This year's annual Havana International Film Festival has attracted movies from around the world.

Domestic cinema continues to draw large audiences in Cuba because many viewers feel movies better mirror their problems and lives than the state-controlled news media.

Cuban filmmakers have been at the vanguard of social critique, but overcoming censorship and other controls continue to be major challenges and the filmmakers are now sounding the alarm about a controversial new law that regulates artistic expression.

Al Jazeera's Latin America Editor Lucia Newman reports from Havana.