The Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY) is a

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

, based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, that screens cinema from across

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

with a special focus on

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

and its

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post ...

. It is a project of The American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with the mission of building cultural bridges between the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and Cuba through arts projects. Since 2000, HFFNY has presented films featured at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana. The Festival includes lectures, panel discussions, networking receptions and film industry workshops.

History

Overview

The Festival was founded in 2000 by Ivan Giroud, President of the

Havana Film Festival The Havana Film Festival is a Cuban festival that focuses on the promotion of Latin American filmmakers. It is also known in Spanish as ''Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana,'' and in English as International Festiva ...

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

; Carole Rosenberg, President of The American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba; film producer Kenneth Halsband; and Marcia Donalds, who was a film professor at

New York University Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the ar ...

. In 2001, film producer and programmer Diana Vargas joined the festival, and since 2003 she has served as HFFNY's Artistic Director.

2000 - Inaugural festival

The inaugural Havana Film Festival NY was held at the

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. It featured an entirely Cuban program, and screened over 40 productions, including features, documentaries, shorts and animated films that provided an overview of 41 years of Cuban filmmaking while showcasing several award-winning films from Havana's International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. The first HFFNY also included seminars on Cuban films and their distribution in the

. The event was opened by singer, songwriter, actor, and activist

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

2001-2008

The second HFFNY expanded its program to include Latin American films. It ran April 16–23, 2001 and featured over 60 films from Cuba,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

. Daily screenings took place in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

's Cantor Film Center,

Clearview Cinema Bow Tie Cinemas is an American movie theater chain, with 38 locations in Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York (state), New York, and Virginia. As of 2013, it is the eighth-largest movie theater chain in the United States and is t ...

, and Anthology Film Archives, and Sunnyside Center Cinemas in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

. Approximately 8,000 people attended the 2001 HFFNY, according to the festival's co-director and programmer Pedro Zurita, in a 2002 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' interview. The third HFFNY ran April 18–27, 2002 at venues in Manhattan, Queens, and

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. Cuban filmmaker

Humberto Solás Humberto Solás (4 December 1941 – 18 September 2008) was a Cuban film director, credited with directing the film ''Lucía'' (1968), which explored the lives of Cuban women during different periods in Cuban history. His cinematic style borr ...

was the honoree, and the festival opened with his film ''Honey for Oshun.'' Among the special events featured at the third HFFNY was a panel discussion with visiting directors on the role played by Latin American literature in filmmaking, which included the films ''Dark Side of the Heart 2'' by Argentine director

Eliseo Subiela Eliseo Alberto Subiela (December 27, 1944 – December 25, 2016) was an Argentine film director and writer. His works are considered to be in the ' magic realism' genre. Subiela was the father of actress, Guadalupe Subiela (who acted in her f ...

, '' Miracle in Rome'' by Colombian filmmaker Lisandro Duque, and Mexican director Arturo Ripestein's

No One Writes to the Colonel ''No One Writes to the Colonel'' ( es, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, links=no) is a novella written by the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It also gives its name to a short story collection. García Márquez considered it his ...

, and a roundtable discussion with actor and activist

Danny Glover Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films include ...

and Congressman

Charles Rangel Charles Bernard Rangel (, ; born June 11, 1930) is an American politician who was a U.S. representative for districts in New York from 1971 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second-longest serving incumbent member of the Ho ...

at the

Harvard Club Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan cler ...

on U.S. Cuban Relations. The fourth festival ran March 26-April 2, 2003 with its main slate of screenings at the Clearview Cinema in Manhattan. Films also played at NYU Cantor Film Center and Anthology Film Archives, Sunnyside Center Cinema and the

Museum of the Moving Image The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Amer ...

in Queens, and the

Bronx Museum of the Arts The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by A ...

and

Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture is a performing arts and visual arts center located within Hostos Community College in the South Bronx, New York City. Hostos Center consists of a museum-grade art gallery, a 367-seat repertory theater, and ...

in The Bronx. The festival opened with the NY premiere of the Cuban film ''

Nada Nada may refer to: Culture * Nāda, a concept in ancient Indian metaphysics Places *Nada, Hainan, China *Nada, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States *Nada, Nepal, village in Achham District, Seti Zone * Nada, Texas, United S ...

