LIFFY 2024
The 15th Annual Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale (LIFFY) will take place from November 4 to November 10, 2024.
Monday, November 4 - Sunday, November 10
Free and open to the public. All films include English subtitles. All presentations will be bilingual unless otherwise indicated.
For virtual screenings and special events, please register in advance in Eventbrite. See more information in the section "Virtual Screenings" below.
Festival Program
To view the LIFFY 2024 program, click here. You can also download the program through the link below.
Festival Trailer
Virtual Screenings
Short film blocks will be virtually available for viewing from Monday, November 4th to Thursday, November, 7th. Please register for each block of short films you wish to view via the Eventbrite links below and in the schedule. You must register for these events in advance in order to receive the private YouTube link to view that block. Audience members who have registered before 9:00am will receive the private viewing link that morning, between 9am and 10am. If you registered after 9:00am, you will receive the link by the following day.
Block #1 - "From Spain"
Echado al monte. Pedro Fuertes. Fiction. Spain. 18min
Adriá. Mariona Llibrer. Fiction. Spain. 21 min
A Street View. Loreto Saiz and Alfonso Villanueva García. Fiction. Spain. 14:17 min
La Fianza. Eduardo Cubillo. Ficción. España. 15:17min
Antes de que se poña o sol. Nani Matos. Fiction. Galicia, Spain. 12:12min
Yamal (mature audience) Miguel A. Almanza. Fiction. Spain. 19min
Register HERE
Block #2 - "From Latin America"
Parque de la Cigüeña. Sergio Valdés, Voces de la Ciudad. Documentary. Mexico. 10min
Campesinas. Juan Pablo Ortiz. Fiction. Colombia. 8min
El Lugar Donde Yo. José Lobillo & Virginia Manchado. Experimental. Spain. 5min
House (Casa). Pablo Padovani. Documentary. Argentina. 13min
Cinco Formas de Borrar un Chupón. Colectivo Niñita Perversa. Fiction. Chile. 19min.
El Canon. Martin Seeger. Fiction. Chile. 19 min.
Register HERE
Block #3 - "Short Films"
La Generación de la Regeneración. Saúl González Abejón. Documentary. Spain. 24min.
Querida abuela, Maruja. Igni Vázquez. Documentary. Spain. 29 min.
Coming Home. Mónica Feliú-Mójer. Documentary. Puerto Rico/USA. 10:19 min.
Register HERE
Block #4 - "From Brazil and Portugal"
Festival Jury
Catalina Santamaría
Catalina Santamaría is an independent filmmaker based in New York. Her work
as a director, producer, photographer, and editor has earned awards world-wide.
Select films include: Umbrella House, Luminiscencia, Excepto mi alma… and
Derail. Her first feature, Squatters/Okupas, received the Best International
Documentary Feature award at the Puerto Rico Film Festival and the Havana
Star Prize - Special Jury Mention in Documentary - at the 2022 Havana Film
Festival in New York.
Since 2015, Catalina has been a producer at CUNY TV, where she creates
overall network strategy and plans content.
Michelle Leigh Farrell
Dr. Michelle Leigh Farrell is a Latin American Cinemas professor and Department chair at Fairfield University with a PhD from Georgetown University. In her research she focuses on contemporary Cuban and Venezuelan cinemas and their changing audiovisual landscapes through emerging voices with access to digital production and alternative distribution opportunities. Her articles and video essays can be found in Cuban Studies, Chasquí, The Latin Americanist, [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Studies and Tecmerin. In support of her on-going research, she has been awarded grants from the American Association of University Women, the Fairfield University Humanities Institute, and the American Philosophical Society. Inspired by the filmmakers she researches she is active in the New York and New England Latin American film communities serving as a juror for film festivals and annual awards.
Ivonne Cotorruelo
Ivonne Cotorruelo is a Cuban Film Curator and former producer, who has been empowering storytellers for over a decade. She is a Features Programmer at Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF), Miami International Film Festival (MIFF), Outfest LA, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (TTFF). She is a PhD student at the University of Connecticut in the Literatures, Cultures and Languages Department. In the past, she was a Shorts Programmer for Aspen ShortFest and Features Doc for Atlanta. She has served as Juror for Film Festivals around the globe, and as reviewer for The Chicken and Egg Fund, Warner Media New Voices Initiatives, Black and Latino Inclusion Fellowship in LA, and Disney. A Berlinale Talent Campus alumnus, she is always seeking out stories for underrepresented voices. Working on a plan of strategic diversity, equity and inclusion.
Rosario Caicedo
Rosario Caicedo was born in Cali, Colombia, in 1950 and has lived in the United States for fifty years. A social worker by profession, she is also a cultural promoter and social activist. For decades, she has been defending the literary legacy of her brother, Andrés Caicedo. Her articles on literature, film, and politics have appeared in various Colombian newspapers and magazines in the United States. She has served as a judge in film festivals at Yale University and in Bucaramanga, Colombia, and has given lectures on the work of writer Andrés Caicedo in multiple cities in Colombia and abroad.
