# Strawberry and Chocolate
**Strawberry and Chocolate** (*Fresa y chocolate*) is a 1993 Cuban comedy-drama feature film directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, a co-production of Cuba, Mexico, and Spain, about the friendship that develops between a young communist student and a gay artist in Havana.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=627) It was the first Cuban film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[2](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100005048/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / year | *Fresa y chocolate*, 1993[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=627) |
| Directors | Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=627) |
| Screenplay | Senel Paz, based on his story "El lobo, el bosque y el hombre nuevo"[3](https://endac.org/encyclopedia/fresa-y-chocolate/) |
| Countries | Cuba, Mexico, Spain; produced by ICAIC, IMCINE, Tabasco Films, TeleMadrid, and SGAE[3](https://endac.org/encyclopedia/fresa-y-chocolate/) |
| Principal cast | Jorge Perugorría (Diego), Vladimir Cruz (David), Mirta Ibarra (Nancy), Francisco Gattorno (Miguel)[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/strawberry_and_chocolate) |
| Setting | Havana, 1979[5](https://www.cibercuba.com/s/cine-cubano/pelicula/fresa-y-chocolate) |
| Major honors | Grand Coral First Prize, Havana 1993; Silver Bear Special Jury Prize and Teddy Award, Berlin 1994; Goya for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film, 1995; Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=627) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106966/awards/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and characters
The film opens at the Coppelia ice cream parlor in Havana, where Diego (Jorge Perugorría), a cultivated gay artist, approaches David (Vladimir Cruz), a young communist and member of the Young Communist League, over ice cream; one prefers strawberry, the other chocolate.[5](https://www.cibercuba.com/s/cine-cubano/pelicula/fresa-y-chocolate) • [7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html) Diego's choice of strawberry ice cream is the detail by which David first identifies him as homosexual.[8](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/strawberry-and-chocolate-1995)
David initially agrees to spy on Diego for the state, reporting to his roommate Miguel (Francisco Gattorno), a state security agent, but instead becomes entranced by Diego's library, art, and conversation, and a genuine friendship develops.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/strawberry_and_chocolate) • [9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/03/strawberry-and-chocolate-film-review) David falls in love with Diego's neighbor Nancy (Mirta Ibarra).[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/03/strawberry-and-chocolate-film-review) The two men never kiss; the conflict resolves in friendship, sealed by the embrace of the final scene, and Diego ultimately leaves Cuba.[7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html) • [10](https://cinegogia.omeka.net/items/show/79)
## Political and cultural context
The film is set in 1979, but scholars read it as a portrait of the Cuba of the 1970s, a period of cultural, religious, political, and sexual repression.[5](https://www.cibercuba.com/s/cine-cubano/pelicula/fresa-y-chocolate) • [11](https://revistes.ua.es/quacine/article/view/2019-n14-la-sociedad-cubana-a-finales-de-los-70-produccion-artis) In the dialogue, David refers to the UMAP (Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción), forced labor camps to which the Cuban government sent religious believers, delinquents, and homosexuals with the aim of politically, ideologically, and sexually reorienting them.[7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html) The film's plot also turns on a censored art exhibition, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image describes it as examining how political censorship impoverishes a society.[7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html) • [12](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/85483--strawberry-and-chocolate-fresa-y-chocolate/)
Its production came shortly after the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) succeeded in reversing the state's censorship of *Alicia en el pueblo de maravillas* (1991), a film with sharply critical views of the state's monopoly on knowledge and political expression.[13](https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-08-04_610b1b73c34f0_GlobalEncyclopediaofLesbianGayBisexualTransgenderHistorybyCharlesScribnerSonsz-lib.org-2.pdf) The film was made in the early 1990s, during the [Special Period](https://www.edgepedia.org/special-period) of economic and political crisis, when it opened intense debates on the future of the revolution.[13](https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-08-04_610b1b73c34f0_GlobalEncyclopediaofLesbianGayBisexualTransgenderHistorybyCharlesScribnerSonsz-lib.org-2.pdf)
## Reception and awards
The film premiered at the opening of the 15th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana in December 1993, where it won the Grand Coral First Prize, the Best Director Coral, Best Actor for Jorge Perugorría, Best Supporting Actress for Mirtha Ibarra, the Audience Award, the FIPRESCI critics' prize, and the OCIC prize.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=627) • [14](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-01-02/cuba-looks-at-itself-in-the-mirror-30-years-after-strawberry-and-chocolate.html) At the 44th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) in 1994 it won the Silver Bear Special Jury Prize and the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film with gay themes, and was nominated for the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear).[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106966/awards/) • [1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=627)
