cubafilmfest
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Screen Cuba presents: Life is Dance – Fri 27 March
Son – the first truly home-grown Cuban music and dance style – and its variations have ruled the Cuban dance floor for the last hundred years. But a new dance has exploded onto the scene, capturing the imagination of the young, Reggaeton. Can Cuba hold on to the roots of its dance culture, or will…
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Screen Cuba presents: CAPABLANCA (1987) – Sat 21 March
The brilliant chess player José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942), is an icon to many Cubans: inspiring generations to learn the game, while Fidel Castro himself promoted it as a tool in educational development. Capablanca was world chess champion 1921-1927 and his style is described as intuitive, simple and beautiful. In Manuel Herrera’s film, “the chess machine”…
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Filmmakers from around the world express their solidarity with Cuba
For 46 years, thousands of film lovers and filmmakers have gathered in December to celebrate New Cinema at the Havana Film Festival. Thousands of filmmakers have passed through the classrooms of the International Film and Television School (EICTV) since its founding in 1986, developing critical and emancipatory perspectives and voices. A vast network of creators,…
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Screen Cuba presents HOUSE FOR SWAP – Sat 21 March
This film heralded a new genre of sociocritical comedy in Cuba in 1983 and was the debut feature of director Juan Carlos Tabío. It is full of Cubanisms – popular everyday problems, language and attitudes of that era and a range of characters from an idealist architect to an opportunistic bureaucrat. Gloria wants her adult…
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Jorge Luis Sánchez – a non-conformist director
Jorge Luis Sánchez, director and screenwriter, director of ‘El Benny’, was founder of the National Federation of Film Clubs of Cuba, artistic deputy director of the Latin American ICAIC News and promoted new and young voices and defended Cuba’s cultural diversity. Director Jorge Luis Sanchez who sadly died in January 2025, studied teaching and started…
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Screen Cuba presents: EL BENNY – Wed 25 March -London
El Benny offers a warts-and-all but compassionate portrayal of the life of legendary singer and bandleader Benny Moré (1919–1963) – by Cuban director Jorge Luis Sanchez, that not only celebrates his extraordinary musical talent but also illuminates the broader social context of music-making by Black musicians in pre-revolutionary years. It doesn’t hide from the man’s…
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Thanks to our commercial sponsors
With Screen Cuba ready for another successful season this March, we are reflecting on how the continued support of our partners each year enables us to build on our past achievements. On this occasion, we would like to give a special shout-out to the companies sponsoring the Festival. All of them have strong connections with…
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Thank you to our trade union sponsors
We would like to take this time to extend our sincere thanks to two special Festival sponsors— the National Education Union and Equity.Since the festival’s launch in 2024, members of these two unions have been an integral part of our audiences, and their support has been central to the mission of Screen Cuba. We are…
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Presenting our videospot for Screen Cuba 2026
SCREEN CUBA 2026 is celebrating Resistance and Love in its programme of Cuban cinema 15-28 March in London and beyond – due to be published soon. Today we present our 2026 videospot made by our very good friends in Havana, Roberto Perez Curbelo @_potto_ and Dayron Giro @d.giro.design With the theme of the typical Havana…
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Titón and the art of political cinema
MICHAEL CHANAN previews three films of Tomás Alea to be shown in Screen Cuba 2026 Looking back at the films of Tomás (Titón) Gutiérrez Alea almost thirty years after his death, the claim can be made that he occupies a unique position for a deeply political filmmaker in a country of political filmmakers, in the…
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The Last Supper: “A masterpiece from the first image to the last”
Screen Cuba is set to bring Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s awardwinning film The Last Supper / La última cena from 1976, to the 2026 festival this March. This powerful yet painterly drama brings a pious sugar plantation owner in 1790s Cuba to share his table at Easter with 12 enslaved men. A radical parable showing slavery…
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Introducing…’Up to a Point’ by Tomás Alea
Up to a Point (Hasta Cierto Punto) was made in 1983 by one of the founders of Cuban revolutionary cinema, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea It is a clever drama about fighting machismo in all areas of Cuban society. The female lead is a dockworker, played by one of Cuba’s distinguished actors, Mirta Ibarra. It is a…
SCREEN CUBA, March 2027, LONDON & BEYOND 