HABANA BLUES WINS THE DLA AUDIENCE AWARD
and we are all sad the festival is over one more year...
Habana Blues by Benito Zambrano was voted the "most loved" film of the 5th edition of the Discovering Latin America Film Festival, as part of the Audience Award sponsored by the Meliá White House Hotel. The audience award is based on the average scores given by the audience, as well as attendance numbers.

Habana Blues tells the story of two young Cuban musicians who share the same dream: becoming famous and finally leaving Havana. Scouted by two Spanish producers, the two musicians are offered what could be the chance of a lifetime. Suddenly, they find themselves facing the serious dilemma of leaving behind their strong relationships to embrace their dreams.

Benito Zambrano(born in Sevilla, Spain, in 1965) graduated from the Havana International School of Film and Television where he majored in scriptwriting and film directing. Zambrano’s Habana Blues came five years after his acclaimed first feature film Solas (1999).

The film was closely followed by runner-up House of Sand by Andrucha Waddington from Brazil and Argentinian films Buenos Aires 1977 and Family Law. Claudia Llosa's Madeinusa received the highest number of votes throughout the festival.

The DLA Film Festival is made for the audience and can only be supported by the audience. We are really proud to report that 90% of the audience award votes had either the maximum score ("Loved it") or the second best ("Liked it"). For us this is the biggest success possible... We will continue to give audiences what they deserve, bringing the best contemporary feature films, documentaries and putting together the best cultural events
The festival continues to run with the responsibility of producing the best programme whilst donating money to charitable projects (this year through CREA PANAMA). For this reason the festival continues to rely on private donor programmes. We have created our own through Charities Trust, if you really want to support us you can donate online (anything from £1 up)