LIFFY 2023: Fourteen Years Bringing the Best Latino & Iberian Cinema to Yale and New Haven

The Latino & Iberian Film Festival at Yale (LIFFY) celebrated its fourteenth edition last week, with numerous in-person screenings on the Yale campus in New Haven, bringing together an energetic crowd of members of the Yale community and the New Haven area. Students, professors, and various residents and cinephiles from New Haven and other parts of the country came to campus to enjoy one week of free screenings and engage in conversations with more than twenty invited directors and actors.

LIFFY kicked off on Monday, October 30, at the Yale Law School with an exhibition of the iconic work of Argentine photographer Eduardo Longoni, followed by a thought-provoking discussion with the artist, skillfully moderated by Yale Law student Santiago Carbajal. One of this year’s highlights was the screenings of Pablo Chea’s Dominican film Croma Kid for New Haven school students on Thursday morning on campus and a screening dedicated to East Haven High School on Friday morning. Each screening was received enthusiastically, with more than three hundred students and faculty in attendance. 

After the closing screening of the Peruvian film The Restoration and the Q&A with director Alonso Llosa, the jury announced the 2023 edition winners. The Colombian film Memento Morí by Fernando López Cardona was awarded the Best Fiction Feature Film Prize. The jury, composed of the award-winning producer and director Greta Schiller, writer and director Antonio Tibaldi, and writer and producer Eva Zelig, expressed their “mesmerized” by the film’s “stunning opening shot to end.” Berta soy yo (Honduras), directed by Katia Lara, won the award for the best feature documentary, and Una mirada honesta (Argentina), about the iconic photographer Eduardo Longoni, won the best direction award. 

The festival concluded with a festive reception at the traditional 53 Wall Street, featuring delicious Peruvian dishes sponsored by the Consulate of Peru in Hartford, Connecticut. Margherita Tortora, LIFFY Executive Director, and Elvis Tuesta, the Consul General of Peru in Hartford, welcomed the crowd and expressed their contentment for this new partnership.

You can read more about LIFFY here.

By Inês Forjaz de Lacerda, Graduate Communications Fellow, ines.lacerda@yale.edu