With over 350 competing films and many more non-competing, the XVII International Festival of New Latin American Cinema came to a close in Havana on December 15, with the traditional awards ceremony at the Karl Marx theater. Films were also exhibited throughout the country, as is customary in Cuba. Cubans are big movie fans, and many take their vacations during the film festival in December, to be able to attend it. S premiered in Havana.
Creativity seems to be endless, and it is a pleasure to behold.
Some films just dealt with the human dilemma in the modern world, with love and despair and loneliness. There were fiction and documentary films, long and short, animation, and videos. The US was also represented, although not officially, with films like Malcolm X, Wrestling Hemingway and Imaginary Crimes, while representatives from the Sundance Institute attended the festival. Best Film about a Latin American theme by a Non-Latin American filmmaker was Speaking with the Enemy, a Swedish production by Nitza Kakoseos. Italian, Spanish, Canadian and U.S. films also had a big role to play in the festival.