Mirtha Ibarra honored at Argentina's Oberá Film Festival as she premieres "Neurótica anónima"

October 10, 2026

Cuban actress, screenwriter and playwright Mirtha Ibarra was one of the featured international guests at the 23rd Oberá Film Festival (Oberá en Cortos), held October 6–10, 2026, in Argentina's northeastern province of Misiones. On Friday night, October 9, the Cine Teatro Oberá hosted a "Celebration of Cuban Cinema" that paid tribute to her nearly five-decade career and screened the Argentine premiere of Neurótica anónima, the feature directed by Jorge Perugorría with Ibarra in the lead role.

The film grew out of a stage play Ibarra wrote herself and toured in Spain before turning it into a screenplay. She plays an usher at a Havana movie theater whose husband struggles with alcoholism. Argentine outlets noted that the film drew a roughly ten-minute standing ovation at the Málaga Film Festival earlier this year. "Argentines have a great film culture, and I think they're going to enjoy the movie," Ibarra told Infobae ahead of the screening.

Her visit also opened the Tomás Gutiérrez Alea Open Chair, a program at the National University of Misiones' School of Arts and Design run jointly with the "Titón y Mirtha" cultural center of the Havana City Historian's Office. As part of the exchange, the Havana venue will host a selection of films from the Oberá festival. Ibarra wrapped up her stay with a public conversation on Saturday, October 10.

The 80-year-old actress said she was struck by the audience's enthusiasm and by the festival's use of sign-language interpretation, telling the site EscribiendoCine she had "never seen it anywhere else." Best known for playing Nancy in Strawberry and Chocolate and for Up to a Point, both by her late partner Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Ibarra said she already has an idea for her next film and has no plans to slow down.