Gerardo Chijona

Holds an English Language and Literature BA of the University of Havana. He begins working at the Film Information Center of ICAIC in 1974, through which he exerts film reviews published in national and international press for years. Two years later he began working as an assistance director of fiction films.

In 1984 he begins to direct documentaries, attaining numerous awards in the most important world film festivals. In 1992 he concludes his first feature film: Adorable Lies. Before the pre-production began, Chijona was invited to the Sundance Institute, for a period of a month, where he participated in two workshops: screenplay and direction, under the guidance of well-known consultants.  The film, which had its world premiere at the Sundance festival in 1992, was also a finalist to the Golden Camera at the Cannes Film Festival.

His three subsequent feature films: A Paradise under the Stars (1999); Love by Mistake (2004) and Ticket to Paradise (2010) also had their world premiere at the Sundance Festival. They have too been shown in different international film festivals, such as San Sebastian, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, New York, New Delhi, Mar del Plata, Rio de Janeiro, Huelva, Biarritz, Malaga, among others, in which they received many awards.

Esther Somewhere (2013) was awarded at the Latin Festival in Los Angeles and in the Havana Film Festival in New York City.

His last film, The Human Thing, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival in 2016.

Chijona has been member of juries in the following international festivals at Sundance, Chicago, Huelva, Havana, Lima, Ceara and Cartagena de Indias.

He is a professor of the International Film and TV School in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, since its inauguration and was head of the Direction Department.