and activities. According to the government, there are currently 442,000 registered as “self-employed”. The Castro administration hopes for this emerging sector to absorb over a million state workers to be laid off in the coming years.[ii]
In October 2014, the state closed down many private cinemas which had emerged avowing to the love of cinema of the people. Many were 3D “salons” in homes or in separate rooms in restaurants. Authorities pressed for "order, discipline and obedience" in the growing small business sector. Needless to say, the films shown were pirated and not licensed by the rights holders. Nor was there ever any official licensing to privately owned theaters (yet).
However, these could provide a good source of taxation. It needs to be decided what shall be taxed, how tax monies should be apportioned for film funding, film education, what tax incentives the government might offer, how distribution will be subsidized, how archives may be maintained and presented, how to regulate screenings, dvd, TV and online platforms, what cash incentives might bring in production from the outside, what joint ventures within the Caribbean might be developed and how Icaic is approaching and incorporating the changing environment. The Director of Icaic, Robert Smith de Castro. is facing more challenges than its previous longtime Director, Alfredo Guevera, ever faced when the government provided everything. Now it must find answers from its neighbors and its own internal producers and procedures.
In general, funding a film, renting equipment and shooting in Cuba all need to be approved by Icaic. This has changed somewhat as other players have come to take a role, like Rtv Commercial, which is in fact the production company of Cuban National Television.
Rtv Commercial coproduced the newest Cuban hit, “Conducta” (“Behavior”) with Icaic. It premiered at Ficg 2014 (Guadalajara International Film Festival) and played at Tiff 2014 and other festivals such as the Málaga Spanish Film Festival 2014 where it won five awards.
New Developments in Cuban Cinema
In 2014 there were 14 productions and coproductions made, compared to seven in 2009 and 4 in 2000 according to FnCl and Ocal, databases of Latin American film.
At Cannes’ Cinema du Monde in May 2014 and in San Sebastian’s Coproduction Forum, “ August” (“Agosto”) was one of 15 projects selected to be seen and discussed by the international community of sales, distribution and financial executives. Directed by Armando Capó Ramos and produced by La Feria Producciones’ Marcella Esquivel, it is a coproduction between Costa Rica and Cuba. It will shoot next year in Havana and is now raising funds through crowdfunding. Also featured among the 15 in San Sebastian was “Wolfdog” (“Hombre entre perro y lobo”) directed by Irene Gutiérrez and produced by El Viaje Films, a Spain-Cuba coproduction.
Seeking modes of financing outside of government funding began in 2002 with the Festival of New Filmmakers showcasing projects was created by young people outside the Icaic system. As a result of the 2002 event, five years later, a funding mechanism called Hacienda Cine was created by pulling productions from Icaic Cuban television into centers and foundations that have other areas for audiovisual production. Pitch sessions for each selected entity were set up. The prize for production services worth 20,000 Convertible Cuban Pesos (equivalent to Us $20,000) was set up by Icaic Production. There are currently also smaller groups creating smaller formats, scientific or otherwise who are fomenting alternative forms of financing as well.
Lia Rodriguez Nieto is an attorney who was mentored by and worked fourteen years, until his death, with Camilo Vives, Icaic’s head of production, first as an attorney and then as a producer. She has now taken charge of the industry section at the Havana Film Festival which Vives began in 2009. She and Antonio López, recently produced a Cuba-Panama-France coproduction “ El Acompañante” (“The Companion”) directed by Pavel Giroud. She states that over the last five to seven years, private (not state institutional) productions have co-existed with institutional production. However, it would be important for independent producers to have a more regulated and confident relationship with Icaic in a more normalized fashion in order to have easier access to filming permits, forms of financing, banking relations, coproduction treaties, and a number of other elements which are essential to film production.
Rebeca Chávez is a director and a member of one of the groups pushing for a new cinema law which will, in principle, establish a new system incorporating the democratic participation of all people in the business, including techs, writers, directors, producers, actors, etc. and where all will have a democratically designed access to funds. In1984 she began her career as documentary director and her work has been given different national and international awards. She is the second woman in Cuba who has made feature films. She has taught several seminars on theory and practice of documentary cinema and on the Cuban experience in the genre in different institutions in the United States, Puerto Rico, England and Spain. She has worked as advisor for scripts of documentaries and feature films.
It is most important that the state has the will to make these changes, and it has stated it is open to changing the laws. Omar González who succeeded Alfredo Guevara as the head of the Icaic was replaced in 2013 by 30 year Icaic employee Roberto Smith de Castro who is now faced with reorganizing Icaic and implementing new laws which are yet to be formulated. He is considered to be a patient and attentive man who listens and will work to incorporate the diverse opinions into a new working reality.
The son of the famed director Daniel Diaz Torres whose controversial film “Alicia en el pueblo de Maravillas” (“Alice in the City of Wonders”) in 1991 was so critical of the bureaucracy of the government at the time of the Soviet collapse that it caused the resignation of Icaic’s director Espinosa, independent producer Daniel Diaz Ravelo points out that the independent producer is neither legal nor illegal but exists in a sort of limbo, free to produce whatever he or she wants but needing legal sanctions to access necessary permits, equipment, etc. And a filmmaker has no bank account so fiscal responsibility is difficult. One must get a certificate from Icaic but there is no registration rule on how this is to be done.
And it gets more complicated. It is difficult to raise a Us$400,000 budget without networking with filmmakers from other countries and yet travel is not easy for Cubans. They can travel -- Cuba no longer has a problem with that -– but often they cannot get the visa required from the country they want or need to travel to. Daniel’s father had a problem in traveling to find financing for his last film, “La Pelicula de Ana” (“Ana's Movie”), from former producers of his films. It did receive some funding from Icaic and from former funding friend, Icestorm in Germany, and a loan from Ibermedia. Unfortunately Daniel Diaz Torres, Sr. recently died an early death and did not see the fruits of his labor in the 2013 Havana premiere.
The new generation today in Cuba is highly independent; it knows that diversity of film subjects and of filmmakers is key to Cuban cinema today and it is finding diverse sources of financing and distribution. It needs more information as well because everything depends upon contacts. Cineastes traveling to Cuba will find a vibrant group open to coproducing.
2015 marks the eighth year of the Havana Film Festival’s Works in Progress. The Post Production Award, Nuestra América Primera Copia, is an international competition for films from Latin America and from Cuba, with no restrictions; films can be produced by Icaic or independently. For example, in 2013 awards went to four films, one from Chile, “I’m Not Lorena” (“No Soy Lorena”), which premiered at Tiff 2014; one from Argentina, “La Salada”, which premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival 2014 and Tiff 2014; and two from Cuba -- one Icaic film, “His Wedding Dress” (“Vestido de novia”), and the independent, “Venice” which was also Tiff 2014.
Thanks to an initiative by La Muestra, a group of Cuban production companies (including several independent ones), once a year support is awarded to four or five projects by young filmmakers. The independent film “Melaza” by Carlos Lechuga with the 5ta Avenida Productions premiered on October 3, 2013.
Rubén Padrón Astorga, writing for On Cuba [iii], November-December 2013 [1] writes:
The best prospects for our cinema today emerged like an earthquake in late April of this year, when Kiki Álvarez, the director of “Jirafas”, “La ola” and “Marina” and “Venezia”, initiated a debate on the problems that the country has with two vital filmmaking processes (production and distribution). Close to 60 audiovisual makers responded with a meeting where they formed a Filmmakers Committee to represent the rest of the country’s professionals.
Soon after its creation, the Committee announced that its objectives included ensuring the active participation of Cuban filmmakers in every decision that was made about [our] cinema, and protecting and developing its production at the industrial and independent levels. At this time, they are working together with Icaic and the Ministry of Culture to pass a decree-law defining the autonomous audiovisual creator, which would legitimize filmmakers as a legal concept, with full rights to exercise their profession. However, the decree-law, which was drafted seven years ago and ratified by the most recent Uneac Congress, was rewritten by the Filmmakers Committee so that it is not limited to recognizing audiovisual practice as individual work, but as collective, and so that it legally protects independent producers.
This committee, together with the so-called Ministry of Culture Temporary Working Group for the Transformation of Icaic, is actively participating in drawing up a diagnosis of Cuban cinema’s problems, which will be followed with the drafting of policies and actions for solving those problems. This step will clear the way for the long-term creation of a comprehensive film law. This law, which would involve widening the scope of the law passed in 1959 for Icaic’s founding, or drafting a new one, would include the creation of a film commission that would support production and make it viable; a promotion fund that would be governed by an arts council, and to which all independent and institutional artists could aspire; financial incentives that would promote the support of private and state companies and sponsors; and a general legal framework that conceives of cinema systemically, inspired by the useful experiences that have taken place in other countries in the region, such as Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
A convocation of cinema directors was held May 4, 2013 in Strawberry and Chocolate Cultural Center, Havana to address the need to participate in all plans and activities planned for Cuban cinema. The meeting chose a working group composed of Enrique Kiki Álvarez, Enrique Colina, Rebeca Chávez Lourdes de los Santos, Daniel Diaz Ravelo, Pavel Giroud, Magda González Grau, Inti Herrera, Senel Paz, Fernando Perez, Manuel Perez and Pedro L. Rodríguez.
The main objective of this group is to represent the filmmakers at all levels and events, promote and ensure the active participation of the same in all decisions and projects that relate to Cuban cinema, and strive for the protection and development of these arts and industries and their makers, which is our right and duty as protagonists of this art. At its first meeting, the group reached the following conclusions and agreements (verbatim):
1 -. We recognize the Cuban Film Institute and the Film Industry (Icaic) as the rector of the Cuban film industry state agency; born with the revolution and its long history is a legacy that belongs to all filmmakers. At the same time, we believe that the problems and projections of Cuban cinema today do not concern only the Icaic, but also other institutions and institutional groups or independently involved in their production, without whose help and commitment is not possible to achieve meaningful and lasting solutions. For that reason, its reorganization and promotion can not be done only in the context of this organism.
2 -. We understand the Cuban film produced through institutional, independent mechanisms, co-production with third or mixed formulas, and as filmmakers to all creators, technicians and Cuban specialists of these arts and industries that do their work inside or outside the institutions , whatever they may be aesthetic, content or affinity group. Consequently, it is imperative the adoption of Decree Law Media Creator recognition. This decree should be enriched with all additional legal supplements necessary.
3 -. We consider essential enacting a Film Law, whose production and given all participate and to be the legal body to order and protect the artistic and economic activity in the country.
4 -. We consider it important to study and implement a Film Development Fund, to which all authors in accessing equal rights and conditions, and open call to an independent jury whose selection parameter is the quality and feasibility of the whole project.
