14ymedio, Havana, 29 October 2021 — This Friday the winning projects of the eighth edition of the Norwegian Fund for Cuban Cinema 2021 were announced. In the list of artists published by the diplomatic headquarters of that country on the island, the playwright Yunior García and the filmmaker Carlos Lechuga stand out. García won with the proposal for the fictional short 8 minutes and Lechuga with his feature film Vicenta B., both still in production.
Thirty-seven projects participated in the event, which has been supporting independent Cuban filmmakers since 2014. The projects were subjected to “a technical review and assessment by a respectable jury” and 11 of them were selected for their “presentation, history and creativity.”
Completing the list are: Letters that no longer exist by Sheyla Pool, The intermittent forest by Lázaro Lemus Lugo, The Call of the Ciguapa by Diana Moreno Castellanos, Her in the nude by Karelis Herrera and Yenny Pérez, Julia by Sailín Carbonell, The land of the whale by Armando Capó Ramos, Libertad by Carla Rodríguez Herrera, Malena by Lisandra López Fabé and Friday the 13th in Havana by Raydel Ricardo Araoz Valdés.
“The sun has just died. Eva only has 8 minutes of light to reach her destination as she runs hurriedly through the streets of Havana and the others are also desperate to use the time they have left. Uncertainty and chaos reign. In a city that is fading, perhaps forever. Search for God or sex, hoard goods to survive, settle pending accounts, everything is concentrated and multiplied in the streets where Eva passes without stopping. Her destiny is uncertain, but she does not stop running,” is the synopsis that García has released on his social networks about his project.
Lechuga, who also received an award last month at the San Sebastián Film Festival, contributing 30,000 euros to his Vicenta B. project, described his film as “the story of a country where there are many mothers and no children.”
According to the organizers of the Norwegian Fund, the main objective of this call “is to promote the development of filmmakers and strengthen the Cuban film sector as a cultural expression, promote the diversity of the national audiovisual scene and encourage creativity, artistic expression and innovation.”
The amounts available in the contest for the winners range between 100,000 and 250,000 Cuban pesos. “Only projects that can ensure their completion and delivery of the final copy of the film will be supported, within a period of six to 12 months, counted from the moment they receive the aid,” they specified.
The jury for the award was made up of the producers Claudia Calviño, Yumey Besú, Marisol Rodrígues, and the screenwriter and director Arturo Infante.
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