Jorge Perugorría receives the 2024 National Film Award – 2024-04-01 23:40:19

Photo: Jennifer Torrealva | Flickr

Text: Fede Gayardo

The actor and director Jorge Perugorría was awarded the 2024 National Film Award, as reported this Saturday by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Through its Facebook profile, the film institution explained that the award was awarded by a jury made up of the writer Miguel Barnet, the actress Eslinda Núñez, the director Lourdes de los Santos, the documentary filmmaker Héctor Veitía, and the makeup artist and winner of the award in 2023 Magaly Pompa.

The award note states that “after analyzing the proposals and recognizing the value of all the candidates, the national and international work of the Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría and his multiple nominations and awards in all latitudes were highlighted.”

With this decision, other nominees were left out, such as the actresses Mirtha Ibarra, Adelaida Legrá and Isabel Santos, the animation director Mario Rivas, the producer Santiago Llapur and the actor Luis Alberto García, the latter proposed by the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers (ACC). .

Regarding the “Fresa y Chocolate” actor, the members of the jury highlighted his contribution “to the development of national culture, of which he is an indisputable defender. He is one of the most visible faces of his generation and has set a standard in the interpretation of the most diverse characters he has faced.”

Likewise, they pointed out that “his strength and determination to promote and develop national cinematography have tangible proof in his great efforts to maintain the Gibara Film Festival, which is already a consolidated space, and more recently win for the Isle of Youth the Green Island Festival.

In conclusion, they said that Perugorría “is a multifaceted artist and embodies the deepest values ​​of national identity.”

There have been several messages of congratulations to the actor from state institutions as well as from industry colleagues and friends. Including the Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel sent his ‘congratulations’ to the artist.

“Congratulations to the respected and beloved Jorge Perugorría for the well-deserved National Film Award. His name and his work are synonymous with Cuban Cinema,” the Cuban president wrote in his account on X.

Jorge Perugorría, also known as ‘Pichy’, has participated in other emblematic films of the island’s cinema such as “Waiting List” and “The Horn of Plenty”, by Juan Carlos Tabío, “Miel para Oshún” and “Barrio Cuba” ”, by Humberto Solás, “A rose from France”, by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón and “The wall of words”, by Fernando Pérez. As a director, Pichy has been at the helm of films such as “Fátima o el Parque de la Fraternidad”, “Afinidades” and “Se vende”. To his career as an actor and director, he adds that of a plastic artist, an endeavor that he has made visible since 2015 at the Taller Gorría Gallery, a cultural space and art gallery located in the San Isidro neighborhood, Old Havana. .

One of his most recent characters has been that of the detective Mario Conde, protagonist of the novels by Leonardo Padura who saw the light on the screen thanks to the series “Four seasons in Havana”.