16th HFFNY runs April 9-17, 2015
The 16th Havana Film Festival NY announced that eighteen films will be competing to receive the Havana Star Prize for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay, as well as the Havana Star Prize for Best Documentary. The awards will be announced at the festival's Closing Night Ceremony on April 17 at the Directors Guild Theatre.
Prominent members of Latino culture and film industry will choose the winning films. In the fiction category, the jury will include director and screenwriter, Alberto Ferreras (HBO's Habla series, Que Viva la Música); film producer and director of Festival International del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de la Habana, Ivan Giroud; and actress and singer, Cristina Morrison. In the documentary category, the jury will include director and producer, Catherine Murphy (Maestra); director and cinematographer, German Gutiérrez (Coca-Cola Case, Who Shot my Brother) and Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Fairfield University, Michelle Farell.
The films in competition come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, México, Nicaragua, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. Many of the filmmakers will be in New York to present their films.
The films competing for the Havana Star Prize in Fiction are:
REFUGIADO - N.Y. Premiere
Diego Lerman | Argentina | 2014 | Fiction | 90min
A 7-year-old Matías and his newly pregnant mother Laura flee their house after another outburst of violence from his father, Fabian. Through the eyes of Matías, we experience
their escape and their search for a new, secure home.
A ESTRADA 47/ ROAD 47 - N.Y. Premiere
Vicente Ferraz | Brazil | 2013 | Fiction | 107min
Based on real events about Brazil's involvement in World War II, this film recreates an unusual meeting between deserters from three different nationalities (Brazil, German and Italy) during the war.
DESASTRES NATURALES / NATURAL DISASTERS - N.Y. Premiere
Bernardo Quesney | Chile | 2014 | Fiction | 75min
Raquel is a teacher who resists the idea of retiring. After being replaced with someone much younger, she returns to occupy the classroom with the help of her former students.
TIEMPO PERDIDO / WASTING TIME - N.Y. Premiere
Alexander Giraldo | Colombia | 2014 | Fiction | 104min
In the city, five people with simple lives, with illusions and dreams, who don't know each other, will be connected by the same question: Are they unhappy today because they wasted their time in the past?
BOCCACCERIAS HABANERAS/ BOCCACIO IN HAVANA - N.Y. Premiere
Arturo Sotto | Cuba | Fiction | 2014 | 100min
Boccaccerias Habaneras intertwines three stories through a main thread: a writer's room where people go to share anecdotes hoping to make some money and become characters of a novel or a movie. An urban Boccaccio, a Havana Decameron; the film exudes sensuality, irreverence and hidden passions.
LA PARED DE LAS PALABRAS / THE WALL OF WORDS - U.S. Premier
Fernando Pérez | Cuba | 2014 | Fiction | 90min
This is the story of a family that falls apart when one of the sibblings becomes disabled. However, La pared de las palabras is not about people with disabilities but about the deep paths on human communication.
VESTIDO DE NOVIA / HIS WEDDING DRESS - N.Y. Premiere
Marilyn Solaya | Cuba | 2014 | Fiction | 104min
In 90s' Havana, a nurse and a construction worker, hopelessly in love, live happily married. A fact in her past will test their feelings and undermine their most basic principles.
VENECIA / VENICE - N.Y. Premiere
Kiki Álvarez | Cuba - Colombia | 2014 | Fiction | 74min
Mónica, Violeta and Mayelín work at a beauty salon. On payday, they go shopping for a dress, starting an unexpected journey into the depths of Havana's nightlife.
LOS BAÑISTAS / OPEN CAGE - N.Y. Premiere
Maximiliano Zunino | Mexico | 2014 | Fiction | 83min
The economy has collapsed. Among those affected are rebel teenager Flavia and her elderly and grumpy neighbor Martin. Both will learn to relate to each other, not only to survive the crisis, but to find the meaning of their lives.
