Manuel Herrera, National Film Award 2022

A jury gathered this Wednesday morning has awarded the 2022 National Film Award to director and screenwriter Manuel Herrera (Santa Clara, 1942), one of the most outstanding Cuban documentary filmmakers and director of one of the most popular Cuban films of all times: Zafiro, locua azul. Herrera is also a renowned television director, in the 1990’s he made several chapters of the well-remembered television series Día y noche.

Since he was a teenager he was interested in cinema, and even organized a film club in his hometown where several experimental films were produced. In 1960 he began working at the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry, ICAIC, an institution to which he has devoted most of his working life.

He was assistant director of the great Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and very soon he began to make his own documentaries. He has written film and television scripts and has published short stories, articles, and film reviews in numerous newspapers and magazines. He has been a professor at the International Film and Television School and at the Audiovisual Communication Media School at the University of Arts.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff