Cuba hosts, as of today, the Gibara International Poor Film Festival

The 19th edition of the Gibara International Poor Film Festival opens today with the screening of the film Fenomenos Naturales (Natural Phenomena), directed by Cuban director Marcos Diaz Sosa, which will run until April 19 in this coastal city in the eastern province of Holguin.

As part of the opening day, highlights include the exhibition "Posters VS Violence", from the CartelON project; the panels "Rewriting stories: gender and cinema today" and "Female empowerment in history: challenges and achievements in major productions"; and the start of the documentary contest.

Sergio Benvenuto Solas, president of the organizing committee, told the Cuban News Agency the importance of the Poor Cinema Factory as a way of returning to the essence of the Festival in its early years, where the awards consisted of financial support to the films.

The edition has a wide representation from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Turkey, with more than 500 works registered and 90 were selected in the competition for the Lucia Awards, divided into the categories of feature and short fiction films, feature and short documentaries, animation and experimental film.

The event will have a theoretical section, dedicated to deepening in film post-production, indigenous cultures, film schools, poor or low-budget cinema, and also announces an exchange with the most important audiovisual production companies in the country and a discussion with companies that converge with cinema during its production phases.

The opening gala will also include a tribute to Edesio Alejandro, Jorge Luis Sanchez and Mario Limonta, which will be accompanied by a second moment with the presentation of the Lucia de Honor Awards 2025 to actress Veronica Lynn, National Theater and Television Award, critic and researcher Luciano Castillo and the Casa Gitana project.

The 19th edition of the Gibara International Poor Film Festival, which returns to the original date and name with which it was founded by filmmaker Humberto Solas in 2003, has among its precepts to defend and promote the creation of the seventh art of low resources with a high aesthetic proposal, establishing itself as a cinematographic reference for Cuba and the world.