MR. KAPLAN - N.Y. Premiere
Álvaro Brencher | Uruguay | 2014 | Fiction | 98min
Uruguay's submission for the last Academy Awards, Mr. Kaplan is a vibrant comedy about a Jewish retiree who believes a German café owner is a former Nazi.
The films competing for the Havana Star Prize in Documentary are:
UN ASUNTO DE TIERRAS / A MATTER OF LAND - U.S. Premiere
Patricia Ayala | Colombia | 2014 | Documentary | 78min
The film recounts the first year of the implementation of Colombia's Land Restitution Act from the perspective of a community that has decided to engage with the process.
OMARA: CUBA - World Premiere
Lester Hamlet | Cuba | Documentary | 2015 | 90min
This moving documentary about the life and career of Omara Portuondo, known as the Diva of Buena Vista Social Club, features touching recollections by personalities of Cuban culture, including Eusebio Leal, Pablo Milanés, Chucho Valdés, José María Vitier, Rodulfo Vaillant, Amaury Pérez, Rosa Fornes, Luis Carbonell, Fernando Perez and Santiago Alfonso.
OTRA ISLA / ANOTHER ISLAND - N.Y. Premiere
Heidi Hassan | Cuba - Switzerland | 2014 | Documentary | 70min
Spain, 2012. An exiled Cuban family living in Spain feels abandoned by their adoptive country. When they decide to camp in a square in Madrid, they have to confront the capitalist reality they had dreamed so much about.
TÚ Y YO / YOU AND ME-N.Y.Premiere
Natalia Cabral, Oriol Estrada | Dominican Republic | 2014 | Documentary | 86min
The daily lives of two women, a white widow in her seventies and her young Afro-Caribbean maid, as they struggle to keep the house clean, the meat seasoned and the soap opera on TV without killing each other at the end of the day.
LLÉVATE MIS AMORES / ALL OF ME - N.Y. Premiere
Arturo González Villaseñor | Mexico | 2014 | Documentary | 90min
This documentary provides an intimate insight into the Patronas, a group of Mexican women who, every day since 1995, make food and toss it still warm to the migrants who travel atop a freight train as it makes it way to the U.S.
THE TROUBLEMAKER, BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE UNITED NATIONS - U.S. Premiere Roberto Salinas | Nicaragua - U.S. - Italy | 2014 | Documentary | 83min
What happens when a Latin American priest suspended by the Pope for his involvement in revolutionary politics becomes President of the General Assembly of the United Nations? This documentary offers a unique behind the scenes look at the only global parliament in the World through the eyes of this controversial figure.
HAVANA CURVEBALL - N.Y. Premiere
Marcia Jarmel & Ken Schneider | U.S. - Cuba | Documentary | 2014 | 60min
Thirteen-year-old Mica takes to heart his Rabbi's dictate to help "heal the world," and launches a grand plan to send baseballs to Cuba-a country with a mysterious pull.
EL SILENCIO DE LAS MOSCAS / THE SILENCE OF THE FLIES
Eliezer Arias | Venezuela | 2013 | Documentary | 92min
Against the majestic backdrop of the Venezuelan Andes, Marcelina and Mercedes recount the story of their daughters, who committed suicide at the precarious age of 15. The film places their deaths in the broader perspective of rural communities where suicide is taking on epidemic proportions.
The presenting sponsor of the 16th HFFNY is NBC / Telemundo 47. Additional sponsorship is provided by El Diario La Prensa, AARP, Xael Charters, Queens Latino, Pie Derecho, Rockamedia, Copacabana Pizza & Grill, School of Visual Arts (SVA) and King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU. HFFNY is made possible with public funds from the NYS Council on the Arts, a state agency, and supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.
The Havana Film Festival New York is a project of American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba (AFLFC), a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization that builds cultural bridges between the U.S. and Cuba through programs in the arts.
For Havana Film Festival New York information and schedule visit www.HFFNY.com.