The members of the jury, consisting of Paulo Antonio Paranaguá, Brazilian critic and historian and one of the authorities on Latin American cinema; Dunja Fehimović, an academic specializing in Caribbean cinema and university professor in the United Kingdom, and Cuban screenwriter Alejandro Hernández, winner of the Goya Award in 2013; to reach their verdict, they considered "the conceptual and artistic quality of the works in relation to their thematic proposals".

In an online meeting, the jurors celebrated the festival for "the quality and diversity of the selected films", apart from offering "the opportunity to approach different cinematographies of the global south, which do not always have the presence they deserve in the traditional circuits of audiovisual exhibition and distribution”.

They also recognized "the resilience, courage, and inventiveness of the filmmakers to overcome their adverse production circumstances and deliver films that profoundly question their respective socio-political contexts".

"It seems to me of utmost importance the work of the INSTAR Festival in disseminating and promoting the cinema of young Cuban creators, especially in light of the disappearance of the Young Filmmaker Showcase, which was, for many years, a fundamental critical space for so many, including several of the filmmakers whose works have competed for this award," Fehimović emphasized.

The professor pointed out that the event reflects "the evolution, or the current state of Cuban cinema, or its younger practitioners. I am referring to the transnational approach of the programming and screenings, which highlights an expansive vision of Cuban cinema, connected to the rest of the world and socio-political dynamics and international creative tendencies".

Cuban artivist Tania Bruguera, director of the Hannah Arendt International Institute of Artivism (INSTAR), said that the Festival has received proposals from three other cities around the world to organize its screenings in 2024 when its fifth edition should be held.

"We want it to be a party and a meeting place and a place for serious and important discussions for filmmakers," she said.

The Festival, curated by Cuban filmmaker José Luis Aparicio, was held in movie theaters and cultural centers in Barcelona, Paris, Miami, New York, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Sao Paulo, and was curated by Cuban filmmaker José Luis Aparicio. It could also be accessed online from Cuba through Festhome.

The concept guiding the edition was the transnational character of the New Cuban Cinema, as well as its growing dialogue with diverse cinematographies, especially those of countries ruled by authoritarian governments. 

In addition to short and feature films by Cuban filmmakers, this edition included works by filmmakers from Haiti, Iran, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Their directors live in exile due to the repressive situation in their countries of origin.

The Cuban regime launched a smear campaign against the exhibition through the official press and the social media of Ministry of Culture officials and the ideological apparatus, while the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema of Havana excluded from its program at the last minute, Luis Alejandro Yero's 'Calls from Moscow', screened at the INSTAR Film Festival.