Christian Ponce
Christian Ponce is the co-founder and co-director of the Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York (EFFNY). EFFNY was founded in 2015 with the aim of bringing current and significant independent Ecuadorian cinema to the South American diaspora in New York City. Born and raised in Quito, Ecuador, Christian currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut. He has worked as the audience services manager at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, and currently he is the Visitor Services Manager at Yale Schwarzman Center.
Sponsors
Heartfelt thanks to our sponsors:
The 2024 Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale is made possible with support from the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund and the following sponsors:
- The Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies at the Yale MacMillan Center
- La Sociedad of Latine Law Students
- Poynter Fellowship in Journalism
- Office of New Haven Affairs at Yale
- Timothy Dwight Residential College, Yale
- Jonathan Edwards Residential College, Yale
- Ezra Stiles Residential College, Yale
- Branford Residential College, Yale
- Davenport Residential College, Yale
- Grace Hopper Residential College, Yale
- Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale
- Program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale
- The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
- Council on Middle East Studies at the Yale MacMillan Center
- European Studies Council at the Yale MacMillan Center
- Yale CTES - Classroom Technologies and Event Services
- Consulado General del Perú en Hartford/ Consulate General of Peru in Hartford
- Academia de las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de la República Dominicana
- Sigma Delta Pi
- The Yale Law Immigrant Justice Project
- Saoco Colombian Restaurant
- Yorkside Pizza
- Common Grounds
- Lucibello’s Italian Pastry Shop
- Soul de Cuba Café
- Austrian Cultural Forum NYC
- Consulate General of Mexico in Boston
- Punctum Sales
- Entrecruzar Films
- Fundación Grupo Ukamau (Bolivia)
- Providence Ediciones
- Asociación Española de Historiadores del Cine
- Distribución de Cortometrajes MMS
- ClickForFestivals
- PROMOFEST
- Aguijón Films
- New Haven Public Schools
- Arte Inc.
LIFFY 2024 Team
Our LIFFY 2024 Team: Leda Blaires Ciotti, Paola Martell, Stephanie Montealegre, Rosa Alcalá, Daniel Vieira, Anthony Sudol.
Founder and executive director: Margherita Tórtora
Selection Committee: Rosario Caicedo, Margherita Tórtora, Giseli Tordin, Mariana Centanin Bertho, Ronaldo Omizolo de Souza.
LIFFY 2024 Jury: Ivonne Cotorruelo, Michelle Leigh Farrell, Catalina Santamaría.
Virtual Short Film Jury: Rosario Caicedo, Christian Ponce.
LIFFY Volunteers: Lourdes Sabé Colom, Carolina Baffi, Rosario Caicedo, Alex Gil, Nydia del Carmen, Eli Berliner, Leon Kuo, Ana Mier Valdivia, Bill De La Rosa, Katherine Kowalczyk, David Ramos, Ceschi Ramos, Luis Luna, Barbara D’Ambruoso, Victoria Rodríguez, Agnes Berry, Rosamaría León, Antonia Baudoin, Viveka Mirkin, and the students of LAST 223: Spanish Through Film.
Poster: Leda Blaires Ciotti and Paola Martell
Festival Trailer: Miguel Rueda, Aguijón Films
Heartfelt thanks to our talented filmmakers!
LIFFY 2024 is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend and longtime LIFFY volunteer, Mike Anzel
2024 Prizes
Jury Decisions for the Latino and Iberian Film Festival, 2024
Decisiones del Jurado para el Festival de Cine Latino e Ibérico, 2024
Festival Jury/Gran Jurado: Ivonne Cotorruelo, Michelle Leigh Farrell, Catalina Santamaría
BEST SHORT FILM
Parole by Lázaro Gonzalez González (USA/Cuba)
Through a cinematographic lens, this film reminds audiences that documentary cinema is a crucial tool for self-discovery. This film weaves together missed family encounters, crossing verbal messages, with a city that is both revealed while remaining hidden reflecting the vital tensions of an immigrant’s experience.
MEJOR CORTOMETRAJE
Parole de Lázaro Gonzalez González (EE. UU./Cuba)
A través de una lente cinematográfica, esta película recuerda al público que el cine documental es una herramienta crucial para el autodescubrimiento. Este filme entrelaza encuentros familiares perdidos, cruza mensajes verbales, con una ciudad que se revela mientras permanece oculta, reflejando las tensiones vitales de la experiencia de un inmigrante.
BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
El Huaro by Patricia Wiesse Risso (Peru)
For its delicate and honest way that the camera captures a community of young girls as they share their intimate testimonies. Through the use of images, sounds, and silences the film reveals the spaces the girls inhabit leaving audiences with a heartbreaking story.