5 -. At this stage, the filmmakers give priority to the organization and remodeling of the methods of production and realization of works, the concept that these are, first and last instance being essentially the way we express ourselves and connect with the public. Similarly, we propose a systemic boost our activity covering the organization and remodeling of the forms of production, distribution, exhibition and national and international projection of Cuban cinema.
6 -. Start work, reviewing and updating the document "Proposals for a renewal of Cuban cinema", adopted at the Seventh Congress of the Uneac in 2008. As progress is made, they will be sharing all the proposals with the filmmakers.
7 -. Exchanging proposals and views with the State Commission working on the development of proposals for the transformation of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry.
8 -. To express our deep concern for all matters concerning international relations and Cuban cinema projection, which was a revolutionary vanguard movement in the Latin American and global context. We strive for a quick recovery and exchange relationships with filmmakers from Latin America and the world, and the continuity of the Festival of New Latin American Cinema, in its next edition turns 35.
9 -. This representation group performed their work in ongoing dialogue and communication with all filmmakers through regular meetings, which shall have the power to ratify or renew the group members, making decisions of common interest and to identify priorities and lines of job.
Filmmakers Group in the Assembly elected Cuban Filmmakers Saturday May 4 at the Centro Cultural Fresa y Chocolate, after its first meeting on May 8.
Havana, May 8, 2013. This was a verbatim article in Cubarte Magazine. [iv]
Festivals/ Markets
In 1979 Icaic created the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema aka Havana Film Festival as a way to disseminate its ethical convictions about developing film that was nonconformist, irreverent, critical of social injustice and rebellious against the pressures of the market across the continent. The event hosted over 600 filmmakers from Latin America and had as presidents of juries Gabriel García Márquez (Fiction ) and Santiago Álvarez (Documentaries and Cartoons.) The Coral Grand Prize winners were Geraldo Sarno (“Colonel Delmiro Gouveia”, Brazil) and Sergio Giral (“Maluala”, Cuba), in Fiction, Patricio Guzmán (“The Battle of Chile: the Struggle a People Without Arms”, Chile), Documentary, and Juan Padrón (“Elpidio Valdés”, Cuba) in Animation.
However, the contradiction of Icaic’s exercising a central control over maverick innovations is obvious since it controlled the production criteria and the right to decide what type of film was convenient to make and what was not.
An official competition of unpublished scripts for feature films is held by International Festival of New Latin American Cinema for authors from Latin America and the Caribbean for original scripts (no literary adaptations), written in Spanish and with Latin American themes. Scripts whose production rights have been transferred to third parties are not eligible. [v]
Icaic also supports the Festival Internacional de Cine Pobre de Humberto Solas[vi] for low budget films and Festival Internacional de Documentales “Santiago Alvarez in Memoriam”[vii].
Muestra Joven is a festival for Cuban youth with premiere fiction, doc and animated films. It has collateral activities of debates about the films in the festivals, master classes, meetings about contemporary issues and themes in the audiovisual community, workshps and onferences, poster exhibitions and homages.
In April 2014 the Mediateque of Women Directors, based in Cuba formally affiliated with The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in creating the the Caribbean Film Market. The project is also in association with The Foundation for Global Democracy and Development of the Dominican Republic, The Association for The Development of Art and Commercial Cinematography of Guadalupe, The Foundation for New Latinamerican Cinema, The Regional and International Film Festival of Guadalupe and the Mediateque of Women Directors.
Education
Icaic was in charge of training and promotion of talented young people not only in cinema but in other arts like music for which it created the Experimental Sound Group.
Isa
Most of the new independent filmmakers are young graduates of the Higher Art Institute’s (Isa) Faculty of Audiovisual Communication Media and its provincial affiliates. The University of Arts of Cuba - (Isa), Instituto Superior de Arte - was established on September 1, 1976 by the Cuban government as a school for the arts. Its original structure had three schools: Music, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts. At present the Isa has four schools, the previous three and the one for Arts and Audiovisual Communication Media. There are also four teaching schools in the provinces, one in Camagüey, two in Holguín and one in Santiago de Cuba. Isa offers pre-degree and post-degree courses, as well as a wide spectrum of brief and extension courses, including preparation for Cuban and foreign professors for a degree of Doctor on Sciences in Art. Predegree education has increased to five careers: Music, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, Dance Arts and Arts and Audiovisual Communication Media. In 1996, the Isa established the National Award of Artistic Teaching, conceived for recognizing a lifework devoted to arts teaching.
Eictv
Eictv, the International School of Cinema and Television was founded December 15, 1986 at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana with the support of then-President Fidel Castro on the initiative of Latin American cultural figures such as Argentine director, “Father of the New Latin American Cinema”, Fernando Birri, Julio and Gabo and Colombian Nobel Prize winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez who donated his prize money to establish the school.. It is located in San Antonio de los Baños near Havana, on land donated by the Cuban government.
Hundreds of young students from all over Latin America have studied direction, script, photography and edition. Since its founding , 810 students have graduated and it has become one of the region’s most important and well-grounded cultural projects.
Students pay 15,000 euros (about $19,700) to attend for the full three-year program. The fee includes food, lodging and equipment. Tuition income accounts for just 15 percent of the school's budget. Funding comes from international agencies such as Ibermedia; countries including Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Panama; and regional organizations like the Alba alliance of leftist Latin American nations.
For the past eight years, Nuevas Miradas, organized by the Eictv Production Department has held its presentations at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema for bringing new projects to the attention of international professionals.
Also in the late 1980s, Cuba created the Third World Film School to train students from various third world countries in the art of filmmaking.
Film Funding
Icaic has been the only body to fund films. How the selection of what films would receive funding has never been a public matter.
There are no instruments for private companies or individuals to contribute to film production in Cuba yet. There are however, international funds that may help finance films, such as Hubert Bals Fund from The Netherlands, World Cinema Fund from Germany, Fonds Sud from France, the Norwegian Fund, Sor Fond, Acp, etc. The best actively kept lists are found in Ocal[viii] and Online Film Financing [ix].
Coproduction with Cuba
As early as 1948 coproductions were common between Cuba and México. During the 70s and 80s Russian coproductions included Mikhail Kalatozov’s classic 1964 film “I Am Cuba” (“Soy Cuba”). Spain has played a role in coproducing Latin American and Cuban films since the 30s but in the 1990s it began to invest more heavily. In 1997 Ibermedia was created for the purpose of promoting coproduction between Spain and Latin American countries. Cuba is one of the fourteen countries involved in this organization.
In addition, Cuba has bilateral coproduction treaties with Italy, Canada, Venezuela, Spain and Chile. So far nothing has resulted from the Chile accord.
Two examples of Cuban coproduced films are Humberto Solás’ 1982 film “Cecilia” (Cuba - Spain) and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío’s 1992 Academy Award-nominated “Strawberry and Chocolate” (“Fresa y chocolate”) (Cuba – México – Spain - U.S.).
In September 2013 at San Sebastian International Film Festival’s 2nd Europe-Latin America Coproduction Forum, “The Companion”/ "El Acompañante" won the Best Project Award sponsored by Spain’s Audiovisual Producers’ Rights Management Association Egeda and carrying a 10,000 Euros (Us$13,000) cash award.
This is the third feature of Giroud after “The Silly Age” and “Omerta”. It is a coproduction of Cuba, Venezuela’s NativaPro Cinematográfica and France’s Tu Vas Voir owned by Edgard Tenembaum who produced Walter Salles’ “The Motorcycle Diaries”. The film also obtained the collaboration of Programa Ibermedia and was selected for Cinemas du Monde.
Pavel Giroud is one of the most promising of young Cuban filmmakers today. “The Companion”/ "El Acompañante" is set in 1988 Havana and tells the story of the friendship which develops between Horacio Romero, a Cuban boxer who fails a drug test and a defiant patient at an AIDS center under military rule for whom Romero must serve as a warden or, in Cuban government parlance, a “companion”. Playing the role of Horacio is Yotuel Romero (Latin Grammy Award-winning and founding member of Cuban rap group Orishas). Orishas is one of the world’s most critically hailed Latin-urban artists. The co-protagonist is Cuban actor Armando Miguel Gómez who has received international recognition for his role in the recent films "Behavior”/ “Conducta" and “Melaza”. International sales are handled by the Brazil-based international sales agency, Habanero, which, coincidently is owned by Cuban Alfredo Calvino and Brazilian Patricial Martin who handle such outstanding films as “Juan on the Dead”, Carlos Lechuga’s “Melaza”, Sebastian Cordero’s “Pescador” and Francisco Franco’s “Last Call”. Habanero also sponsors distribution awards at Ficg and Ventana Sur’s Primer Corte, a showcase for pictures in post-production. All the updated information about these films, including festivals and awards is available at: www.habanerofilmsales.com.
Case Study of the Producer, Inti Hererra
Cuba’s first English language film, “Eating the Sun”, a coproduction with Canada, is being produced by Inti Herrera who also is heading the new night spot of avant garde popular entertainment, La Fabrica de Arte Cubano.
Inti Herrera, formerly of 5ta Avenida Productions and I first met in 2003 through the international sales agent Alfredo Calvino whose then-company Latinofusion was selling Inti’s first fiction feature, “Viva Cuba”, a road movie of two kids traveling across Cuba in search of one’s father.
Inti graduated Eictv and worked for a long time as an independent producer of documentaries.
In 2009, when Camilo Vives, Icaic’s head of production created the Industry Sector of the Havana Film Festival Inti became its director and managed it until 2010. In 2010 when he was still running the industry space he invited me to speak about New Media, and I spoke of Peter Broderick who was then invited to do a workshop at Eictv.
As an executive producer, Inti must raise financing from the development through the completion of film projects. Each project is of course different from the last. He and Alejandro Brugués were originally discussing working on a different sort of film, “Melaza”, but put it on hold and in 2010 and 2011 he worked instead on the commercial film, “Juan of the Dead”, which is the most exhibited film of Cuba.
“Juan of the Dead”, Cuba’s first truly independent movie, a zombie horror comedy was coproduced in 2011 by Spain's La Zanfoña Producciones, where it was post-produced, and Cuba's first independent production company Producciones de la 5ta Avenida which also produced “Personal Belongings” in 2006 and “Melaza” in 2012. The film was written and directed by Alejandro Brugués (“Personal Belongings”). It was executive produced by Inti Herrera, Claudia Calviño and Gervasio Iglesias.
The film was represented for international sales by Latinofusion, a Guadalajara based company sponsored by Universidad de Guadalajara and managed by Alfredo Calvino. It was shown in more than 50 festivals worldwide, winning 10 audience awards and the Spanish Film Academy’s Goya Award of the for best Iberoamerican film. It sold to 42 territories.
