"We agree with the existence of the Havana Film Festival, which already has a tradition and is internationally recognized, that is, we are an alternative for films that for certain political circumstances have been condemned to oblivion," Cruz said.

"We had a variety of films with more political themes, others more existential, in other words, there was great diversity," he added.

The actress said that during the festival they exhibited the film "Desarraigo" made in 1965 by Fausto Canel "because the idea is to show films that at the time did not have an impact because the political circumstances did not allow it, so we also have a space for that". On its last day, the INSTAR Festival showed the finished works of the winners earlier this year of the PM Film Award, aimed at new filmmakers in the categories of Fiction, Documentary and New Media, and announced the winners of its second call, which this time added the Special Award "Nicolás Guillén Landrián" endowed with 5 thousand dollars. The award in the Fiction category went to New Eva, by Nathaly Cardet and Yanisleysi Vázquez, and in the Documentary category to Riomar, by Lester Lejardi and Camila Carballo. In Animation, the award went to the project Pirita, by Carlos M. Paifer and Adriana García Pérez and Eliécer Jiménez won in the Transmedia category for his project 59 Cuban-Docs

The winners of the "Nicolás Guillen Landrián" Special Prize were How to Educate a Child, by Gretel Marín and Maria Elisa Pérez, and the documentary project Person with Person, by Karel Ducasse, Raúl Escobar and Yanet de Paz. The INSTAR festival ran from December 6-8 without much harassment from State Security, but had some setbacks lamented Lynn Cruz.

"A foreign filmmaker was forced by pressure from officials to withdraw her film" said Cruz without offering details and "we had to withdraw a film at the last minute because we didn't have the rights, it was a film from the San Antonio de los Baños Film School."

"They called from the San Antonio de los Baños Film School that if we did not withdraw it they would sue us." This happened because of an error on our part because it is true that the San Antonio de los Baños Film School functions in Cuba as a production house, that is to say they finance the works, therefore, these belong to them," Cruz said.

Artist Tania Bruguera, director of the International Institute of Artivism "Hannah Arendt", INSTAR, said in an interview with DIARIO DE CUBA that this Festival "is a natural consequence of the cycle on independent filmmakers" that they have been carrying out "since the middle of this year and where the main objective is to show those films that will not be exhibited at the International Latin American Film Festival in Havana".

The sponsors of the INSTAR Film Festival plan to make it an annual event in Havana.