Mexico, Brazil Clean up at Cuba Film Festival

HAVANA TIMES, Dec 12 — The Mexican film El infierno, directed by Luis Estrada, won the first prize Coral Award at the 33rd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, which concluded last night at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana.

The supremacy of works from Brazil and Mexico was clearly established in the awards ceremony, as artists from these two countries walked away with the vast majority of the major Corals prizes.

Although the film Habanastation won the most awards, Cuba only received one top Coral award, for the best poster for the work Imagenes generan reflexion by artist Nelson Ponce.  Fabula by Lester Hamlet won third prize for fiction.

The screening of the film La voz dormida, by Spanish director Benito Zambrano, also took place during the closing evening.

Althought the festival is officially over, the winning films get extra showings on Monday and Tuesday at numerous Havana theaters.

See the complete awards listing.