Cuban filmmaker Ian Padron said it was an honor to receive the Glauber 
Rocha 2011 award, which carries the name, he said, of one of the filmmakers he admires the most.
Rocha was one of the most important Latin American filmmakers, and the father of the new Latin American cinema. "The award also has a special meaning for me. I was born the same day of the creator of Entranced Earth and God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun," said Padron.
The Cuban filmmaker received the award on Saturday, which is sponsored by Prensa Latina and granted by the foreign press accredited at the Havana festival, which distinguished his film Habanastation by consensus.
Speaking about the festival jury´s decision, famous movie critic and French writer living in Spain, Sergio Berrocal, highlighted how the filmmaker used autobiographical elements to make a story that goes beyond the peculiar, and could happen anywhere in the world.
Berrocal also highlighted the universal values in the film, such as generosity and solidarity, and the capacity to achieve a direct and deep link with the audience.
The Cuban film Habanastation won five collateral awards at the 33rd International Latin American Film Festival underway in the Cuban capital, including the coveted Glauber Rocha Prize granted by the foreign press accredited to the gathering.
The work by 35 year-old director Ian Padrón was awarded the Glauber Rocha, sponsored by Cuba's 
Latin American News Agency Prensa Latina since 1985 and granted by the media accredited to the festival. The prize honors renowned Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha. The jury highlighted that, with few resources, the movie shows Cuba’s social reality from a human point of view, with optimism and hope.
The film also won the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF Award, which the UN agency described as an ode to friendship and solidarity, as humanistic, objective and full of hope, which reveals the potentials of children and adolescents to influence on the attitudes of adults to change the world. The Cuban Journalists Union UPEC film critics club also granted its prize to Habanastation in virtue of the narrative displayed in the work in defense of universal values.
More than one million movie goers have already seen the film, which has been a hit in Cuban movie theaters this year. The work won the best feature film award at the Traverse City Festival in Michigan, the United States, organized by US filmmaker Michael Moore.
Shot in a west Havana shanty town, the children’s film deals with the inequalities prevailing in Cuba through the friendly relationship between two boys of different 
social backgrounds, highlighted the validity of human values over money and material things. Along with the film A ticket to Paradise. Padrón’s movie has also been chosen to represent Cuba at the competition for the 2012 Oscar Awards nominations in the category of best foreign film. (Thanks to D. Donestevez)
Rocha 2011 award, which carries the name, he said, of one of the filmmakers he admires the most.
The Cuban filmmaker received the award on Saturday, which is sponsored by Prensa Latina and granted by the foreign press accredited at the Havana festival, which distinguished his film Habanastation by consensus.
