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• Arts and Culture
• Cinema
• Events
• 11 / 24 / 2006

A total of 463 films are to be presented at the Havana Latin American Film Festival due to start on December 5th and last through the 15th.

The Cuban capital will once again be showing the latest the Latin American film industry has to offer in all its main cinemas. The Festival has become a major social phenomenon that attempts to satisfy the differing interests of its spectators since its inception in 1979.

Of the 463 films scheduled to be screened during the 10-day festival, 105 of them have been entered in the varying competitions such as fiction, documentary and animation. The largest selection comes from Argentina, followed by Brazil, Mexico and Cuba. As usual, the event is made up of an Official Selection and a series of parallel programs that will allow the Cuban public and visitors to appreciate the diverse themes and styles that characterize the regional film industry, as well as the most recent works across the world.

The Official Selection also presents short and full-length films including video, unedited work and movie posters. Juries will award Coral Prizes to the winners from each section, one of which is the Latin American Perspective section, which will show full-length fiction movies from around the continent.

There will also be a Made in Cuba Documentary section that opens up discourses and themes relating the islands daily reality. Europe is represented by 51 films in this section, from France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. U.S. and international independent and contemporary cinema will also be shown.

The Festival will this year render homage for the 20th anniversary of the opening of the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños on the outskirts of Havana as well as to Mexican producer Gustavo Latriste who produced the last three films of Luis Buñel.

For the first time since its foundation the festival will have an experimental aspect with three well-known film-makers taking part: Philip Hoffman from Canada, Dominic Angerame from the United States and Manuel Cecconello from Italy. The three will be provided with an opportunity to have an exchange with the public and other film-makers. Such vanguard work from all over the world will be shown.

The Festival will also have its usual special presentations, seminaries, exhibitions, presentations of books and specialized magazine as well as other activities.

The inauguration will screen the much-praised "El laberinto del fauno" (The Labyrinth of the Faun) by Guillermo del Toro, and will close with the film "Volver" (Return) by Pedro Almodóvar.