“Juan of the Dead” distributors:
Argentina (Condor/ Mirada), Bolivia (Londra Films P&D), Brazil (Imovision), Canada (A-z Films), Chile (Arcadia Films), Germany (Pandastorm Pictures), Hong Kong and Macau (Sundream Motion Pictures), Hungary (Ads Service), Italy ( Moviemax Media Group Spa), Japan (Fine Films), Latin American Pay TV (HBO Latin America), México and Central America (Canana), Netherlands (Filmfreak), Norway (Tromso International Film Festival), Puerto Rico (Wiesner), Russia and Cis territories (Cinema Prestige), Spain (Avalon), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), U.K and Ireland (Metrodome), U.S.(Theatrical Distributor Outsider Pictures, all other rights Focus World)
Today Inti is working with a new director, Alfredo Ureta on the Canadian coproduction and the first Cuban film in English. “Eating the Sun” is about a Canadian-Cuban couple who decides to live in Cuba. Before settling in they make a tour of the country and become involved in a psychological thriller. The Canadian producer is Gordon Weiske of Canwood Entertainment. They are discussing the male lead role with Kris Holden-Ried. The goal is to find new markets for this film, markets which Cuba has not targeted before.
Top 10 Films of Cuba is a selection of my own:
1. “Memorias del subdesarrollo” (“Memories of Underdevelopment”) (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)
2. “Lucia” (Humberto Solás, 1969)
3. “Vampiros en La Habana” (“Vampires in Havana”) (Juan Padrón, 1983)
4. “Soy Cuba” (“I am Cuba”) ( Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964)
5. “La bella del Alhambra” (“The beauty of the Alhambra”) (Enrique Pineda Barnet, 1989)
6. “Fresa y Chocolate” (“Strawberry and Chocolate”) (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, 1993)
7. “Lista de Espera” (“The waiting list”) (Juan Carlos Tabío, 2000)
8. “Havana Suite” (“Suite Havana”) (Fernando Pérez, 2003)
9. “Juan of the Dead” (Alejandro Brugués, 2011)
10. “Melaza” (Carlos Lechuga, 2013)
[1] http://www.oncubamagazine.com/magazine/for-independent-and-industrial-cuban-cinema/
Cubacine. El Portal del Cine Cubano. http://www.cubacine.cu/index.html.
[ii] http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99785#sthash.yCWbyCcU.dpuf
[iii] http://oncubamagazine.com/magazine-articles/for-independent-and-industrial-cuban-cinema/ Cubacine. El Portal del Cine Cubano. http://www.cubacine.cu/index.html.
[iv] http://www.cubarte.cult.cu/periodico/opinion/cineastas-cubanos-por-el-cine-cubano/24423.html
[v] http://www.cinelatinoamericano.org/ocal/direct.aspx?cod=1234
[vi] www.festivalcinepobre.org , www.cubacine.cu/cinepobre
[vii] www.cubacine.cu/festivalsantiagoalvarez/index.html
[viii] http://www.cinelatinoamericano.org/ocal/directorios.aspx?cod=8&par=2
[ix] www.olffi.com/...
Alison Klayman wrote to say "I know you said at least two films, but I wanted specifically to alert you to the fact that my film "The 100 Years Show" is also playing in the Panorama Documental sections (same as Pj Letofsky's film). "The 100 Years Show" is about 100-year old Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera, and was produced with RatPac (Brett Ratner) Documentary Films. I'll be attending the festival too.
Alex Mallis wrote in to say: "Our short narrative, "La Noche buena" (the first American-directed since the embargo) is also screening at the festival.
Original Blog:
At least two films by American filmmakers will screen this year at the Havana Film Festival, whose official name is Festival de Cine Nuevo Latinamericano. As the Centerpiece Film, Bob Yari, producer of almost 50 films, will screen his second directed film “Papa” about Ernest Hemingway. It can be called “the first [official or legal] American film made in Havana in the last fifty years”, though underground films have been made (e.g., “Love & Suicide”). “Papa” is being sold at Afm by Elias Axume’s Premiere Entertainment.
Doc filmmaker Pj Letofsky will also be screening his film “ Tarkovsky: Time Within Time” which just premiered at the Sao Paolo Film Festival.
Many U.S. citizens are now interested in going to Havana. To give an in-depth look at Cuba’s film business, I am publishing a [long] chapter of what I hope will soon be published, my book on Iberoamerican film business. I will also be publishing another [shorter] interview here soon with Havana Film Festival Director, Ivan Giroud.
Cuba (Chapter Seven)
Officially the Republic of Cuba, or in Spanish, República de Cuba, the nation is comprised of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. To the north of Cuba lies the United States; the Bahamas are to the northeast, México to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica to the south, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic are to the southeast.
Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, and with over 11 million inhabitants.
Cuba is undergoing a transition into a market, entrepreneurial economy under the Presidency of Raul Castro. With this transition, the cinema industry is also undergoing great changes. The state mandated organization, Icaic, which has been running the cinema industry, is now under scrutiny. New legislation concerning the film industry is slowly underway as a result of discussions ongoing within the film community. Hopefully the establishment of diplomatic relations will the U.S. last October will propel changes, though without lifting the embargo, it may not.
History of Cinema of Cuba
Cuba’s elite has always stayed in touch with the latest in culture as it developed in Europe during the Spanish colonial era. Cuba’s tradition of cinema dates back to 1897 when the Lumiére Brothers representative from France stopped in Havana to show their films on a tour of the Antilles Islands, México, Venezuela, and the Guineas. Cuba’s particular style of cinema, called the “Cinema of the Greater Antilles”, evolved from the theater of melodrama and comedy and from the radio dramas of Felix B. Caignet, all of which formed the popular melodramas and comedies we still see today.
Mexican coproductions and U.S. filmmakers escaping the monopolistic Edison came to Cuba as well as to California in the early days of film. Federico Garcia Lorca arrived in Cuba in 1930 with a screenplay, “Voyage of the Moon”, and a print of “Un Chien Andalou” hoping to break from the Paris-Berlin monopoly, but his plans never took shape. Many films from Spain, México, Argentina and Uruguay also played in Cuba. Some leading Cuban actors had a strong presence in México and Argentina. Musicians such as Ernesto Lecuona, Bola de Nieve and Rita Montaner performed in movies in several countries.
Cuba, along with Mexico and Argentina, has the most developed cinema culture of Latin America. At its most prosperous, it had the third largest number of theaters in Latin America until the special period when Ussr withdrew its support. Today it has 39 movie theaters. Three of them, including the Yara in Havana, had been built especially for 3D in the 1950s.
Movie going is one of Cuba’s national pastimes, rating perhaps as high as baseball. The average Cuban sees one and a half films a year. However, the lack of international appeal for most of its comedies and melodramas has held its international growth in check up to today. That is now changing.
The international nature of Cuban cinema was consciously defined after the Revolution of 1959 when the Institute for Cuban Art and Industry Cinematography (Icaic) was created by Fidel Castro and entrusted to his university classmate, Alfredo Guevara. The law creating Icaic was incorporated into the Cuban Constitution itself just three months after the Revolution and was an important part of the Nuevo Cine Latinoamerico, a movement throughout Latin America as the Latin American nations threw off their dictatorships. Film, according to this law, is "the most powerful and provocative form of artistic expression, and the most direct and widespread vehicle for education and bringing ideas to the public.”
Cinema was created for theatrical exhibition, for individuals and groups to share in smaller collectives, and for television.
The law ordaining Icaic to control every cinematographic activity created no further rules about financing, about submitting, reading and approving project proposals or regarding any required time frames. Icaic functions very internally with no outside surveillance.
Actually it is possible to make films without Icaic participation, the point is that without Icaic a film cannot get national distribution.
Over the past decade Icaic has loosened its monopolistic administration. Every sector and every level of cinema is discussing the concept of a new Law of Cinema with the government’s interest in formalizing as law a more inclusive infrastructure with more transparent rules and regulations.
Under the leadership of Raul Castro, the island has been undergoing a gradual economic reform process allowing entrepreneurs to license their own businesses after decades of state monopoly. The measures include the authorization of self-employment in more than 200 small trades and activities. According to the government, there are currently 442,000 registered as “self-employed”. The Castro administration hopes for this emerging sector to absorb over a million state workers to be laid off in the coming years.[ii]
In October 2014, the state closed down many private cinemas which had emerged avowing to the love of cinema of the people. Many were 3D “salons” in homes or in separate rooms in restaurants. Authorities pressed for "order, discipline and obedience" in the growing small business sector. Needless to say, the films shown were pirated and not licensed by the rights holders. Nor was there ever any official licensing to privately owned theaters (yet).
However, these could provide a good source of taxation. It needs to be decided what shall be taxed, how tax monies should be apportioned for film funding, film education, what tax incentives the government might offer, how distribution will be subsidized, how archives may be maintained and presented, how to regulate screenings, dvd, TV and online platforms, what cash incentives might bring in production from the outside, what joint ventures within the Caribbean might be developed and how Icaic is approaching and incorporating the changing environment. The Director of Icaic, Robert Smith de Castro. is facing more challenges than its previous longtime Director, Alfredo Guevera, ever faced when the government provided everything. Now it must find answers from its neighbors and its own internal producers and procedures.
In general, funding a film, renting equipment and shooting in Cuba all need to be approved by Icaic. This has changed somewhat as other players have come to take a role, like Rtv Commercial, which is in fact the production company of Cuban National Television.
Rtv Commercial coproduced the newest Cuban hit, “Conducta” (“Behavior”) with Icaic. It premiered at Ficg 2014 (Guadalajara International Film Festival) and played at Tiff 2014 and other festivals such as the Málaga Spanish Film Festival 2014 where it won five awards.
New Developments in Cuban Cinema
In 2014 there were 14 productions and coproductions made, compared to seven in 2009 and 4 in 2000 according to FnCl and Ocal, databases of Latin American film.
At Cannes’ Cinema du Monde in May 2014 and in San Sebastian’s Coproduction Forum, “ August” (“Agosto”) was one of 15 projects selected to be seen and discussed by the international community of sales, distribution and financial executives. Directed by Armando Capó Ramos and produced by La Feria Producciones’ Marcella Esquivel, it is a coproduction between Costa Rica and Cuba. It will shoot next year in Havana and is now raising funds through crowdfunding. Also featured among the 15 in San Sebastian was “Wolfdog” (“Hombre entre perro y lobo”) directed by Irene Gutiérrez and produced by El Viaje Films, a Spain-Cuba coproduction.
Seeking modes of financing outside of government funding began in 2002 with the Festival of New Filmmakers showcasing projects was created by young people outside the Icaic system. As a result of the 2002 event, five years later, a funding mechanism called Hacienda Cine was created by pulling productions from Icaic Cuban television into centers and foundations that have other areas for audiovisual production. Pitch sessions for each selected entity were set up. The prize for production services worth 20,000 Convertible Cuban Pesos (equivalent to Us $20,000) was set up by Icaic Production. There are currently also smaller groups creating smaller formats, scientific or otherwise who are fomenting alternative forms of financing as well.
