Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando was selected as a member of the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in the category of directors.
Rolando (Havana, 1953) is an outstanding Cuban director with a nearly 40-year career. Her filmography includes works like Oggún, un eterno presente; Los hijos de Baraguá, El alacrán, and Las raíces de mi corazón, among others.
A graduate in Arts and Letters from the University of Havana, she started as an assistant director at ICAIC in 1977. For more than a decade she collaborated with a plethora of filmmakers such as Santiago Álvarez, Bernabé Hernández, Rogelio París, Manuel Herrera, Orlando Rojas, Enrique Colina, and Santiago Villafuerte.
Rolando was one of the first creators who founded independent production groups in Cuba, as was the case of Video Imágenes del Caribe.
The filmmaker has placed special emphasis on investigating the African heritage in Cuban culture from an emancipatory perspective and with great creative depth.
Her work has helped bring to light an important part of the identity of the Cuban nation and to promote intercultural dialogues that have made it possible to know the development and evolution of the people of mixed blood in the island’s social sphere.
She has developed a relevant work as a documentary maker, in which she maintains a remarkable thematic consistency with the cinema of her compatriot Sara Gómez.
The Academy, in charge of organizing the Oscars, announced that it aims to increase its diversity and the number of women and people of different races among its ranks.
Gloria Rolando was chosen to be part of a group of film personalities from 59 countries. Among them were stars such as Lady Gaga, Sterling K. Brown, Claire Foy, Tom Holland, Elisabeth Moss, Letitia Wright, Phil Lord or Christopher Miller, said the agency EFE.