'' by

Juan Carlos Cremata Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti (born November 18, 1961 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban film director. He started his career as an author and actor for children's TV shows made for the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television from 1981 to 1987. He is know ...

and closed with the NY premiere of the Colombian film '' Bolivar soy yo'' by

Jorge Alí Triana Jorge Ali Triana Varon (born April 4, 1942 in Bogotá, Colombia) is a Colombian theatre director and film director. He studied theater and film in Czechoslovakia and in Berlin. It is one of the founders of the Popular Theater of Bogota in 1967, s ...

. Special events included a tribute to Cuban filmmaker

Julio García Espinosa Julio García Espinosa (5 September 1926 – 13 April 2016) was a Cuban film director and screenwriter. Walter Salles and Carole Rosenberg

The fifth Havana Film Festival NY was presented by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ran April 22–29, 2004. It paid homage to Puerto Rican filmmaker

Jacobo Morales Jacobo Morales (born 12 November 1934) is a Puerto Rican actor, poet, writer, playwright, filmmaker, and auteur.Suite Habana ''Suite Habana'' is a 2003 Cuban documentary directed by Fernando Pérez. The documentary was filmed with fictional cinema techniques depicting a day in a life of thirteen real people, from a ten-year-old child with Down syndrome to a 79-year- ...

'' by Fernando Pérez and closed with the NY premiere of Colombian comedy film ''El carro'' by Luis Orjuela. The main slate of screenings took place at Manhattan's

Quad Cinema The Quad Cinema is New York City's first small four-screen multiplex theater. Located at 34 West 13th Street in Greenwich Village, it was opened by entrepreneur Maurice Kanbar, along with his younger brother Elliott S. Kanbar in October 1972. I ...

, with special programs at Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture in The Bronx and NYU's King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center. HFFNY 2005 free panels and events included: ''A Conversation with Jacobo Morales'', ''Cuban Cinema Classics: Revolutionary Documentaries'', and ''New Languages for Latin American Cinema-'' a roundtable discussion with filmmakers

Miguel Coyula Miguel Coyula Aquino (born March 31, 1977, in Havana) is a Cuban filmmaker and writer. At age 17, he made his first short with a VHS camcorder, which led to his admittance to Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television (The International Film and ...

, Luis Ospina, Sergio Wolf, Sinnel Sandoval, Alejandro Fernandez,

Patricia Riggen Patricia Riggen (born June 2, 1970) is a Mexican film director. She is best known for directing the 2007 film ''Under the Same Moon'' and the 2011 Disney Channel original film ''Lemonade Mouth''. Early life and career beginnings Riggen was born ...

, Mercedes Jimenez, Luis Orjuela, Sandra Bilicich, Luciana Tomasi, Elias Jimenez, Pedro Diaz, Jacobo Morales,

Alejandro Chomski Alejandro Chomski (27 November 1968 – 5 November 2022) was an Argentine film director and screenwriter. As of early 2020, he has directed 16 films with another film in post-production and one announced production. His film '' Hoy y mañana'' w ...

, Fernando Pérez and Rigoberto Lopez. The sixth HFFNY ran April 15–21, 2005, and included tributes to Cuban director

Pastor Vega Pastor Vega (12 February 1940 – 2 June 2005) was a Cuban film director and screenwriter. He directed nine films between 1964 and 2003. His 1979 film ''Portrait of Teresa'' was entered into the 11th Moscow International Film Festival. S ...

and Brazilian director

Walter Salles Walter Moreira Salles Júnior (; born 12 April 1956) is a Brazilian filmmaker. Early life Salles was born on 12 April 1956 in Rio de Janeiro and attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He is the son of Brazil ...

. The program featured newly-released independent films from and about Latin American and the Caribbean alongside classics, documentaries, short and animated films from 12 countries. Free events occurred at NYU's King Juan Carlos Center and included the children's program ''Latin American Films for Children / Animation 4 Kids''. Screenings also took place at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan, and the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. HFFNY returned to the Quad Cinema April 21-27, 2006 for its seventh edition, with free events and screenings hosted by NYU's King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center,

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

, the Museum of the Moving Image, and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. Special programs included a tribute to the 20th anniversary of EICTV (''Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV'', San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba) presented by festival guest and EICTV co-founder

Fernando Birri Fernando Birri (March 13, 1925 – December 27, 2017) was an Argentine film maker and theorist. He was considered by many to be the father of the new Latin American cinema. Biography Birri was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. After being involved in ...

