3 | 18/01/2021 – 9:15 am (GMT-4)
The renowned director and screenwriter of Cuban cinema, Juan Carlos Tabío died on the morning of Monday, January 18 at the age of 77, according to a note from the portal Cubacine, Which did not specify the cause of death.
National Film Award in 2014, Joan Carles is internationally recognized as one of the most outstanding and award-winning Cuban film directors of recent decades, with such important titles in his filmography as Exchanges (1983), Plaff or too much fear of life (1988) i The Elephant and the bicycle (1994).
It is especially significant the co-direction he shared with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea at the multi-award ceremony Strawberry and chocolate (1993), which was even nominated for Oscars, and Guantanamera (1995).
They also count in his filmography Waiting list (2000), Even if you are far away (2003), The horn of abundance (2008) and directed “The Bitter Sweet of Despair”, one of the stories in the feature film Seven days in Havana (2012). Finally, a choral performance in which other important international directors took part, in particular the Spanish Julio Medem, the French Laurent Cantet, the Argentine Pablo Trapero, the Palestinian Elia Suleiman and the Argentine-French Gaspar Noè.
Tabío’s filmography was widely awarded inside and outside Cuba: Plaff won the Special Jury Mention of the International Federation of Film Societies at the XIV Iberoamerican Film Festival of Huelva, Spain, in 1988, as well as the Third Choral Prize, FIPRESCI Prize at the X International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.
The funny comedy, which won actress Daisy Granados an award in Portugal and another in Paraguay, also won Best Film at the Latin Festival of New York in 1989 and Best Film at the II Festival of Caribbean Cinema, Fort de France, Martinique, 1990.
the Elephant and bicycle receiving FIPRESCI Mention at the 16th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, was nominated for the Goya Award for Best Foreign Film, 1995, in Spain. He also won the Second Prize at the International Film Festival, Damascus, Syria and the Audience Award at the Brussels Festival, Belgium, in 1997.
Born in 1943, Juan Carlos Tabío began working in 1961 at the ICAIC as a production assistant and later continued as an assistant director.
Between 1963 and 1980 he made more than 30 documentaries, Several of them awarded in various competitions. In 1983 he directed his first feature-length fiction film, Exchanges, Widely acclaimed by the Cuban public, which won the Third Choral Prize at the VI International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema.
Exchanges and his second film, Plaff, Romanen com two of the most important Cuban films of all time.
Waiting list received the French Ministry of Culture Award in 2000 and was awarded the Cinema-Forum Audience Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Horn of Abundance, For its part, to receive the Third Choral Prize at the XXX International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in 2008 and the Special Jury Prize at the 49th International Film Festival of Cartagena, Colombia, 2008, among others.
Between 1989 and 1990 Tabío was professor of script and cinematographic direction in the School the International of Cinema and Television of San Antonio of the Baths. In its extensive race it dictated, in addition, numerous factories of script, direction and dramatization in several countries, among them Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama.
UNEAC and other Cuban institutions have echoed the news, with messages of condolence for the huge loss to Cuban culture that means the death of Tabío, which adds to the recent death of the also film director, Enrique Pineda Barnet, Occurred less than a week ago.
The remains of Juan Carlos Tabío will be cremated and “in a timely manner the farewell will be reported to this director who thought of images and leaves us as a legacy an important career in Cuban cinema,” concludes the note the ICAIC.
Since the writing of CiberCuba we send our condolences to the family of the outstanding Cuban film director.