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The Cuban actress Camila Arteche won the Best Actress Award in Short Films at the Madrid International Independent Film Festival (FICIMAD) 2026, for her performance in the short film Boxeadora, directed by Oldren Ángel Romero.
The official announcement came on Monday via the festival's Instagram account, one day after FICIMAD celebrated its sixth edition, the most ambitious in its history, at the Carlos Saura Auditorium of the Faculty of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid.
The festival jury emphasized that Arteche delivers "a powerful, nuanced, and profoundly moving performance," in which her character embodies "a strength inseparable from her vulnerability," achieving an interpretation that "resonated deeply" among the jury members.
«Boxeadora is a powerful anthem of inner freedom and the human ability to reinvent oneself,» states the festival's publication.
The actress herself celebrated the award on her social media with a message of gratitude to her team: "Congratulations, amazing team!" she wrote in her Instagram stories.
Boxeadora uses the symbolic figure of a female boxer to explore resilience, healing, and inner freedom. According to the director's statement quoted by the festival, the work "is dedicated to brave women and to everyone who has faced adversity and found the strength to move forward," and it reminds us that "vulnerability is not weakness, but an essential part of being human."
This is not the first international recognition that Arteche has received for this same short film. In June 2022, she already won the award for Best Performance at the Hollywood North Film Awards, making Boxeadora one of the most awarded works of her career.
Graduated from the National School of Arts (ENA) in Havana, in 2026: in addition to this award in Madrid, she stars in the international series Coolie, presented at the Miami Film Festival in April of this year, where she plays a woman in 19th century Cuba.
FICIMAD 2026 showcased 31 films with free admission over the course of ten hours, featuring participation from filmmakers from Poland, Greece, Georgia, the United States, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates, establishing itself as one of the most significant showcases of independent cinema in the Madrid area.
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