Lia Rodriguez Nieto is an attorney who was mentored by and worked fourteen years, until his death, with Camilo Vives, Icaic’s head of production, first as an attorney and then as a producer. She has now taken charge of the industry section at the Havana Film Festival which Vives began in 2009. She and Antonio López, recently produced a Cuba-Panama-France coproduction “ El Acompañante” (“The Companion”) directed by Pavel Giroud. She states that over the last five to seven years, private (not state institutional) productions have co-existed with institutional production. However, it would be important for independent producers to have a more regulated and confident relationship with Icaic in a more normalized fashion in order to have easier access to filming permits, forms of financing, banking relations, coproduction treaties, and a number of other elements which are essential to film production.
Rebeca Chávez is a director and a member of one of the groups pushing for a new cinema law which will, in principle, establish a new system incorporating the democratic participation of all people in the business, including techs, writers, directors, producers, actors, etc. and where all will have a democratically designed access to funds. In1984 she began her career as documentary director and her work has been given different national and international awards. She is the second woman in Cuba who has made feature films. She has taught several seminars on theory and practice of documentary cinema and on the Cuban experience in the genre in different institutions in the United States, Puerto Rico, England and Spain. She has worked as advisor for scripts of documentaries and feature films.
It is most important that the state has the will to make these changes, and it has stated it is open to changing the laws. Omar González who succeeded Alfredo Guevara as the head of the Icaic was replaced in 2013 by 30 year Icaic employee Roberto Smith de Castro who is now faced with reorganizing Icaic and implementing new laws which are yet to be formulated. He is considered to be a patient and attentive man who listens and will work to incorporate the diverse opinions into a new working reality.
The son of the famed director Daniel Diaz Torres whose controversial film “Alicia en el pueblo de Maravillas” (“Alice in the City of Wonders”) in 1991 was so critical of the bureaucracy of the government at the time of the Soviet collapse that it caused the resignation of Icaic’s director Espinosa, independent producer Daniel Diaz Ravelo points out that the independent producer is neither legal nor illegal but exists in a sort of limbo, free to produce whatever he or she wants but needing legal sanctions to access necessary permits, equipment, etc. And a filmmaker has no bank account so fiscal responsibility is difficult. One must get a certificate from Icaic but there is no registration rule on how this is to be done.
And it gets more complicated. It is difficult to raise a Us$400,000 budget without networking with filmmakers from other countries and yet travel is not easy for Cubans. They can travel -- Cuba no longer has a problem with that -– but often they cannot get the visa required from the country they want or need to travel to. Daniel’s father had a problem in traveling to find financing for his last film, “La Pelicula de Ana” (“Ana's Movie”), from former producers of his films. It did receive some funding from Icaic and from former funding friend, Icestorm in Germany, and a loan from Ibermedia. Unfortunately Daniel Diaz Torres, Sr. recently died an early death and did not see the fruits of his labor in the 2013 Havana premiere.
The new generation today in Cuba is highly independent; it knows that diversity of film subjects and of filmmakers is key to Cuban cinema today and it is finding diverse sources of financing and distribution. It needs more information as well because everything depends upon contacts. Cineastes traveling to Cuba will find a vibrant group open to coproducing.
2015 marks the eighth year of the Havana Film Festival’s Works in Progress. The Post Production Award, Nuestra América Primera Copia, is an international competition for films from Latin America and from Cuba, with no restrictions; films can be produced by Icaic or independently. For example, in 2013 awards went to four films, one from Chile, “I’m Not Lorena” (“No Soy Lorena”), which premiered at Tiff 2014; one from Argentina, “La Salada”, which premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival 2014 and Tiff 2014; and two from Cuba -- one Icaic film, “His Wedding Dress” (“Vestido de novia”), and the independent, “Venice” which was also Tiff 2014.
Thanks to an initiative by La Muestra, a group of Cuban production companies (including several independent ones), once a year support is awarded to four or five projects by young filmmakers. The independent film “Melaza” by Carlos Lechuga with the 5ta Avenida Productions premiered on October 3, 2013.
Rubén Padrón Astorga, writing for On Cuba [iii], November-December 2013 [1] writes:
The best prospects for our cinema today emerged like an earthquake in late April of this year, when Kiki Álvarez, the director of “Jirafas”, “La ola” and “Marina” and “Venezia”, initiated a debate on the problems that the country has with two vital filmmaking processes (production and distribution). Close to 60 audiovisual makers responded with a meeting where they formed a Filmmakers Committee to represent the rest of the country’s professionals.
Soon after its creation, the Committee announced that its objectives included ensuring the active participation of Cuban filmmakers in every decision that was made about [our] cinema, and protecting and developing its production at the industrial and independent levels. At this time, they are working together with Icaic and the Ministry of Culture to pass a decree-law defining the autonomous audiovisual creator, which would legitimize filmmakers as a legal concept, with full rights to exercise their profession. However, the decree-law, which was drafted seven years ago and ratified by the most recent Uneac Congress, was rewritten by the Filmmakers Committee so that it is not limited to recognizing audiovisual practice as individual work, but as collective, and so that it legally protects independent producers.
This committee, together with the so-called Ministry of Culture Temporary Working Group for the Transformation of Icaic, is actively participating in drawing up a diagnosis of Cuban cinema’s problems, which will be followed with the drafting of policies and actions for solving those problems. This step will clear the way for the long-term creation of a comprehensive film law. This law, which would involve widening the scope of the law passed in 1959 for Icaic’s founding, or drafting a new one, would include the creation of a film commission that would support production and make it viable; a promotion fund that would be governed by an arts council, and to which all independent and institutional artists could aspire; financial incentives that would promote the support of private and state companies and sponsors; and a general legal framework that conceives of cinema systemically, inspired by the useful experiences that have taken place in other countries in the region, such as Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
A convocation of cinema directors was held May 4, 2013 in Strawberry and Chocolate Cultural Center, Havana to address the need to participate in all plans and activities planned for Cuban cinema. The meeting chose a working group composed of Enrique Kiki Álvarez, Enrique Colina, Rebeca Chávez Lourdes de los Santos, Daniel Diaz Ravelo, Pavel Giroud, Magda González Grau, Inti Herrera, Senel Paz, Fernando Perez, Manuel Perez and Pedro L. Rodríguez.
The main objective of this group is to represent the filmmakers at all levels and events, promote and ensure the active participation of the same in all decisions and projects that relate to Cuban cinema, and strive for the protection and development of these arts and industries and their makers, which is our right and duty as protagonists of this art. At its first meeting, the group reached the following conclusions and agreements (verbatim):
1 -. We recognize the Cuban Film Institute and the Film Industry (Icaic) as the rector of the Cuban film industry state agency; born with the revolution and its long history is a legacy that belongs to all filmmakers. At the same time, we believe that the problems and projections of Cuban cinema today do not concern only the Icaic, but also other institutions and institutional groups or independently involved in their production, without whose help and commitment is not possible to achieve meaningful and lasting solutions. For that reason, its reorganization and promotion can not be done only in the context of this organism.
2 -. We understand the Cuban film produced through institutional, independent mechanisms, co-production with third or mixed formulas, and as filmmakers to all creators, technicians and Cuban specialists of these arts and industries that do their work inside or outside the institutions , whatever they may be aesthetic, content or affinity group. Consequently, it is imperative the adoption of Decree Law Media Creator recognition. This decree should be enriched with all additional legal supplements necessary.
3 -. We consider essential enacting a Film Law, whose production and given all participate and to be the legal body to order and protect the artistic and economic activity in the country.
4 -. We consider it important to study and implement a Film Development Fund, to which all authors in accessing equal rights and conditions, and open call to an independent jury whose selection parameter is the quality and feasibility of the whole project.
5 -. At this stage, the filmmakers give priority to the organization and remodeling of the methods of production and realization of works, the concept that these are, first and last instance being essentially the way we express ourselves and connect with the public. Similarly, we propose a systemic boost our activity covering the organization and remodeling of the forms of production, distribution, exhibition and national and international projection of Cuban cinema.
6 -. Start work, reviewing and updating the document "Proposals for a renewal of Cuban cinema", adopted at the Seventh Congress of the Uneac in 2008. As progress is made, they will be sharing all the proposals with the filmmakers.
7 -. Exchanging proposals and views with the State Commission working on the development of proposals for the transformation of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry.
8 -. To express our deep concern for all matters concerning international relations and Cuban cinema projection, which was a revolutionary vanguard movement in the Latin American and global context. We strive for a quick recovery and exchange relationships with filmmakers from Latin America and the world, and the continuity of the Festival of New Latin American Cinema, in its next edition turns 35.
9 -. This representation group performed their work in ongoing dialogue and communication with all filmmakers through regular meetings, which shall have the power to ratify or renew the group members, making decisions of common interest and to identify priorities and lines of job.
Filmmakers Group in the Assembly elected Cuban Filmmakers Saturday May 4 at the Centro Cultural Fresa y Chocolate, after its first meeting on May 8.
Havana, May 8, 2013. This was a verbatim article in Cubarte Magazine. [iv]
Festivals/ Markets
In 1979 Icaic created the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema aka Havana Film Festival as a way to disseminate its ethical convictions about developing film that was nonconformist, irreverent, critical of social injustice and rebellious against the pressures of the market across the continent. The event hosted over 600 filmmakers from Latin America and had as presidents of juries Gabriel García Márquez (Fiction ) and Santiago Álvarez (Documentaries and Cartoons.) The Coral Grand Prize winners were Geraldo Sarno (“Colonel Delmiro Gouveia”, Brazil) and Sergio Giral (“Maluala”, Cuba), in Fiction, Patricio Guzmán (“The Battle of Chile: the Struggle a People Without Arms”, Chile), Documentary, and Juan Padrón (“Elpidio Valdés”, Cuba) in Animation.
However, the contradiction of Icaic’s exercising a central control over maverick innovations is obvious since it controlled the production criteria and the right to decide what type of film was convenient to make and what was not.
An official competition of unpublished scripts for feature films is held by International Festival of New Latin American Cinema for authors from Latin America and the Caribbean for original scripts (no literary adaptations), written in Spanish and with Latin American themes. Scripts whose production rights have been transferred to third parties are not eligible. [v]
Icaic also supports the Festival Internacional de Cine Pobre de Humberto Solas[vi] for low budget films and Festival Internacional de Documentales “Santiago Alvarez in Memoriam”[vii].
Muestra Joven is a festival for Cuban youth with premiere fiction, doc and animated films. It has collateral activities of debates about the films in the festivals, master classes, meetings about contemporary issues and themes in the audiovisual community, workshps and onferences, poster exhibitions and homages.
