The 16th edition of the Gibara International Film Festival came to an end in this eastern Cuban city, after almost a week of audiovisual screenings, concerts, theatrical presentations, photographic exhibitions and other activities, it was announced today.
At the closing of the event, the Cuban filmmaker and president of the Fiction jury, Arturo Soto, dedicated words to the people of Matanzas for the large-scale fire at the fuel tank base.
The film director sent an acknowledgement “for those who have to carry out their duty and risk losing their lives, so to those who are on the front line of combat we send our solidarity and gratitude”.
During the awards ceremony, the Algerian drama Papicha, by Mounia Meddour, won the “Lucia” award for best fiction feature film.
In the same category, the short film El hijo muerto (The Dead Son) by Cuban director Maysel Bello received the top prize.
One of the big winners of the night was the short film La Campaña (The Campaign), by director Eduardo del Llano, which won the Young Jury Award, the Press Award and a special mention in the Fiction category.
In the documentary category, the best short film was La comunión de mi prima Andrea, by the Spaniard Brandán Cerviño, and the best feature film was the French-UK co-production Ophir.
The Lucia Award in animation went to Calamity, the childhood of Martha Jane Cannary, by Rémi Chaye, from France.
Sergio Benvenuto, director of FIC, invited the audience to participate in the 17th edition of the festival next year.
With the slogan “Back to Cinema”, the event paid tribute to the 2007 National Film Award winner Nelson Rodríguez, who passed away in 2020 and was one of the country’s most important editors of some of the most important films in the national cinema, such as Memories of Underdevelopment and Lucia.
The Gibara International Film Festival was born in 2003, under the name of the Festival de Cine Pobre de Gibara in the seaside town of the same name, some 700 kilometres east of Havana.