MEJOR DOCUMENTAL LARGO
El Huaro de Patricia Wiesse Risso (Perú)
Por su manera delicada y honesta de capturar con la cámara a una comunidad de chicas jóvenes mientras comparten sus testimonios íntimos. A través del uso de imágenes, sonidos y silencios, la película revela los espacios que habitan las chicas, dejando al público con una historia desgarradora.
BEST FEATURE FICTION FILM
Las preñadas by Pedro Wallace (Argentina/Brazil)
An uncomfortable and truthful account that confronts audiences with strength at the margins of abandonment. Elaborating an intimate narrative free of ornamentation, we see the brutal precariousness in which the women uphold the weight of survival through sisterhood and femineity as they struggle in a hostile land.
MEJOR PELÍCULA DE FICCIÓN
Las preñadas de Pedro Wallace (Argentina/Brasil)
Un relato incómodo y veraz que confronta al público con fuerza en los márgenes del abandono. Al elaborar una narrativa íntima libre de ornamentos, vemos la brutal precariedad en la que las mujeres sostienen el peso de la supervivencia a través de la hermandad y la feminidad mientras luchan en una tierra hostil.
HONORABLE MENTION - BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Silent Witnesses by Jerónimo Atehortúa Arteaga and Luis Ospina (Colombia)
For its stunning images rescued and re-edited from early 20th-century Colombian silent cinema. The film stands out as a creative cinematic work, featuring an impeccable soundtrack coupled with subtle touches of humor.
MENCIÓN DE HONOR - MEJOR LARGOMETRAJE DOCUMENTAL
Mudos testigos de Jerónimo Atehortúa Arteaga y Luis Ospina (Colombia)
Por sus impresionantes imágenes rescatadas y reeditadas del cine mudo colombiano de principios del siglo XX. La película se destaca como una obra cinematográfica creativa, presentando una banda sonora impecable junto con sutiles toques de humor.
HONORABLE MENTION - BEST FEATURE FICTION
Ramona by Victoria Linares Villegas (Dominican Republic)
For its careful representations of young Dominican women as they tell of their complex pregnancy journeys. Along with bringing to light the intricacies of pregnancies, the film reminds audiences of the importance of research in the actor’s craft, and dignified treatment of stories through the documentary process.
MENCIÓN DE HONOR - MEJOR LARGOMENTRAJE EN FICCIÓN
Ramona de Victoria Linares Villegas (República Dominicana)
Por sus cuidadosas representaciones de jóvenes dominicanas mientras cuentan sus complejas experiencias de embarazo. Además de dar luz a las complejidades de los embarazos, la película recuerda al público la importancia de la investigación en el arte del actor y el tratamiento digno de las historias a través del proceso documental.
Virtual Short Films/ Cortometrajes virtuales
Virtual Short FilmJury/Jurado para cortos virtuales: Rosario Caicedo & Christian Ponce
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
Querida abuela, Maruja by Igni Vázquez (Spain)
This film captivated us with its intimate and heartfelt portrayal of a family’s story—simple yet profoundly powerful in its execution.
MEJOR CORTOMETRAJE DOCUMENTAL
Querida abuela, Maruja de Igni Vázquez (España)
Esta película nos cautivó con su retrato íntimo y conmovedor de la historia de una familia: simple pero profundamente poderosa en su ejecución.
BEST SHORT FILM IN FICTION
El Canon by Martín Seeger (Chile)
This film impressed us with the grace and respect it brings to a complex subject. Through its beautiful cinematography, the film skillfully explores issues of racism and classism, using beauty as a powerful lens to reveal social tensions.
MEJOR CORTOMETRAJE DE FICCIÓN
El Canon de Martín Seeger (Chile)
Esta película nos impresionó con la gracia y el respeto con los que aborda un tema complejo. A través de su hermosa cinematografía, el filme explora hábilmente temas de racismo y clasismo, usando la belleza como un lente poderoso para revelar tensiones sociales.
HONORABLE MENTION IN THE FICTION CATEGORY
Antes de que se poña o sol by Nani Matos (Spain)
This short film tells a powerful yet simple story centered around a character from an often-overlooked community: the elderly. We were deeply moved by this character’s presence and story.
MENCIÓN DE HONOR EN LA CATEGORÍA DE FICCIÓN
Antes de que se poña o sol de Nani Matos (España)
Este cortometraje cuenta una historia poderosa pero sencilla centrada en un personaje de una comunidad a menudo pasada por alto: las personas mayores. Nos conmovió profundamente la presencia y la historia de este personaje.
We congratulate all the talented filmmakers that participated in LIFFY 2024!
¡Felicitamos a todos los talentosos creadores que participaron en el LIFFY 2024!