In April 2014 the Mediateque of Women Directors, based in Cuba formally affiliated with The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in creating the the Caribbean Film Market. The project is also in association with The Foundation for Global Democracy and Development of the Dominican Republic, The Association for The Development of Art and Commercial Cinematography of Guadalupe, The Foundation for New Latinamerican Cinema, The Regional and International Film Festival of Guadalupe and the Mediateque of Women Directors.
Education
Icaic was in charge of training and promotion of talented young people not only in cinema but in other arts like music for which it created the Experimental Sound Group.
Isa
Most of the new independent filmmakers are young graduates of the Higher Art Institute’s (Isa) Faculty of Audiovisual Communication Media and its provincial affiliates. The University of Arts of Cuba - (Isa), Instituto Superior de Arte - was established on September 1, 1976 by the Cuban government as a school for the arts. Its original structure had three schools: Music, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts. At present the Isa has four schools, the previous three and the one for Arts and Audiovisual Communication Media. There are also four teaching schools in the provinces, one in Camagüey, two in Holguín and one in Santiago de Cuba. Isa offers pre-degree and post-degree courses, as well as a wide spectrum of brief and extension courses, including preparation for Cuban and foreign professors for a degree of Doctor on Sciences in Art. Predegree education has increased to five careers: Music, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, Dance Arts and Arts and Audiovisual Communication Media. In 1996, the Isa established the National Award of Artistic Teaching, conceived for recognizing a lifework devoted to arts teaching.
Eictv
Eictv, the International School of Cinema and Television was founded December 15, 1986 at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana with the support of then-President Fidel Castro on the initiative of Latin American cultural figures such as Argentine director, “Father of the New Latin American Cinema”, Fernando Birri, Julio and Gabo and Colombian Nobel Prize winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez who donated his prize money to establish the school.. It is located in San Antonio de los Baños near Havana, on land donated by the Cuban government.
Hundreds of young students from all over Latin America have studied direction, script, photography and edition. Since its founding , 810 students have graduated and it has become one of the region’s most important and well-grounded cultural projects.
Students pay 15,000 euros (about $19,700) to attend for the full three-year program. The fee includes food, lodging and equipment. Tuition income accounts for just 15 percent of the school's budget. Funding comes from international agencies such as Ibermedia; countries including Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Panama; and regional organizations like the Alba alliance of leftist Latin American nations.
For the past eight years, Nuevas Miradas, organized by the Eictv Production Department has held its presentations at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema for bringing new projects to the attention of international professionals.
Also in the late 1980s, Cuba created the Third World Film School to train students from various third world countries in the art of filmmaking.
Film Funding
Icaic has been the only body to fund films. How the selection of what films would receive funding has never been a public matter.
There are no instruments for private companies or individuals to contribute to film production in Cuba yet. There are however, international funds that may help finance films, such as Hubert Bals Fund from The Netherlands, World Cinema Fund from Germany, Fonds Sud from France, the Norwegian Fund, Sor Fond, Acp, etc. The best actively kept lists are found in Ocal[viii] and Online Film Financing [ix].
Coproduction with Cuba
As early as 1948 coproductions were common between Cuba and México. During the 70s and 80s Russian coproductions included Mikhail Kalatozov’s classic 1964 film “I Am Cuba” (“Soy Cuba”). Spain has played a role in coproducing Latin American and Cuban films since the 30s but in the 1990s it began to invest more heavily. In 1997 Ibermedia was created for the purpose of promoting coproduction between Spain and Latin American countries. Cuba is one of the fourteen countries involved in this organization.
In addition, Cuba has bilateral coproduction treaties with Italy, Canada, Venezuela, Spain and Chile. So far nothing has resulted from the Chile accord.
Two examples of Cuban coproduced films are Humberto Solás’ 1982 film “Cecilia” (Cuba - Spain) and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío’s 1992 Academy Award-nominated “Strawberry and Chocolate” (“Fresa y chocolate”) (Cuba – México – Spain - U.S.).
In September 2013 at San Sebastian International Film Festival’s 2nd Europe-Latin America Coproduction Forum, “The Companion”/ "El Acompañante" won the Best Project Award sponsored by Spain’s Audiovisual Producers’ Rights Management Association Egeda and carrying a 10,000 Euros (Us$13,000) cash award.
This is the third feature of Giroud after “The Silly Age” and “Omerta”. It is a coproduction of Cuba, Venezuela’s NativaPro Cinematográfica and France’s Tu Vas Voir owned by Edgard Tenembaum who produced Walter Salles’ “The Motorcycle Diaries”. The film also obtained the collaboration of Programa Ibermedia and was selected for Cinemas du Monde.
Pavel Giroud is one of the most promising of young Cuban filmmakers today. “The Companion”/ "El Acompañante" is set in 1988 Havana and tells the story of the friendship which develops between Horacio Romero, a Cuban boxer who fails a drug test and a defiant patient at an AIDS center under military rule for whom Romero must serve as a warden or, in Cuban government parlance, a “companion”. Playing the role of Horacio is Yotuel Romero (Latin Grammy Award-winning and founding member of Cuban rap group Orishas). Orishas is one of the world’s most critically hailed Latin-urban artists. The co-protagonist is Cuban actor Armando Miguel Gómez who has received international recognition for his role in the recent films "Behavior”/ “Conducta" and “Melaza”. International sales are handled by the Brazil-based international sales agency, Habanero, which, coincidently is owned by Cuban Alfredo Calvino and Brazilian Patricial Martin who handle such outstanding films as “Juan on the Dead”, Carlos Lechuga’s “Melaza”, Sebastian Cordero’s “Pescador” and Francisco Franco’s “Last Call”. Habanero also sponsors distribution awards at Ficg and Ventana Sur’s Primer Corte, a showcase for pictures in post-production. All the updated information about these films, including festivals and awards is available at: www.habanerofilmsales.com.
Case Study of the Producer, Inti Hererra
Cuba’s first English language film, “Eating the Sun”, a coproduction with Canada, is being produced by Inti Herrera who also is heading the new night spot of avant garde popular entertainment, La Fabrica de Arte Cubano.
Inti Herrera, formerly of 5ta Avenida Productions and I first met in 2003 through the international sales agent Alfredo Calvino whose then-company Latinofusion was selling Inti’s first fiction feature, “Viva Cuba”, a road movie of two kids traveling across Cuba in search of one’s father.
Inti graduated Eictv and worked for a long time as an independent producer of documentaries.
In 2009, when Camilo Vives, Icaic’s head of production created the Industry Sector of the Havana Film Festival Inti became its director and managed it until 2010. In 2010 when he was still running the industry space he invited me to speak about New Media, and I spoke of Peter Broderick who was then invited to do a workshop at Eictv.
As an executive producer, Inti must raise financing from the development through the completion of film projects. Each project is of course different from the last. He and Alejandro Brugués were originally discussing working on a different sort of film, “Melaza”, but put it on hold and in 2010 and 2011 he worked instead on the commercial film, “Juan of the Dead”, which is the most exhibited film of Cuba.
“Juan of the Dead”, Cuba’s first truly independent movie, a zombie horror comedy was coproduced in 2011 by Spain's La Zanfoña Producciones, where it was post-produced, and Cuba's first independent production company Producciones de la 5ta Avenida which also produced “Personal Belongings” in 2006 and “Melaza” in 2012. The film was written and directed by Alejandro Brugués (“Personal Belongings”). It was executive produced by Inti Herrera, Claudia Calviño and Gervasio Iglesias.
The film was represented for international sales by Latinofusion, a Guadalajara based company sponsored by Universidad de Guadalajara and managed by Alfredo Calvino. It was shown in more than 50 festivals worldwide, winning 10 audience awards and the Spanish Film Academy’s Goya Award of the for best Iberoamerican film. It sold to 42 territories.
“Juan of the Dead” distributors:
Argentina (Condor/ Mirada), Bolivia (Londra Films P&D), Brazil (Imovision), Canada (A-z Films), Chile (Arcadia Films), Germany (Pandastorm Pictures), Hong Kong and Macau (Sundream Motion Pictures), Hungary (Ads Service), Italy ( Moviemax Media Group Spa), Japan (Fine Films), Latin American Pay TV (HBO Latin America), México and Central America (Canana), Netherlands (Filmfreak), Norway (Tromso International Film Festival), Puerto Rico (Wiesner), Russia and Cis territories (Cinema Prestige), Spain (Avalon), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), U.K and Ireland (Metrodome), U.S.(Theatrical Distributor Outsider Pictures, all other rights Focus World)
Today Inti is working with a new director, Alfredo Ureta on the Canadian coproduction and the first Cuban film in English. “Eating the Sun” is about a Canadian-Cuban couple who decides to live in Cuba. Before settling in they make a tour of the country and become involved in a psychological thriller. The Canadian producer is Gordon Weiske of Canwood Entertainment. They are discussing the male lead role with Kris Holden-Ried. The goal is to find new markets for this film, markets which Cuba has not targeted before.
Top 10 Films of Cuba is a selection of my own:
1. “Memorias del subdesarrollo” (“Memories of Underdevelopment”) (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)
2. “Lucia” (Humberto Solás, 1969)
3. “Vampiros en La Habana” (“Vampires in Havana”) (Juan Padrón, 1983)
4. “Soy Cuba” (“I am Cuba”) ( Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964)
5. “La bella del Alhambra” (“The beauty of the Alhambra”) (Enrique Pineda Barnet, 1989)
6. “Fresa y Chocolate” (“Strawberry and Chocolate”) (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, 1993)
7. “Lista de Espera” (“The waiting list”) (Juan Carlos Tabío, 2000)
8. “Havana Suite” (“Suite Havana”) (Fernando Pérez, 2003)
9. “Juan of the Dead” (Alejandro Brugués, 2011)
10. “Melaza” (Carlos Lechuga, 2013)
[1] http://www.oncubamagazine.com/magazine/for-independent-and-industrial-cuban-cinema/
Cubacine. El Portal del Cine Cubano. http://www.cubacine.cu/index.html.
[ii] http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99785#sthash.yCWbyCcU.dpuf
[iii] http://oncubamagazine.com/magazine-articles/for-independent-and-industrial-cuban-cinema/ Cubacine. El Portal del Cine Cubano. http://www.cubacine.cu/index.html.
[iv] http://www.cubarte.cult.cu/periodico/opinion/cineastas-cubanos-por-el-cine-cubano/24423.html
[v] http://www.cinelatinoamericano.org/ocal/direct.aspx?cod=1234
[vi] www.festivalcinepobre.org , www.cubacine.cu/cinepobre
[vii] www.cubacine.cu/festivalsantiagoalvarez/index.html
[viii] http://www.cinelatinoamericano.org/ocal/directorios.aspx?cod=8&par=2
[ix] www.olffi.com/...
