Santiago Alvarez international documentary film festival concluded in Cuba

 SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, Mar 8 (ACN) The 21st International Documentary Film Festival "Santiago Alvarez In Memoriam" concluded on Thursday at the Rialto cinema in this eastern city, after six days of screenings, lectures and visits to communities and institutions linked to national history and culture.

At the awards ceremony, the jury, made up of renowned filmmakers from Cuba and around the world, awarded first place to Rodrigo Vazquez's Hijos de la Revolucion, second place to Lizzete Vila, Sergio Cabrera and Ingrid Leon's Todos los días son 8 de marzo, and third place in screenplay to Julien Zubiete's Agur Artzal, which also won a special award from the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños.

Other winners were Telmo Iragorri and Manuel Coronado for their debut feature film Urak Lawoi, and Raul Azuara for cinematography, and Rabble Rouse: Frances Golding and the fight for Cooper Square for soundtrack and direction.

The award in the reportage category went to Cubarawis, by Ever Miranda, in the project Behind the Silence, by Alberto Luberta Martinez, and the editing and Grand Prize went to the work The Film Justifies the Means, by Jacobo del Castillo.

Collateral awards were also presented by the Hermanos Saiz Association, the French Alliance, the Provincial Book and Literature Center, the Plastic Arts Council, the Association of Social Communicators, the University of Oriente, the Radio Habana Cuba radio station and the Directorate of Culture in the southeastern territory.

A special moment was the presentation by artist Luis Aragon Tellez of a glazed ceramic replica of one of the cameras used by Santiago Alvarez during his long and rich career to Lazara Herrera, president of the festival, and Alexis Triana, head of the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industry (Icaic by its Spanish acronym).

The Festival fulfilled the expectations of the participants, organizers and residents of this city and, in addition, she affirmed that the 2025 edition will revere the Cuban documentary.