, and the children's program ''Latin American Films for Children / Animation 4 Kids.'' The eighth HFFNY ran April 13-19, 2007 at the Quad Cinema, with free events and screenings at NYU, the Museum of the Moving Image, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and included a tribute to Cuban actor

Jorge Perugorría Jorge Perugorría Rodríguez (aka "Pichi," born 13 August 1965) is a Cuban actor, film director and painter. He is well known for his part as Diego in ''Strawberry and Chocolate'' (original title in Spanish ''Fresa y chocolate'' (co-directed by ...

, a showcase of short films by NY-based filmmakers called ''A Small Lens on What's to Come'' and its children's program ''Latin American Films for Children''. The Quad Cinema continued to be the main venue for the ninth HFFNY, which ran April 10-18, 2008 and honored Cuban director

Juan Carlos Tabío Juan Carlos Tabío (3 September 1943 – 18 January 2021) was a Cuban film director and screenwriter. His film ''Strawberry and Chocolate'' (1994), which he co-directed with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, won a Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the 44 ...

, Cuban actor Luis Alberto Garcia and American documentary filmmaker Estela Bravo. The festival was a part of NYC's Immigrant Heritage Week and partnered with The New Children/New York Film Project to host a program devoted to films by New Children/New York filmmakers.

2009 - 10th anniversary

HFFNY celebrated its 10th anniversary April 16-23, 2009 with a special kickoff presentation sponsored by

TD Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (french: links=no, Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business as TD Bank Group (french: links=no, Groupe Banque TD), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. ...

Queens Theatre in the Park Queens Theatre, formerly Queens Theatre in the Park and before that Queens Playhouse, is an American professional theatre, located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City, New York. Artistic and Executive Directors have included ...

on April 14 called ''Short Time!'' a selection of four shorts by young filmmakers from Spain, Dominican Republic and the U.S. It officially opened at the New York DGA Theater on April 16 and continued its main slate of screenings at the Quad Cinema. Additional venues included the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the

, NYU, and Hunter College. Retrospectives included ''The Urgent Cinema of Santiago Alvarez'', ''Stranger Than Fiction: A Tribute to Luis Ospina,'' and ''Remembering

, 1941-2008''. Among the free filmmaker panels and lectures were the programs ''Cinema of Puerto Rico: Challenges and Implications of a Rising Cinema'' featuring filmmakers

Jacobo Morales Jacobo Morales (born 12 November 1934) is a Puerto Rican actor, poet, writer, playwright, filmmaker, and auteur.EICTV followed by a conversation between EICTV director Tanya Valette, professor and filmmaker Russell Porter, and

Film London Film London is London's film and media agency – sustaining, promoting and developing London as a major international film-making and film cultural capital. This includes all the screen industries based in London – film, television, video, co ...

Chairman

Sandy Lieberson Sanford "Sandy" Lieberson (born 16 July 1936)"Sanford Lieberson"
IMDb. is an American film producer and ...

, on the school and its students new visions for Latin American Cinema.

Havana Star Prize winners

In 2010 HFFNY began to award the Havana Star Prize to participating films for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. The image for the prize was designed by Cuban artist

Yoan Capote Yoan Capote is a Cuban sculptor who was born in 1977 in Pinar del Río. He received the UNESCO prize during the 7th Havana Biennial with the artists' collective DUPP (Desde Una Pragmática Pedagógica). Biography Yoan Capote lives and works in Hav ...

. In 2011 HFFNY added a category for Best Documentary, and in 2014 the Havana Star Prizes for Best Actor and Best Actress were introduced.

Best Film (fiction)

Best Director

Best Screenplay

Best Actor

Best Actress

Best Documentary

References

{{reflist

External links

American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of CubaHavana Film Festival New York
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Official Festival Website
Cinema of Cuba Film festivals established in 2000 Film festivals in New York City Latin American film festivals