- 11/19/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2016: 'Viva' with Héctor Medina. Multicultural Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2016 submissions Nearly ten years ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed a key rule regarding entries for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar;* since then, things have gotten quite colorful. Just yesterday, Sept. 16, '15, Ireland submitted Paddy Breathnach's Viva – a Cuban-set drama spoken in Spanish. And why not? To name a couple more “multicultural and multinational” entries this year alone: China's submission, with dialogue in Mandarin and Mongolian, is Wolf Totem, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud – a Frenchman. And Germany's entry, Labyrinth of Lies, was directed by Giulio Ricciarelli, who happens to be a German-based, Italian-born stage and TV actor. 'Viva': Sexual identity in 21st-century Cuba Executive produced by Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), Viva tells the story of an 18-year-old Havana drag-club worker,...
- 9/17/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
The trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) has unveiled its first selections for this year’s edition of the Festival with the announcement that ten classic Caribbean films will form part of the 2015 lineup.
These ten films will screen in a special sidebar to the main program in honor of the ttff’s tenth anniversary. The Festival takes place from September 15–29.
“Many people are unaware that there has been a Caribbean film industry for quite some time, or that almost every country in the region has produced feature films,” said Bruce Paddington, ttff Founder and Festival Director. “We are therefore very proud to present ten of the very best classic films from the Caribbean that will help one to appreciate and enjoy the rich diversity of the region.”
Comprising films from nine different countries, the sidebar ranges across the English, Spanish, French and Dutch-speaking sections of the region.
The lineup includes the Jamaican classic, "The Harder They Come," and "Bim," from T&T.
"Memories of Underdevelopment," the oldest film in the lineup, is from 1968, while the most recent, "Strawberry and Chocolate," was released in 1993. Both of those films hail from Cuba.
The full slate of films is as follows:
-"Memories of Underdevelopment" (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1968)
-"The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell," Jamaica, 1972)
-"Bim" (Hugh A. Robertson, Trinidad and Tobago, 1974)
-"One People" (Pim de la Parra, Suriname, 1976)
-"Man By the Shore" (Raoul Peck, Haiti, 1983)
-"Sugar Cane Alley" (Euzhan Palcy, Martinique, 1983)
-"One Way Ticket" (Agliberto Menéndez, Dominican Republic, 1988)
-"What Happened to Santiago" (Jacobo Morales, Puerto Rico, 1989)
-"Ava and Gabriel: A Love Story" (Felix de Rooy, Curaçao, 1990)
-"Strawberry and Chocolate" (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, Cuba, 1993)
In addition to screening in honor of the Festival’s tenth anniversary, the classics also screen in recognition of the launch of the Caribbean Film Database, an online resource which, in the first instance, will present information on over 600 independent feature-length films made in and about the Caribbean. The database is co-financed by the Acp Cultures+ Program, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Acp Group of States.
The rest of the lineup for the ttff/15 will be unveiled over the upcoming months. For more information about the Festival, visit http://ttfilmfestival.com.
These ten films will screen in a special sidebar to the main program in honor of the ttff’s tenth anniversary. The Festival takes place from September 15–29.
“Many people are unaware that there has been a Caribbean film industry for quite some time, or that almost every country in the region has produced feature films,” said Bruce Paddington, ttff Founder and Festival Director. “We are therefore very proud to present ten of the very best classic films from the Caribbean that will help one to appreciate and enjoy the rich diversity of the region.”
Comprising films from nine different countries, the sidebar ranges across the English, Spanish, French and Dutch-speaking sections of the region.
The lineup includes the Jamaican classic, "The Harder They Come," and "Bim," from T&T.
"Memories of Underdevelopment," the oldest film in the lineup, is from 1968, while the most recent, "Strawberry and Chocolate," was released in 1993. Both of those films hail from Cuba.
The full slate of films is as follows:
-"Memories of Underdevelopment" (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1968)
-"The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell," Jamaica, 1972)
-"Bim" (Hugh A. Robertson, Trinidad and Tobago, 1974)
-"One People" (Pim de la Parra, Suriname, 1976)
-"Man By the Shore" (Raoul Peck, Haiti, 1983)
-"Sugar Cane Alley" (Euzhan Palcy, Martinique, 1983)
-"One Way Ticket" (Agliberto Menéndez, Dominican Republic, 1988)
-"What Happened to Santiago" (Jacobo Morales, Puerto Rico, 1989)
-"Ava and Gabriel: A Love Story" (Felix de Rooy, Curaçao, 1990)
-"Strawberry and Chocolate" (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, Cuba, 1993)
In addition to screening in honor of the Festival’s tenth anniversary, the classics also screen in recognition of the launch of the Caribbean Film Database, an online resource which, in the first instance, will present information on over 600 independent feature-length films made in and about the Caribbean. The database is co-financed by the Acp Cultures+ Program, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Acp Group of States.
The rest of the lineup for the ttff/15 will be unveiled over the upcoming months. For more information about the Festival, visit http://ttfilmfestival.com.
- 7/11/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Top brass at the 2015 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) said on Monday they have selected ten classic Caribbean films in the first programming wave of this year’s edition.
The films will screen in a sidebar at the ttff’s tenth anniversary outing, set to run from September 15–29.
“Many people are unaware that there has been a Caribbean film industry for quite some time, or that almost every country in the region has produced feature films,” said ttff founder and festival director Bruce Paddington.
“We are therefore very proud to present ten of the very best classic films from the Caribbean that will help one to appreciate and enjoy the rich diversity of the region.”
The sidebar covers multiple languages spoken across the region and features:
Memories Of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1968);
The Harder They Come (pictured, Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1972);
Bim (Hugh A Robertson, Trinidad and Tobago, 1974);
One People (Pim de la Parra, Suriname, 1976);
Man...
The films will screen in a sidebar at the ttff’s tenth anniversary outing, set to run from September 15–29.
“Many people are unaware that there has been a Caribbean film industry for quite some time, or that almost every country in the region has produced feature films,” said ttff founder and festival director Bruce Paddington.
“We are therefore very proud to present ten of the very best classic films from the Caribbean that will help one to appreciate and enjoy the rich diversity of the region.”
The sidebar covers multiple languages spoken across the region and features:
Memories Of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1968);
The Harder They Come (pictured, Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1972);
Bim (Hugh A Robertson, Trinidad and Tobago, 1974);
One People (Pim de la Parra, Suriname, 1976);
Man...
- 7/6/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Recently during the 67th Edition of the Cannes Film Festival, Cinema23, an association created in 2012 to promote Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese film culture, announced the Fénix Film Awards (Premio Iberoamericano de Cine Fénix). This unique event will take place for the first time in Mexico City in October 2014.
The Mexican actor, director and producer Gael García Bernal (in absentia because of his duties on the jury for Cannes Competition), Portuguese director and actress Maria de Medeiros, Brazilian actress Alice Braga, Spanish actress Paz Vega and Mexican actress Ana de la Reguera, presented the Fénix Film Awards to the international media as one of the key strategies of Cinema23 to provide visibility and recognition of the cinema made in the region.
“There is great variety in our region´s cinema with different forms and languages that in many cases reflect part of who we are. However we are not always able to enjoy it in our own countries, much less worldwide. The activities carried out by Cinema23 aim to develop a closer engagement between the filmmakers and their audiences. It is extremely important to have more visibility in order to gain recognition for the diversity of cinema. This is the premise under which we organized the Fénix Film Awards, commented Ricardo Giraldo, Director of Cinema23.
Ana de la Reguera added: “We have great talent in the region, but it is barely known outside film festivals; it’s important to find another way to reach a broader audience and I believe the Fénix Film Awards is a great strategy and opportunity to achieve it.”
“It is very important for us to get together, allowing us to get closer to the work of our colleagues in order to discover, meet and recognize the voices that make us so different. A celebration like this one opens up a space for us to meet and get to know each other. More importantly it will set the basis for a more profound way for us to share our ideas, create, and cooperate”, added Alice Braga.
María de Medeiros also mentioned: “We are creating a film community that has not existed till now. A community that aims to be inclusive by integrating not only those who make films but also those who study, promote, teach, distribute and exhibit films; so that we all help, support and communicate with each another, allowing our work to be shared both within and outside the region.”
Paz Vega commented: “Collaboration provides an opportunity for creative exchange that strengthens and nourishes our film culture. This collaboration and integration allows our industries to grow without losing their identity and create better opportunities. In the end, difference is what unites us.”
For the past two years, Cinema23 has been shaping a diverse film community from the 22 countries of the region and those who work closely with the region’s filmmaking. The tasks of this community include movie promotion, study, reviews, festivals, distribution, exhibition and filmmaking. The editorial project Cinema23 Notebooks, the conferences during festivals and the student program Classroom Cinema are developed throughout the year, seeking a creative, cultural and knowledge exchange between the different film cultures. These strategies are complemented and strengthened for the general audience through the Fénix Film Awards.
The Fénix Film Awards granted by more than 350 film professionals from Mexico, Latin America, USA, Europe and Canada, will award 12 categories and 4 special recognitions.
It is worth noting that the members of Cinema23 all have an active role in the selection, nomination and voting process for the Fénix Film Awards. Members include:
Karim Ainouz, Elena Anaya, José Carlos Avellar, Héctor Babenco, Luiz Carlos Barreto, Alice Braga, Brigitte Broch, Demián Bichir, Eugenio Caballero, Javier Cámara, Sebastián Cordero, Enrique Chediak, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón, María de Medeiros, Guillermo del Toro, Amat Escalante, Dolores Fonzi, Gael García Bernal, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Iván Giroud, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Salma Hayek, Carlos F. Heredero, Dolores Heredia, Pablo Larraín, Juan de Dios Larraín, Sebastián Lelio, Fernando León de Aranoa, Mónica Lozano, Emmanuel Lubezki, Diego Luna, Fernando Meirelles, Daniela Michel, Luis Miñarro, Wagner Moura, Bertha Navarro, Luis Ospina, Fito Páez, Marisa Paredes, Rodrigo Plá, Alejandro Ramírez, Édgar Ramírez, José Luis Rebordinos, Ana de la Reguera, Carlos Reygadas, José María Riba, Erica Rivas, Catalina Sandino, Ilda Santiago, Rodrigo Santoro, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Albert Serra, Juan Carlos Tabío, Paz Vega, Maribel Verdú & Monika Wagenberg.
Other international members that participate in the various activities of the association include:
Cameron Bailey (Artistic Director Toronto International Film Festival), Frederic Boyer (Artistic Director Tribeca Film Festival), Klaus Eder (President Fipresci), Robert Koehler (Film Critic), Claudia Landsberger (Vice-President Eye Film Institute) and Sydney Levine (Indiewire Blog Sydneys Buzz).
