Cuban film Habanastation, directed by Ian Padron, was chosen to represent this country for a 2012 Oscar nomination in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.
An awards committee of the Cuban Film Institute, composed of filmmakers Fernando Perez (Suite Havana) and Manuel Perez (Pages from Mauricio's diary) and the editor Manuel Iglesias (El Benny), was responsible for the selection, according to provisions in the rules of the Academy of the Oscar Award.
Starred by children Andy Fornaris and Ernesto Escalona, Habanastation has accumulated successes within and outside the country since its release in past July and Cuban critics described it as the most important film event of the year.
Awarded at the Traverse City Festival in Michigan, founded by Michael Moore and applauded at a screening in Miami, Habanastation tells the story of two classmates, members of a social and family environment very different, who begin a beautiful friendship from their enthusiasm for video games.
Since early September began arriving at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the United States the various films that will compete in the foreign film section.
The five official candidates in this section will be announced on January 24, 2012 in Los Angeles.
Cuba will also enter the fray for a candidacy to the Goya Awards of the Spanish Academy, with the film Tickets to Paradise, by Gerardo Chijona in the category of Best Spanish-speaking Foreign Film.
Inspired by five testimonies of the book Confessions to a physician, by Jorge Perez, the film addresses the story of five young people in extreme situations, whose fates are intertwined in the same story.
Tickets to Paradise was has been awarded the silver Biznaga, Latin House Award Film Festival in Malaga, Spain, and Havana Star for best film at the Havana Film Festival New York, United States, both in April 2011 .
Carlos Acosta, the most famous Cuban ballet dancer, will be awarded with the National Dance Prize 2011 next Monday, becoming at his 38 years old the youngest artist to receive this award. The gala to honour Acosta at Garcia Lorca auditorium of Havana´s Grand Theatre will be led by choreographer Alberto Mendez with the performance of dancers from the Contemporary Dance Company and the group lead by Santiago Alfonso, and other famous dancers.
Acosta has built a successful career both in Cuba and abroad since he entered Cuba´s National Ballet Company (BNC) in 1991.
He has performed as a guest artist in the London Royal Ballet; the New York American Ballet Theater; and the Kirov Ballet, in St. Petersburg.Now aged 38 and living in London, he feels he has "maybe three more years" before he will retire. "As long as I can deliver freshness and not make a fool of myself I'll continue to dance," he said. Behind the grace and beauty of ballet, dancers are often in constant pain, and injuries can jeopardise their careers.
Acosta has pain in his hips and has had repeated surgeries on his right ankle. "I still think I have what it takes, but sometimes it's difficult to know when it's the right time, I think I still have the quality people like - but it's not very far away now." "Ballet has been like being married for 30 years, and then for some reason life takes you on different paths, but you still have the memories of the woman you love - that's me and ballet."
Born in Cuba in 1973, Acosta has danced in the most important theatres of the world with a repertoire stretching from the big romantic-classic tradition to the most contemporary styles.
Acosta has received important awards such as the Young Artists Award of the Princess Grace Foundation in the United States (1995); his ballet Tocororo won the Lawrence Olivier Award (2007) for the best show presented in London in 2006.
Acosta says his heart still belongs in Havana, and that he deals with the separation from his family and country "by creating defence mechanisms". When he retires he and his British fiancée plan to move to Cuba, and he may start his own dance company.
Acosta doesn't intend to take over from his one-time dance teacher, Alicia Alonso, founder of the Cuban National Ballet - now aged 90 and almost blind. Instead he wants to create a new style of "fusion" dance in Cuba. "I used to breakdance, I know how to salsa, but I also have a very strong classical training. You have to be able to dance anything as a ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet - that's what I'm looking for, the dancer I would like to form."
Cast in bronze, the statue of former Beatle John Lennon keeps its human look in a quiet park in Vedado, Havana, as if he were inviting us to share a secret. On countless occasions, some enthusiastic fan, passer-by or tourist has not been able to resist the temptation of removing his round eyeglasses from which he seems to see life passing by.
With his thoughtful appearance, he seems to be thinking that peace is still possible and can be achieved amid this hell of wars and aggressions with which a handful of powerful people are trying to shatter dreams and completely erase planet Earth.
But Lennon is never alone. Or almost never, because for any Havana resident or any one coming from anywhere in the Island it is a temptation to walk through this park of leafy trees and sit beside him, who seems to be as alive as he was when he was singing or composing his best songs.
Sculptor Jose Villa even screwed the eyeglasses to his bronze Lennon once, in a vain attempt to preserve his work, the detailed image of that man who emerged from Liverpool to become unintentionally a radiant, universal symbol that belongs to all. In a futile effort, Villa has even urged the people to avoid the temptation to strip Lennon of his eyeglasses, but every now and then they are reported missing, too available and desirable a relic.
The former Beatle, in his life-size statue full of mystery and beauty, remains leaning back on his Havana bench, just a few yards from the Yellow Submarine night club and half a block from a music school where students learn to sol-fa under the protection of his company.
Our Lennon, the Cubans say, as in a tender prayer. And many visit him daily, in a pleasant pilgrimage. Lennon is part of Havana, as Havana is part of Lennon. As Cuba was part of Hemingway, beyond his literature. They can both be found here in places you can't imagine, and not only from the bronze statues that perpetuate them.
Starred by children Andy Fornaris and Ernesto Escalona, Habanastation has accumulated successes within and outside the country since its release in past July and Cuban critics described it as the most important film event of the year.
Awarded at the Traverse City Festival in Michigan, founded by Michael Moore and applauded at a screening in Miami, Habanastation tells the story of two classmates, members of a social and family environment very different, who begin a beautiful friendship from their enthusiasm for video games. 
Since early September began arriving at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the United States the various films that will compete in the foreign film section.
Cuba will also enter the fray for a candidacy to the Goya Awards of the Spanish Academy, with the film Tickets to Paradise, by Gerardo Chijona in the category of Best Spanish-speaking Foreign Film. 
