Screen Cuba is delighted to announce that we will welcome two renowned guests from Cuba to our 2026 Film Festival. Mirtha Ibarra and Eslinda Nuñez will both introduce films, participate in Q&As, as well as engage in informal chat with audiences.
Mirtha Ibarra Collado is an acclaimed Cuban theatre, television, and film actress, as well as a screenwriter, playwright, director, and documentary filmmaker. Amongst many awards in her career which spans more than five decades, she received the prestigious National Film Award in 2025, honouring her “ability to portray characters with depth and sensitivity while addressing essential social and cultural themes.”
Mirtha has created a lasting legacy in Cuban cinema, appearing in more than 20 films, including the iconic Up to a Point (1983), Guantanamera (1995), House for Swap (1983), among others. Her international breakthrough came with her role as Nancy in the Oscar-nominated Strawberry and Chocolate (1993).
Most recently, Mirtha adapted for the screen a stage play she has written. The film, directed by Jorge Perugorría, is called Anonymous Neurotic Woman (2025). She also stars in the film, portraying a woman who dreams of becoming a film actress while confronting gender-based violence. She is currently writing a comedy titled If They Find Out.
Beyond her own creative work, Mirtha is committed to preserving the legacy of renowned filmmaker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, known as Titón, her late husband and father of Cuban Cinema. She has edited a collection of his letters, Back on My Feet, and in 2008 directed the documentary Titón: From Havana to Guantanamera. Since 2020, she has served as Director of the Casa de Titón y Mirtha Cultural Centre in Havana, an institution dedicated to preserving and promoting Titón’s life and work.

Eslinda Núñez Pérez is an internationally acclaimed actor who, alongside her extensive film career, has also performed in more than 50 theatre productions, plus TV plays, dramas and TV soaps. Born in Villa Clara, central Cuba, Eslinda went to work for the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) in film production in 1960 and later trained as an actor.
Eslinda is the only Cuban actor to appear in all three great historical classics of post-revolutionary Cuban cinema: The First Charge with the Machete (1969), Memories of Underdevelopment (1968), and Lucía (1968). In these landmark films, she portrays characters that helped shape Cuban cinema and resonated powerfully throughout Latin America, as well as redefining the representation of women on screen.
Over the course of her distinguished career, Eslinda has received numerous honours, notably the prestigious National Film Award in 2011. The Writers and Artists Union of Cuba (UNEAC) recently recognized “the mark she has left on generations of viewers and creators; her presence on screen and on stage has shaped unforgettable moments in national culture, and her work continues to stand as a benchmark of authenticity and artistic sensitivity.”
Eslinda’s role in Lucía, which the festival is screening this year, was pivotal in the development of her career. She portrays a young woman from Cienfuegos whose life is transformed through a relationship with a man deeply engaged in the social struggles of the turbulent 1930s. The role was challenging for Eslinda. “I put so much effort, so much passion, so much dedication into trying to portray that fragile, tender, and frustrated young woman who transforms from a girl into a woman overnight, and for me, it was an extraordinary experience,”,one that opened “her world to new awareness, conflict, and possibility.”