The award ceremony will be held in October 2014 in Mexico City and will be broadcast live on E! Entertainment Television to over 200 million people worldwide with the support of Mexico City’s Government.
To view Cinema23’s promotional video, click on the following link:
www.vimeo.com/81518414
To find out more about Cinema23 and the Fénix Film Awards please visit:
http://www.cinema23.com
About Cinema23
Cinema23 is an association created in 2012 to promote, support and raise awareness for the Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese film culture. It is formed by a diverse group of people with outstanding career trajectories from the film community mainly from the 22 countries of the region and those who work closely with the region’s filmmaking: directors, producers, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, editors, art directors, sound designers, music composers, costume designers, festival directors and programmers, critics, researchers, distributors and film exhibitors.
Cinema23 seeks a more participative community amongst it members and provides a forum for creative and cultural exchange and cooperation among filmmakers from the region. Its yearly strategies and projects aim to promote and safeguard contemporary Ibero-American film culture, reaching new audiences, sharing ideas and enhancing the visibility and fostering the work of those who make films in Ibero-America.
About the Premio iberoamericano de cine Fénix®, (Fénix Film Awards)
The Fénix Film Awards is the key strategy to further Cinema23’s aims. It celebrates and emphasizes the work of film professionals, provides international visibility and strengthens bonds from the region’s film industry besides captivating and reaching a broader audience.
The first Fénix Film Awards’ gala will award 12 categories and 4 special recognitions. It will be held in October 2014 in Mexico City and will be broadcasted live on E! Entertainment Television to over 200 million people worldwide with the support of Mexico City’s Government.
The Mexican actor, director and producer Gael García Bernal (in absentia because of his duties on the jury for Cannes Competition), Portuguese director and actress Maria de Medeiros, Brazilian actress Alice Braga, Spanish actress Paz Vega and Mexican actress Ana de la Reguera, presented the Fénix Film Awards to the international media as one of the key strategies of Cinema23 to provide visibility and recognition of the cinema made in the region.
“There is great variety in our region´s cinema with different forms and languages that in many cases reflect part of who we are. However we are not always able to enjoy it in our own countries, much less worldwide. The activities carried out by Cinema23 aim to develop a closer engagement between the filmmakers and their audiences. It is extremely important to have more visibility in order to gain recognition for the diversity of cinema. This is the premise under which we organized the Fénix Film Awards, commented Ricardo Giraldo, Director of Cinema23.
Ana de la Reguera added: “We have great talent in the region, but it is barely known outside film festivals; it’s important to find another way to reach a broader audience and I believe the Fénix Film Awards is a great strategy and opportunity to achieve it.”
“It is very important for us to get together, allowing us to get closer to the work of our colleagues in order to discover, meet and recognize the voices that make us so different. A celebration like this one opens up a space for us to meet and get to know each other. More importantly it will set the basis for a more profound way for us to share our ideas, create, and cooperate”, added Alice Braga.
María de Medeiros also mentioned: “We are creating a film community that has not existed till now. A community that aims to be inclusive by integrating not only those who make films but also those who study, promote, teach, distribute and exhibit films; so that we all help, support and communicate with each another, allowing our work to be shared both within and outside the region.”
Paz Vega commented: “Collaboration provides an opportunity for creative exchange that strengthens and nourishes our film culture. This collaboration and integration allows our industries to grow without losing their identity and create better opportunities. In the end, difference is what unites us.”
For the past two years, Cinema23 has been shaping a diverse film community from the 22 countries of the region and those who work closely with the region’s filmmaking. The tasks of this community include movie promotion, study, reviews, festivals, distribution, exhibition and filmmaking. The editorial project Cinema23 Notebooks, the conferences during festivals and the student program Classroom Cinema are developed throughout the year, seeking a creative, cultural and knowledge exchange between the different film cultures. These strategies are complemented and strengthened for the general audience through the Fénix Film Awards.
The Fénix Film Awards granted by more than 350 film professionals from Mexico, Latin America, USA, Europe and Canada, will award 12 categories and 4 special recognitions.
It is worth noting that the members of Cinema23 all have an active role in the selection, nomination and voting process for the Fénix Film Awards. Members include:
Karim Ainouz, Elena Anaya, José Carlos Avellar, Héctor Babenco, Luiz Carlos Barreto, Alice Braga, Brigitte Broch, Demián Bichir, Eugenio Caballero, Javier Cámara, Sebastián Cordero, Enrique Chediak, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón, María de Medeiros, Guillermo del Toro, Amat Escalante, Dolores Fonzi, Gael García Bernal, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Iván Giroud, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Salma Hayek, Carlos F. Heredero, Dolores Heredia, Pablo Larraín, Juan de Dios Larraín, Sebastián Lelio, Fernando León de Aranoa, Mónica Lozano, Emmanuel Lubezki, Diego Luna, Fernando Meirelles, Daniela Michel, Luis Miñarro, Wagner Moura, Bertha Navarro, Luis Ospina, Fito Páez, Marisa Paredes, Rodrigo Plá, Alejandro Ramírez, Édgar Ramírez, José Luis Rebordinos, Ana de la Reguera, Carlos Reygadas, José María Riba, Erica Rivas, Catalina Sandino, Ilda Santiago, Rodrigo Santoro, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Albert Serra, Juan Carlos Tabío, Paz Vega, Maribel Verdú & Monika Wagenberg.
Other international members that participate in the various activities of the association include:
Cameron Bailey (Artistic Director Toronto International Film Festival), Frederic Boyer (Artistic Director Tribeca Film Festival), Klaus Eder (President Fipresci), Robert Koehler (Film Critic), Claudia Landsberger (Vice-President Eye Film Institute) and Sydney Levine (Indiewire Blog Sydneys Buzz).
The award ceremony will be held in October 2014 in Mexico City and will be broadcast live on E! Entertainment Television to over 200 million people worldwide with the support of Mexico City’s Government.
To view Cinema23’s promotional video, click on the following link:
www.vimeo.com/81518414
To find out more about Cinema23 and the Fénix Film Awards please visit:
http://www.cinema23.com
About Cinema23
Cinema23 is an association created in 2012 to promote, support and raise awareness for the Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese film culture. It is formed by a diverse group of people with outstanding career trajectories from the film community mainly from the 22 countries of the region and those who work closely with the region’s filmmaking: directors, producers, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, editors, art directors, sound designers, music composers, costume designers, festival directors and programmers, critics, researchers, distributors and film exhibitors.
Cinema23 seeks a more participative community amongst it members and provides a forum for creative and cultural exchange and cooperation among filmmakers from the region. Its yearly strategies and projects aim to promote and safeguard contemporary Ibero-American film culture, reaching new audiences, sharing ideas and enhancing the visibility and fostering the work of those who make films in Ibero-America.
About the Premio iberoamericano de cine Fénix®, (Fénix Film Awards)
The Fénix Film Awards is the key strategy to further Cinema23’s aims. It celebrates and emphasizes the work of film professionals, provides international visibility and strengthens bonds from the region’s film industry besides captivating and reaching a broader audience.
The first Fénix Film Awards’ gala will award 12 categories and 4 special recognitions. It will be held in October 2014 in Mexico City and will be broadcasted live on E! Entertainment Television to over 200 million people worldwide with the support of Mexico City’s Government.
- 6/4/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The 17th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk) has announced its lineup. The festival will run from 7th to 14th December, 2012 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Some of the highlights of the lineup are festival favourites of the year Amour, Chitrangada, Samhita, The Sapphires, Drapchi, Miss Lovely, Me and You, Celluloid Man, and Baandhon.
Fourteen films will screen in the Competition section while seven contemporary films will be screened in “Indian Cinema Now” section.
Complete list of films:
Competition Films
Fourteen feature films from Asia, Africa and Latin America will compete for the coveted “Suvarna Chakoram” (Golden Crow Pheasant) and other awards.
Always Brando by Ridha Behi (Tunisia)
Inheritors of the Earth by T V Chandran (India)
A Terminal Trust by by Masayuki Suo (Japan)
Shutter by Joy Mathew (India)
Today by Alain Gomis (Senegal-France)
The Repentant by Merzak Allouache (Algeria)
Sta. Niña by Manny Palo (Philippines)
Present Tense...
Some of the highlights of the lineup are festival favourites of the year Amour, Chitrangada, Samhita, The Sapphires, Drapchi, Miss Lovely, Me and You, Celluloid Man, and Baandhon.
Fourteen films will screen in the Competition section while seven contemporary films will be screened in “Indian Cinema Now” section.
Complete list of films:
Competition Films
Fourteen feature films from Asia, Africa and Latin America will compete for the coveted “Suvarna Chakoram” (Golden Crow Pheasant) and other awards.
Always Brando by Ridha Behi (Tunisia)
Inheritors of the Earth by T V Chandran (India)
A Terminal Trust by by Masayuki Suo (Japan)
Shutter by Joy Mathew (India)
Today by Alain Gomis (Senegal-France)
The Repentant by Merzak Allouache (Algeria)
Sta. Niña by Manny Palo (Philippines)
Present Tense...
- 11/2/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Del Toro joins six other directors for 7 Days in Havana, an anthology that treads a fine line between advertorial and artistry
In the scramble for financial backing, even big-shot film directors must take money where they find it. Shane Meadows took a £500,000 commission from Eurostar, and turned out Somers Town. Morgan Spurlock made a satirical virtue of it with sponsorship from juice manufacturer Pom Wonderful for The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. That, presumably, is part of the reason why film-makers of the calibre of Gaspar Noé, Laurent Cantet and Elia Suleiman accepted the invitation of rum magnate Havana Club, through its cultural arm Havana Cultura, to collaborate in a short film anthology called 7 Days in Havana. It might, just might, be designed to promote Havana.
As it turns out, 7 Days in Havana treads that fine line between advertorial and artistry, with a distinguished Cuban novelist, Leonardo Padura, overseeing the screenplay,...
In the scramble for financial backing, even big-shot film directors must take money where they find it. Shane Meadows took a £500,000 commission from Eurostar, and turned out Somers Town. Morgan Spurlock made a satirical virtue of it with sponsorship from juice manufacturer Pom Wonderful for The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. That, presumably, is part of the reason why film-makers of the calibre of Gaspar Noé, Laurent Cantet and Elia Suleiman accepted the invitation of rum magnate Havana Club, through its cultural arm Havana Cultura, to collaborate in a short film anthology called 7 Days in Havana. It might, just might, be designed to promote Havana.
As it turns out, 7 Days in Havana treads that fine line between advertorial and artistry, with a distinguished Cuban novelist, Leonardo Padura, overseeing the screenplay,...
