The documentary «La Noche Eterna de Cuba» won the Grand Prize Anthem —the festival's highest award— as well as the Best Documentary Feature award at the Anthem Film Festival 2026 in Las Vegas, held from July 9 to 12 in Nevada.
The announcement arrived at a moment rich in symbolism: the fifth anniversary of the historic July 11, 2021 protests in Cuba, the largest wave of anti-government demonstrations on the island since 1959.
“It is a great honor for us to announce that 'Cuba's Eternal Night' has been awarded the Grand Prize at Anthem —the festival's highest accolade— as well as the award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2026 Anthem Film Festival in Las Vegas,” wrote director Jordan Allott on his social media.
Allott emphasized that the recognition has a communal nature: "This recognition belongs to our dedicated team and, above all, to the brave Cuban people who trusted us to share their stories with the world."
The filmmaker also emphasized the timing of the award: "It is particularly significant that these awards were announced on the fifth anniversary of the historic protests of July 11, 2021, in Cuba, a pivotal moment both for this documentary and for Cuba's recent history."
The Anthem Film Festival is regarded as the largest libertarian film festival in the world, founded in 2011 and dedicated to celebrating freedom, awareness, and human dignity. In its 15 years of history, it has screened over 300 films to around 3,000 attendees.
The documentary is the result of three years of filming and editing under the direction of Allott, the author of the documentary "La Cuba de Oscar", about the dissident Oscar Elías Biscet, which earned him the disdain of the Havana regime. In "La noche eterna"... the director managed to create a 66-minute narrative that captures the stories of five Cubans facing the repression of the regime, the shortage of food and medicine, and the massive exodus triggered after July 11th.
Among the voices featured in the film are the 11J protesters Carlos Raúl Macías López, Camila Acosta, and Ariadna Mena Rubio, as well as Alberto Reyes and Emilio Román, father of those detained during the protests in La Güinera. Acosta, an independent journalist, was detained and subjected to more than ten months of house arrest for covering the 11J and was released in May 2022.
The Cuban journalist Yoe Suárez, field producer of the project, celebrated the award on his social media: "Days after commemorating the 5th anniversary of 11J, the feature film Cuba's Eternal Night has just received, in Las Vegas, the Grand Prize of the most important libertarian film festival." Suárez also highlighted that the film has allowed him to "talk with exiles from various places and university students from the United States and Colombia about the reality of living under a socialist tyranny."
The producer dedicated special words to the director: "Jordan deserves an ovation for the dedication I witnessed in him during the three years of filming and editing; a key material for the memory of a captive nation that still awaits the end of the night."
The documentary had its world premiere on April 10, 2025 at the Koubek Theater in Miami-Dade, as part of the 42nd Miami International Film Festival, and was subsequently screened in Madrid and Washington D.C.
The international award arrives in a context of deep crisis in Cuba. The protests on July 11 began in San Antonio de los Baños and spread to more than 40 cities, driven by power outages, widespread shortages, and the demand for basic freedoms. Five years later, the organization Justicia 11J reports 775 political prisoners in Cuba, 338 of whom were specifically imprisoned for participating in those demonstrations, while the regime has only released 20 of them since March 2026.
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