member of the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (a communist youth organization). It was also the first Cuban production to ever be nominated for an Academy Award. Omar González succeeded Alfredo Guevara as the head of the ICAIC and remains in that position today. It continues to directly aid in the production and distribution of films and has production offices, issues film permits, rents studios and equipment to filmmakers, and is closely involved in each stage of the film, from its inception and production, to its distribution and release. Cinema of the Cuban diaspora After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cubans who were ideologically ill at ease with the new revolutionary government made their way to the United States, where they settled in concentrated communities made up of other Cubans in South Florida, New York, and New Jersey. Unlike traditional immigrants who chose to leave the homeland behind in search of a better way of life in a new place, most of these Cubans consider themselves exiles forced out of their homeland by political or economic circumstances. Because they continue to think of themselves as Cuban even after decades in the United States, it is appropriate to talk about them as part of a Cuban diaspora that links them emotionally and psychologically to the island. Over one million Cubans have left Cuba since 1959 in different waves of immigration. Among those are talented directors, technicians and actors who settled in the USA, Latin America or Europe, in search of work and creative space in the field of cinema. Los gusanos (The Worms) (1978) produced by Danilo Bardisa and directed by Camilo Vila was the first film made by the Cuban exiles dealing with Cuban politics. The screenplay written by Orestes Matacena, Clara Hernandez and Camilo Vila has an overwhelming impact in the U.S. Cuban community inspiring many other Cuban filmmakers to tell their stories with their cameras. Orlando Jiménez Leal, one of the best known exile filmmakers, produced El Super (1979), the first Cuban exile fictional film, directed by Jiménez Leal and his young brother-in-law, Leon Ichaso. Based on a play by Ivan Acosta, the film was broadly distributed in the U.S. and won awards at film festivals in Mannheim, Biarritz and Venice. The film examines the trauma of the Cuban middle class, showing them as displaced from their former life and unable to adapt to new circumstances.