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El Premio Flaco captures attention
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AMONG the 11 prizes presented during the Havana Film
Festival by institutions and organizations linked to
the world of culture, specialist film journalists
and critics, four were directly presented to Juan
Carlos Cremata for his film El premio flaco.
 At a packed event (on Friday,
December 11) in the Hotel Nacional’s 1930 Salon,
Cremata received the endorsement of cultural
journalists from the Cuban Journalists Union (UPEC);
the El Mégano Prize awarded by the National
Federation of Film Clubs; the CINED Prize, presented
by the Education Cinematography Organization, and
the Vigía Prize awarded by second Festival venue in
Matanzas.
During the corresponding
events, particular emphasis was made on the
magnificent work of the actors, particularly that of
actress Rosa Vasconcelos who plays the lead
character,
Iluminada, and Blanca Rosa
Blanco and Alina Rodríguez, and the bold decision to
take an emblematic work of Cuban theater - by Héctor
Quintero - to the screen.
It was no surprise that
three Latin American films that have been critically
acclaimed this year in other festivals –
specifically Berlin and Cannes – were also
prizewinners at the festival in Havana; the Cinema,
Radio and Television Association of the Cuban
Writers and Artists Union (UNEAC) awarded its prize
to La teta asustada by Peruvian filmmaker Claudia
Llosa; the Cuban Association of Film Press gave its
award to El secreto de sus ojos by Argentine
director Juan José Campanella, and the Cybervote
Prize from the New Latin American Cinema Foundation’s
website went to La nana by Chilean Sebastián Silva.
Another denunciatory film,
El traspatio by Mexican Carlos Carrera, which
tackles the issues of violence against, rape and the
murder of women in Ciudad Juárez, received the Roque
Dalton Prize given by Radio Habana Cuba.
Several documentaries also
received awards: namely, La pérdida by Enrique
Gabriel and Javier Angulo (Argentina, Spain) from
the magazine Revolución y Cultura; the 2009 Memorial
Prize for documentaries awarded by the Pablo de la
Torriente Brau Cultural Center went to Los que se
quedan (Mexico), by Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos
Hagerman; the Sara Gómez prize presented by the
National Council of Casas de la Cultura went to Ave
María (Cuba), by Cruz Gustavo Pérez Fernández; and
the Cybervote prize was awarded to Hijos de Cuba (Britain,
Cuba), by Andrew Lang.
The Brazilian documentary
Garapa by José Padilla won the prize awarded by the
Telesur television network at the 31st Havana Film
Festival, which included a diploma and $10,000 in
prize money.
Explaining that decision,
the jury highlighted "the way in which it permits
viewers to visualize and see in detail the scourge
of hunger" and its contribution to raising awareness
of this issue.
The so-called "collateral
prizes" – unofficial Film Festival prizes – are a
first approximation of where opinions lie, although
with juries, as is tradition, one never knows. (MC)
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