In 1995 it won the Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film from Spain's Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, a Special Jury Prize at the [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival), and ACE awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Perugorría), and Best Supporting Actor (Vladimir Cruz) from the New York Association of Entertainment Critics.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=627) At the 67th Academy Awards it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, losing to *Burnt by the Sun*; it remains, as of the AFI record, the only Cuban film to receive that nomination.[14](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-01-02/cuba-looks-at-itself-in-the-mirror-30-years-after-strawberry-and-chocolate.html) • [2](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100005048/)
**Popular reception in Cuba.** The film became one of the biggest box-office successes of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's career within months of its Cuban release.[15](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/fresa-y-chocolate) The filmmaker recalled long lines and a Havana run of roughly three months after the festival opening.[16](https://www.usasurvival.org/uploads/1/2/6/3/126369300/feinberg_rainbow_solidarity_lavenderred_cubabook.pdf) Actor Vladimir Cruz later said that the Cuban people's belief that the film deserved the Oscar was "our true prize".[14](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-01-02/cuba-looks-at-itself-in-the-mirror-30-years-after-strawberry-and-chocolate.html) The film nevertheless waited 14 years before being broadcast on Cuban national television.[7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html)
## Legacy
At its release the film was notable as the first Cuban film with an overtly gay central character, and critics have described it as an appeal for tolerance that treats political, sexual, and cultural repression together.[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/03/strawberry-and-chocolate-film-review) • [17](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/strawberry-and-chocolate-fresa-y-chocolate-18-1729330.html) Some Cuban commentators note that it did not inaugurate homosexual themes in Cuban cinema, pointing to earlier works such as Néstor Almendros's *Conducta Impropia* and Luis Felipe Bernaza and Margaret Gilpin's *Mariposas en el Andamio*.[7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html) Others debate its treatment of desire: the queer Cuban filmmaker Lázaro González asks how to label a film in which homoerotic desire never materializes even as a stolen kiss, while each sexual scene is framed through a heteronormative gaze.[7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html)
Thirty years on, Cuban viewers approach the film as a document and a mirror rather than a discovery; many credit it with opening a public dialogue about homosexuality in Cuba, a country that approved equal marriage in its 2022 Families Code.[7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html) The film's main set, the house known as La Guarida, is now one of Havana's best-known restaurants.[7](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html) Gutiérrez Alea, who was dying of cancer and died in Cuba on 17 April 1996, followed it with Tabío with *Guantanamera* (1995).[18](https://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/Strawberry_and_Chocolate.htm) • [19](https://www.festivaldebiarritz.com/es/film/fresa-y-chocolate/)
## References
1. [Fresa y chocolate/Strawberry and chocolate, Sistema de Información Cultural, Secretaría de Cultura (Mexico)](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=627)
2. [Strawberry and Chocolate, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100005048/)
3. [Fresa y chocolate (1993), Portal ENDAC](https://endac.org/encyclopedia/fresa-y-chocolate/)
4. [Strawberry and Chocolate, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/strawberry_and_chocolate)
5. [Fresa y chocolate, Cine Cubano, CiberCuba](https://www.cibercuba.com/s/cine-cubano/pelicula/fresa-y-chocolate)
6. [Strawberry & Chocolate (1993) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106966/awards/)
7. [Cuba frente al espejo a 30 años de 'Fresa y Chocolate', El País (2024)](https://elpais.com/america/cultura/2024-01-01/cuba-frente-al-espejo-a-30-anos-de-fresa-y-chocolate.html)
8. [Strawberry And Chocolate, review by Roger Ebert (1995)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/strawberry-and-chocolate-1995)
9. [Strawberry and Chocolate, review by Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (2009)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/03/strawberry-and-chocolate-film-review)
10. [Fresa y chocolate, Cinegogía](https://cinegogia.omeka.net/items/show/79)
11. [Ana María Draghia, "La sociedad cubana a finales de los 70: producción artística e ideología revolucionaria en Fresa y Chocolate (1993)", Quaderns de Cine 14 (2019)](https://revistes.ua.es/quacine/article/view/2019-n14-la-sociedad-cubana-a-finales-de-los-70-produccion-artis)
12. [Strawberry and chocolate = fresa y chocolate, ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/85483--strawberry-and-chocolate-fresa-y-chocolate/)
13. [Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender History](https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-08-04_610b1b73c34f0_GlobalEncyclopediaofLesbianGayBisexualTransgenderHistorybyCharlesScribnerSonsz-lib.org-2.pdf)
14. [Cuba looks at itself in the mirror, 30 years after 'Strawberry and Chocolate', El País English (2024)](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-01-02/cuba-looks-at-itself-in-the-mirror-30-years-after-strawberry-and-chocolate.html)
15. [Fresa y Chocolate, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/fresa-y-chocolate)
16. ["Strawberry & Chocolate": the sweet taste of change, Feinberg, Rainbow Solidarity](https://www.usasurvival.org/uploads/1/2/6/3/126369300/feinberg_rainbow_solidarity_lavenderred_cubabook.pdf)
17. [Strawberry and Chocolate (Fresa y chocolate) (18), The Independent (2009)](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/strawberry-and-chocolate-fresa-y-chocolate-18-1729330.html)
18. [Strawberry and Chocolate, Columbia University (Louis Proyect)](https://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/Strawberry_and_Chocolate.htm)
19. [FRESA Y CHOCOLATE, Festival de Biarritz América Latina](https://www.festivaldebiarritz.com/es/film/fresa-y-chocolate/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 1990 to 1994 › Titles K to W*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license