PRESS OFFICE Melany Walter E: [email protected] T: 212.687.2146 / C: 646.361.0410 HFFNY hotline: 212-946-1839 / www.hffny.com

15th NEW YORK (HFFNY) ANNOUNCES LINE-UP OF FILMS COMPETING FOR THE HAVANA STAR PRIZE

BEST PICTURE WINNER TO RECEIVE THEATRICAL RUN AT QUAD CINEMA 15th HFFNY to run April 3-11, 2014 at Quad Cinema and additional city venues

NEW YORK, NY, March 10, 2014—HFFNY announced today that its competition line-up will feature sixteen films competing for the Havana Star Prize for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Documentary. The Best Picture winner will receive a theatrical run at the Quad Cinema. The 15th HFFNY will run April 3-11 at the Quad and additional venues around the city. Many of the filmmakers will travel from , , , , , Ecuador, Guatemala, , Panama, U.S., and Spain to present their films.

The winners will be announced during the festival’s Closing Night, April 11 at the Director Guild Theater (DGA). The 15th HFFNY jury is comprised of prominent members of the local and international film industry. Fiction categories jurors include director Deborah Kampmeier (Virgin, Hounddog); Quad Flix VP, Donald Ravinobich; and Cuban actress Laura de La Uz (Ana’s Movie, Hello Hemingway); documentary jurors are TV host and film critic Alfonso Díaz, director and film programmer Juan Cáceres, and Costa Rican film producer Luis Naguil.

Competing for Havana Star Prize fiction categories:

Los dueños / The Owners Agustín Toscano - Ezequiel Radusky | Argentina | 2013 | Fiction | 91min | NY Premiere While the owners are away from their house in a northern province in Argentina, the caretakers occupy it and emulate their lifestyle. Then, the owners show up unexpectedly for the weekend. Soon everyone is wondering who will end up running the house. Quad Cinema 4/9 @ 3:10pm; Quad Cinema 4/10 @ 9:15pm – Director present for Q&A

O Lobo atrás da Porta / A Wolf at the Door Fernando Coimbra | Brazil | 2013 | Fiction | 100min | NY Premiere A child is kidnapped. At the police station, his parents Sylvia and Bernardo, and Rosa, the main suspect and Bernardo ́s lover, give contradictory evidence. Their narration takes us to the gloomiest corners of desires, lies, needs, and wickedness in the relationship of these three characters. Museum of the Moving Image 4/4 @ 7:00pm - Director present for Q&A; Quad Cinema 4/7 @ 7:00pm - Director present for Q&A

Las analfabetas / Illiterate Moisés Sepúlveda | Chile | 2013 | Fiction | 91min | NY Premiere Ximena is an illiterate woman in her fifties who keeps her illiteracy a secret. Jackeline is a young unemployed elementary school teacher who tries to convince Ximena to learn to read. Thanks to a letter Ximena’s father left when he abandoned her many years before, the two women embark on a shared learning journey. Quad Cinema 4/9 @ 7:00pm - Director present for Q&A; Quad Cinema 4/10 @ 3:00pm

Conducta / Behavior Ernesto Daranas | Cuba | 2014 | Fiction | 100min | U.S. Premiere Chala is an eleven-year-old boy with a hard life and strong respect for Carmela, his sixth grade teacher. The pair develops a solid bond, but after Carmela suffers an accident, things get complicated. Directors Guild Theater 4/3 @ 6:30pm; Quad Cinema 4/5 @ 9:20pm - Actors Idalmis García and Armando Valdés present for Q&A

Esther en alguna parte / Esther Somewhere Gerardo Chijona | Cuba | 2013 | Fiction | 95min | NY Premiere Larry Po, an eccentric elder, reveals to Lino Catalá, a serious and traditional old man, that his late wife led a double life. From that moment on, they both start an intense search. Museum of the Moving Image 4/5 @ 6:30pm - Quad Cinema 4/6 @ 7:20pm – Director, and actor Enrique Molina present for Q&A

Melaza / Molasses Carlos Lechuga | Cuba | 2012 | Drama | 80 min | NY Premiere When the local sugar cane mill shut down, the town of Melaza was left devastated and lifeless. Aldo and Mónica are a young couple striving to find a way to survive. Helping each other, they try to save their world without losing faith. Quad Cinema 4/8 @ 3:15pm; Quad Cinema 4/10 @ 7:15pm - Director present for Q&A

Se vende / For Sale Jorge Perugorría | Cuba | 2012 | Fiction | 95min | NY Premiere Nacar, a young girl who works in a lab, is facing rough economic times by herself. Her dead mother advises her from the grave to sell the cemetery plot. In this black comedy, death is an excuse to talk about life. Quad Cinema 4/8 @ 7:10pm - Director present for Q&A; Quad Cinema 4/10 @ 1:00pm - Director present for Q&A

No robarás... A menos que sea necesario / You Shall Not Steal Viviana Cordero | Ecuador | 2013 | Fiction | 95min | NY Premiere Lucía, a teenager of humble origin, lives with her siblings, mother, and stepfather. One day, after an altercation between her mother and stepfather, her life takes a drastic turn. Quad Cinema 4/6 @ 5:10pm - Director present for Q&A; Quad Cinema 4/8 @ 5:00pm

