The 17th Havana Film Festival New York (April 7-15) presents an exceptional program in celebration of the diversity of voices in Cuban and Latin American cinema, featuring stories that challenge and inspire us- expanding our perspectives. Festival highlights include a tribute to critically-acclaimed and publicly-adored Cuban actors Isabel Santos and Enrique Molina; a retrospective commemorating the 20th anniversary of the passing of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea; panels on filmmaking and acting in Cuba; and World, US, and NY premieres of award-winning features by prominent and emerging cinema visionaries from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and US-based Latinos. Thursday, April 7 HFFNY 2016 opens at the Directors Guild Theater with El acompañante / The Companion , the darling of this year’s festival circuit by renowned Cuban director Pavel Giroud (La edad de peseta). April 8-14, screenings take place in Manhattan at the Village East Cinema (2nd Avenue & 12 Street), HFFNY 2016’s main venue, as well as at the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU and the Instituto Cervantes, and In Queens, at the Museum of the Moving Image. April 15, the festival closes with Oscar-winner Bob Yari’s Papa: Hemingway in Cuba, the first Hollywood film shot in Cuba since 1959 For more information on tickets and films, please visit www.HFFNY.com.

5:45 p.m. Screening: Las doce sillas / Twelve Chairs (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1962, 94 min.)

This film is one of the classics of Cuban cinema. A merchant, a revolutionary and a priest search for a chain containing hidden jewels.

7:30 p.m. Screening: Video de Familia (Humberto Padrón, Cuba, 2001, 47 min.)

_Video de Familia is an independent Cuban film made in 2001 It tells the story of a broken Cuban family with a homosexual son which has emigrated to the US. The film is composed of 5 shots of 10 minutes each, in the form of Video Letters. _

Co-sponsored by Havana Film Festival New York.