Cuba resumes International Film Festival of Gibara after two years of pandemic

The 16th edition of the Gibara International Film Festival kicked off on Tuesday in the eastern province of Holguin, located some 740 kilometers from the Cuban capital, Havana.

The event, which runs until August 6, is being held after a two-year break due to the epidemiological situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic on the island.

A total of 45 works of different nationalities and genres compete while personalities from the world of national and foreign cinema are part of the juries in the categories of animation, fiction, and documentary.

The general director of the event, Sergio Benvenuto, assured the local press that this is a space to promote audiovisual creation in a complex economic context at the international level.

“By not making a call for entries as in previous editions, this is a curatorial festival, based on works in the different categories that allow for the configuration of competitive international exhibitions,” he added.

Under the slogan “Back to cinema,” the festival opened its sessions with the Spanish films Rosa Rosae and Libertad while reserving for Wednesday the start of the theoretical event with a panel on the challenges in film directing today.

Founded in 2003 in the city of Gibara by prominent Cuban filmmaker Humberto Solás under the name “Festival de Cine Pobre” (Poor Film Festival), this is the second event of its kind in Cuba after the Havana International Latin American Film Festival.

The Caribbean nation resumed the programming of cultural activities in the second half of 2021 after the country’s gradual entry into the new normal in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With information Xinhua