- 7/5/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Cosmopolis
So we've known for some time now that Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom will be opening the Cannes Film Festival (site) on May 16. Yesterday, the Festival announced that Thérèse Desqueyroux, Claude Miller's final film, will close this year's edition on May 27. Miller's adaptation of François Mauriac's novel Thérèse Desqueyroux features Audrey Tautou in the title role as well as Gilles Lellouche and Anaïs Demoustier.
And lineups for the Short Films Competition and the Cinéfondation Selection were unveiled on Tuesday. Jean-Pierre Dardenne will preside over the Jury.
Today, the Festival's announced the full lineup for the Official Selection of its 65th anniversary edition. This is a roundup-in-progress, obviously.
Competition
Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. The synopsis at the official site: "Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact,...
So we've known for some time now that Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom will be opening the Cannes Film Festival (site) on May 16. Yesterday, the Festival announced that Thérèse Desqueyroux, Claude Miller's final film, will close this year's edition on May 27. Miller's adaptation of François Mauriac's novel Thérèse Desqueyroux features Audrey Tautou in the title role as well as Gilles Lellouche and Anaïs Demoustier.
And lineups for the Short Films Competition and the Cinéfondation Selection were unveiled on Tuesday. Jean-Pierre Dardenne will preside over the Jury.
Today, the Festival's announced the full lineup for the Official Selection of its 65th anniversary edition. This is a roundup-in-progress, obviously.
Competition
Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. The synopsis at the official site: "Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact,...
- 4/19/2012
- MUBI
The 65th Cannes Film Festival has just announced its line-up of 53 films across four categories with some extremely impressive titles on offer including the latest efforts from filmmakers like Wes Anderson, David Cronenberg, Lee Daniels, Andrew Dominik, John Hillcoat, Walter Salles, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, Jacques Audiard, Bernardo Bertolucci, Matteo Garrone, Dario Argento, Xavier Dolan, Carlos Reygadas, Takashi Miike and Jeff Nichols.
More titles will likely be added in the coming weeks before the festival runs from May 16th-27th. Here's the ones we know of so far:
Opening Night Film:
"Moonrise Kingdom" - Dir. Wes Anderson
Closing Night Film:
"Therese Desqueyroux" - Dir. Claude Miller
In Competition:
"After the Battle (Baad el Mawkeaa)" - Dir. Yousry Nasrallah
"The Angels' Share" - Dir. Ken Loach
"Beyond the Hills" - Dir. Cristian Mungiu
"Cosmopolis" - Dir. David Cronenberg
"Holy Motors" - Dir. Leos Carax
"The Hunt (Jagten)" - Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
"In Another Country" - Dir.
More titles will likely be added in the coming weeks before the festival runs from May 16th-27th. Here's the ones we know of so far:
Opening Night Film:
"Moonrise Kingdom" - Dir. Wes Anderson
Closing Night Film:
"Therese Desqueyroux" - Dir. Claude Miller
In Competition:
"After the Battle (Baad el Mawkeaa)" - Dir. Yousry Nasrallah
"The Angels' Share" - Dir. Ken Loach
"Beyond the Hills" - Dir. Cristian Mungiu
"Cosmopolis" - Dir. David Cronenberg
"Holy Motors" - Dir. Leos Carax
"The Hunt (Jagten)" - Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
"In Another Country" - Dir.
- 4/19/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
After Paris, je t’aime and New York, I Love You, it’s fast becoming an indie film staple: The loving portrait of a modern cosmopolitan city as an ensemble feature-length anthology film, comprised of more-or-less discrete chapters helmed by different, internationally flavored directors. 7 Days in Havana turns our attention to the Cuban capital, with each short film comprising a day of the week. Actor Benicio Del Toro helms the first segment, “El Yuma,” starring The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson as a young actor on a whirlwind tour of the famed city. The other segments are helmed by Pablo Trapero...
- 4/3/2012
- by Adam B. Vary
- EW - Inside Movies
Again, it's quite a day for trailers and videos in general. This one's for 7 Days in Havana, an omnibus film with directorial contributions from Laurent Cantet, Benicio Del Toro, Julio Medem, Gaspar Noé, Elia Suleiman, Juan Carlos Tabío and Pablo Trapero and featuring, in the cast, Emir Kusturica and Daniel Brühl, among others.
Via the Playlist's Kevin Jagernauth, who's also got a poster and a batch of stills.
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed....
Via the Playlist's Kevin Jagernauth, who's also got a poster and a batch of stills.
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed....
- 4/2/2012
- MUBI
7 Days In Havana is an upcoming Spanish-language anthology film. It is a contemporary snapshot of the iconic and eclectic city, seen through a feature-length movie made up of 7 chapters directed by 7 international filmmakers. Set during a week in the Cuban capital Havana, the film features one segment for each day, each segment directed by a different filmmaker. • "El Yuma" (Monday, Director: Benicio Del Toro)• "Jam Session" (Tuesday, Director: Pablo Trapero)• "La tentadión de Cecilia" (Wednesday, Director: Julio Médem)• "Diary of a Beginner" (Thursday, Director: Elia SuleimanElia Suleiman])• "Ritual" (Friday, Director: Gaspar Noé) • "Dulce amargo" (Saturday, Director: Juan Carlos Tabío)• "La fuente" (Sunday, Director: Laurent Cantet) Embedded below is the trailer. ...
- 4/2/2012
- Screen Anarchy
#50. 7 días en La Habana Director: Laurent Cantet. Julio Medem, Benicio Del Toro, Gaspar Noé, Elia Suleiman, Juan Carlos Tabío, Pablo TraperoWriter: Leonardo PaduraProducers: Laurent Baudens, Didar Domehri, Alvaro Longoria, Gael Nouaille, Fabien PisaniDistributor: Rights Available (Wild Bunch) The Gist: The film is presented as a mosaic of seven stories that take place in Havana over the course of one week. The purpose of the movie is to provide a snapshot of modern Havana in all its complexity. (more) Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Vladimir Cruz, Mirta Ibarra, Jorge Perugorria, Melvis Santa Estevez, Beatriz Dorta, Othello Rensoli, Daniel Brühl, Elia Suleiman, Emir Kusturica List Worthy Reasons...: Typically, I'm not a fan of the omnibus, but I consider myself a fan to various degrees of the seven attached names in this pack. The untouched utilized backdrop of Havana is such a rich and rarely shot locale and a seven day Monday to Sunday...
- 1/6/2012
- IONCINEMA.com
Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange Here's something unusual: hand-silkscreened Cuban posters for Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (right), Costa-Gavras' Z, Ernesto Daranas Serrano's Fallen Gods, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange and The Shining, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío's Oscar-nominated Strawberry and Chocolate, and about 125 other Cuban and international films will be on display in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ new exhibition "Cuban Film Posters: From Havana to the World," beginning Friday, May 13, in the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery. The exhibition will run through Sunday, August 28. Admission is free. Created by artists engaged by the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (Icaic), the Cuban film institute formed after the revolution of 1959, the artworks have been donated to the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library. As per the Academy's press release, "the Icaic promotes the medium of film through a range of diverse activities,...
- 5/4/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
While omnibus films tend to be a mixed bag, we keep going back to them because the talent always seems to promise great things, and in the case of the forthcoming "7 Days In Havana," that's no exception. Benicio Del Toro, Laurent Cantet ("The Class"), Gaspar Noe ("Enter The Void"), Pablo Trapero ("Carancho"), Elia Suleiman, Julio Medem ("Sex And Lucia") and Juan Carlos Tabio are each set to helm a segment of the forthcoming film. The ambitious undertaking will have recurring characters in each of the shorts and the script will penned by Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura (he'll co-write Medem's…...
- 12/9/2010
- The Playlist
2009 Mar del Plata Film Festival Awards 2009 Mar del Plata Film Festival: Nov. 7-15, 2009 Directed by Mariana Chenillo, Cinco días sin Nora (Five Days Without Nora) tells the story of a woman who, after fourteen failed suicide attempts, finally succeeds in moving on to the Great Beyond. Her widower is left with his sorrows and a never-ending wake. However, a revealing photo forgotten under her bed implies that there is something else going on. This Mexican comedy stars Fernando Luján, Silvia Mariscal, Cecilia Suárez, Juan Carlos Colombo, and Verónica Langer. Golden Astor: Cinco días sin Nora, Mariana Chenillo Silver Astor – Special Jury Prize: to the cast of El cuerno de la abundancia, Juan Carlos Tabío Silver Astor – [...]...
- 11/25/2009
- by Monica Montenegro
- Alt Film Guide
With the full line-up for the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival officially announced, I can finally begin to effectively obsess. And with 312 films from 64 countries screening at TIFF08, including 249 feature-length films, 76 per cent of which are world, international or North American premieres, and 61 of which are feature directorial debuts … well, needless to say, there’s a lot to obsess about.
Never let it be said, however, that I am not methodical in my obsessions. I begin with a preliminary review of the Contemporary World Cinema sidebar, with special thanks to Bay Area filmbud Carole Rutherford whose raids on IMdb and Wikipedia got me motivated. I also shout out to my Evening Class cohort Michael Hawley, the Twitch and Row Three teams, Dave Hudson at The Greencine Daily, Darren Hughes at 1st Thursday, the crew around Girish Shambu’s water cooler, and Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE for their welcome recommendations. This will...
Never let it be said, however, that I am not methodical in my obsessions. I begin with a preliminary review of the Contemporary World Cinema sidebar, with special thanks to Bay Area filmbud Carole Rutherford whose raids on IMdb and Wikipedia got me motivated. I also shout out to my Evening Class cohort Michael Hawley, the Twitch and Row Three teams, Dave Hudson at The Greencine Daily, Darren Hughes at 1st Thursday, the crew around Girish Shambu’s water cooler, and Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE for their welcome recommendations. This will...
- 8/23/2008
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
A host of both Asian and Spanish-language films have been announced as part of the Toronto International Film Festival 08 lineup and they are scattered over all different parts of the program. Anime fans will be glad to hear Mamoru Oshii's The Sky Crawlers will be having it's North American premier in the Visions section. Plastic City, the joint Brazilian/China effort about the mafia and salvation will also be getting it's North American prem. One of the most interesting sounding film's on the list is Albert Serra's Birdsong (El Cant dels ocells) which is a reinterpretation of the biblical journey of the three wisemen and their search for the Messiah. It's shot with only natural lighting. Check out the whole list following!ww
Asian lineup
Kanchivaram Priyadarshan, India
World Premiere
Vengadam is a born optimist and weaver of saris, but his lowly status means he can never afford the fashions he creates.
Asian lineup
Kanchivaram Priyadarshan, India
World Premiere
Vengadam is a born optimist and weaver of saris, but his lowly status means he can never afford the fashions he creates.
- 8/7/2008
- QuietEarth.us
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