La jaula de oro / The Golden Dream Diego Quemada-Diez | Guatemala-Mexico | 2013 | Fiction | 100min | NY Premiere Three teenagers from Guatemala’s slums travel to the U.S. in search of a better life. On their journey they meet Chauk, an Indian from Chiapas who doesn’t speak Spanish. Together, they soon have to face a harsh reality. Museum of the Moving Image 4/6 @ 5:00pm - Director present for Q&A; Quad Cinema 4/8 @ 9:15pm - Director present for Q&A

Tercera llamada / Last Call Francisco Franco–Alba | Mexico | 2013 | Drama-Comedy | 90min | NY Premiere A Mexican company rehearses a turbulent theatrical production of Albert Camus’ Caligula to be performed at an international festival. Quad Cinema 4/5 @ 7:20pm - Director present for Q&A; Quad Cinema 4/7 @ 1:00pm

Competing for Havana Star Prize documentary category:

La Gorgona, historias fugadas / Gorgona, Stories on the Run Camilo Botero | Colombia | 2013 | Documentary | 70min | NY Premiere This documentary builds an intriguing narrative combining nature shots with personal accounts by inmates at Gorgona, a paradisical island in the Colombian Pacific that functioned as a prison between 1960-1985, when it was declared a natural park by the Colombian government. Quad Cinema 4/5 @ 3:30pm - Director present for Q&A

Hay un grupo que dice/ A Group is Saying Lourdes Prieto | Cuba | 2013 | Documentary | 81min | U.S. Premiere Named after a song by Silvio Rodríguez, this documentary explores the history of ICAIC’s Grupo de Experimentación Sonora (GESI), a symbol of cultural resistance and creativity, formed by Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Eduardo Ramos, Sara Gonzáles, Noel Nicola, and Leo Brower. Quad Cinema 4/6 @ 3:15pm - Director present for Q&A; Quad Cinema 4/9 @ 5:00pm - Director present for Q&A

Seré asesinado / I Will be Murdered Justin Webster | Guatemala-UK | 2013 | Documentary | 85min | NY Premiere This documentary portrays the astonishing real-life story of a Guatemalan lawyer who launched a personal crusade in search of justice and brought his country to the brink of chaos. Quad Cinema 4/4 @ 1:00pm; Quad Cinema 4/7 @ 9:15pm

Ángeles y polvo / Angels and Dust Héctor Herrera | Panama-France | 2013 | Documentary | 81 min | U.S. Premiere Music producer Paco and his wife Kene are arrested at Panama’s airport with cocaine strapped to their bodies. Desperate to help them, Paco’s brother Mauricio leaves his home in Barcelona and embarks on a mesmerizing hallucinogenic journey.

Quad Cinema 4/5 @ 5:30pm - Director present for Q&A

De cometas y fronteras / Of Kites and Borders Yolanda Pividal | U.S.-Mexico | 2013 | Documentary | 60 min | NY Premiere The story of the daily struggle to be a child living on the U.S.-Mexico border through the eyes of four working children in the city of Tijuana. Quad Cinema 4/4 @ 9:15pm - Director present for Q&A

Sobre las olas: A Story of Flamenco in the U.S. Carolina Loyola | U.S. | 2013 | Documentary | 100min | NY Premiere For over a hundred years, the art of flamenco has been traveling into distant places. Many have fallen in love with the deep song, the cry, the rhythm. This documentary brings us into the heart of flamenco in the U.S. and the artists who keep it alive. Quad Cinema 4/6 @ 1:00pm - Director present for Q&A

For more info about Havana Film Festival New York please visit www.hffny.com. For interviews with filmmakers and press materials please contact Melany Walter at 212.687.2146 / [email protected]

Presenting sponsor of HFFNY 2014 is NBC/Telemundo 47. Additional sponsorship is provided by El Diario La Prensa, Pepsi Co, TD Bank, Xael Charters, LatAm Cinema, Wing, Copacabana Pizza & Grill, Remezcla, Copacabana, QueensLatino, and EnRola TV. The official hotel of HFFNY is Maritime Hotel. HFFNY is made possible with public funds from the NYS Council on the Arts, a state agency supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY) is a project of American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba (AFLFC), a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization that builds cultural bridges between the U.S. and Cuba through programs in the arts.

HFFNY FESTIVAL VENUES Directors Guild Theater - 110 West 57th St. (Bet. 6th & 7th Aves.), Manhattan Quad Cinema - 34 West 13th St. (Bet. 5th & 6th Aves.), Manhattan Museum of the Moving Image - 35th Ave. at 37th St., Astoria, Queens The Bronx Museum of the Arts - 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th St., The Bronx King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, NYU - 53 Washington Square South, Manhattan SVA (School of Visual Arts) Theatre - 333 West 23rd St., Manhattan CUNY Graduate Center - 365 Fifth Ave. (Bet. 34th & 35th St.) #C204, Manhattan

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