The Italo-Cuban coproduction «Baracoa», directed by the Cuban filmmaker Luis Ernesto Doñas, won two awards at the 41st edition of the Ibero-Latino American Film Festival of Trieste.
«Baracoa» received the Audience Award and the Best Script Award at the Contemporary Film Contest, presented on Sunday at the Miela theater in the Italian city. The script was written by Doñas along with the Italian Filippo Ascion.
This festival was founded in 1985 by the Association for the Promotion of Latin American Culture in Italy (APCLAI). It is one of the oldest Latin American cinema events in Europe.
The film combines drama and comedy in a journey through Cuba that begins after the death of Felipe, an Italian revolutionary who became a Cuban citizen and was an old friend of Fidel Castro. His son Pepe, influenced by homophobic prejudices and a desire to emigrate to Canada, sets off on a trip from Havana to Baracoa alongside doctor Jimmi, who transforms into the drag queen Estrellita at night. Their journey confronts the differences between the two characters while portraying contemporary Cuba.
The role of Felipe is played by Giancarlo Giannini, one of the most internationally recognized Italian actors, nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for Seven Beauties (1977). The character is inspired by Gino Doné Paro, an Italian anti-fascist partisan and the only European who participated in the Granma yacht expedition in December 1956.
The cast is rounded out by Carlos Luis González, Yadier Fernández, Carlos Pérez Peña, Ana Gloria Buduén, and Giovanni Giusto, with photography by Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci CCS and original music by the Cuban soprano Bárbara Llanes.
Doñas, born in 1984, trained at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana and at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in San Antonio de los Baños. After a period at ICAIC as an editing assistant, he developed an international career as an opera and theater director based in Rome, including collaborations with the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.
"Baracoa" is his first feature film. The director acknowledged that he had been away from cinema for years when he returned to Cuba to shoot this film.
The international journey of the film began at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana in December 2025, where it received the collateral award for diversity, Súmate.
In June 2026, "Baracoa" participated out of competition at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, where Giancarlo Giannini received an award for his career. Before Trieste, it was also showcased at the Lucca Film Festival in September.
The triumph comes at a time of severe crisis for cinema in Cuba, where power outages have forced the installation of generators at the Festival de La Habana and necessitated the rescheduling of the Gibara International Low-Budget Film Festival from April to July 2026.
In that context, co-productions like "Baracoa"—filmed in Cuba but structured and financed by Italy—represent a way for Cuban talent to circulate and be recognized in Europe.
It is not the first time that a Cuban film has triumphed in Trieste. In 2019, "Inocencia," by Alejandro Gil, won awards for Best Ensemble Performance and Best Music at that same festival.
The Best Film of the Official Competition in this edition went to "Perros," by the Uruguayan Gerardo Minutti, while the Special Jury Award went to "Ángeles," by the Argentine Paula Markovitch, and the Best Direction was awarded to Lucía Puenzo for "Pepita, la pistolera."
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