Cinema Tropical announces its annual list of the Best Latin American Films of the Year, comprising 25 titles from 13 countries, selected by the organization as the best of 2025.
Featuring productions from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela, the films selected will compete for the 16th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards in the categories of Best Film, Best Non-Fiction Film, Best Director, and in some cases, Best First Film.
The New York-based non-profit organization has also unveiled the seven nominated films that will compete for the Best US Latinx Film.
The winners of the 16th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at Film at Lincoln Center in New York City.
All of the films under consideration had a minimum runtime of 60 minutes and premiered between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2025.
LATIN AMERICAN FILMS
(in alphabetical order):
APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS
(Apocalipse nos Trópicos, Petra Costa, Brazil/USA/Denmark, 2024, 110 min. In English and Portuguese with English subtitles)
Petra Costa’s latest documentary is a probing exploration of the blurred line between democracy and theocratic influence in Brazil, focusing on the rising political force of evangelical powerbrokers. With unprecedented access to key figures—including President Lula, former president Jair Bolsonaro, and the nation’s most prominent televangelist—Costa follows a charismatic pastor whose ambitions stretch toward shaping the country’s far-right leadership from behind the scenes. Apocalypse in the Tropics had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and has screened at numerous festivals, including Telluride Film Festival, New York Film Festival, IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Camden International Film Festival, and San Sebastián International Film Festival.
BABY
(Marcelo Caetano, Brazil/France/ Netherlands, 2024, 107 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
After being released from a juvenile detention center, 18-year-old Wellington (Baby) finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo, with no contact from his parents and no resources to rebuild his life. He encounters Ronaldo, a mature man who teaches him new ways to survive. Selected as part of the 63rd edition of Critics’ Week at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
BELOVED TROPIC
(Querido trópico, Ana Endara, Panama/Colombia, 2024, 108 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Set in Panama City and starring acclaimed Chilean actress Paulina García (Gloria), Querido Trópico explores the evolving relationship between two dissimilar lonely souls who form a touching and unexpected bond. Ana María (played by Jenny Navarrete, The Other Son) is a Colombian immigrant facing status and financial challenges while harboring a secret. Under the skilled direction of Ana Endara, an accomplished documentarian making her first foray into feature fiction, the simple premise of Querido Trópico provides a window into the carefully observed relationship between two seemingly disparate women. Much like the unpredictable and rapidly changing Panamanian weather, Querido Trópico is a luminous drama with a tropical texture, full of unexpected moments.
CHRONICLES OF THE ABSURD
(Crónicas del absurdo, Miguel Coyula, Cuba, 2024, 77 min. In Spanish and Russian with English subtitles)
Told in ten elliptical chapters, Chronicles of the Absurd exposes the complex contradictions underpinning Cuba’s social and political dynamics—realities often invisible to casual visitors. The film constructs its narrative primarily through clandestine audio recordings captured on concealed cell phones. Winner of the Best Film Award in its world premiere at the Envision competition of the 37th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
COLLECTIVE MONOLOGUE
(Monólogo colectivo, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Argentina/ UK, 2024, 104 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Through the lens of Argentine-British director Rinland, Collective Monologue unfolds in a community of zoos and animal rescue centers across Argentina, capturing intimate, fragmented moments. As the histories of these institutions are revealed, dedicated workers care for the remaining enclosed animals, fostering a mutual bond that transcends the imagined boundaries between humans and animals.
EVERY DOCUMENT OF CIVILIZATION
(Todo documento de civilización, Tatiana Mazú González, Argentina, 2024, 88 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Aiming to counter the inherent barbarism in the documentation of history and to describe the struggles of people who’ve been made invisible, erased from history, Every Document of Civilization seizes upon the case of the forced disappearance of Luciano Arruga, a teenager tortured and killed by Buenos Aires’ police, conducting a clinical critical examination, meticulously dissecting the traces of the State crime.
FORENSICS
(Forenses, Federico Atehortúa Arteaga, Colombia, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Winner of the Proxima Special Jury Prize at the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Forenses is an exploration of the intertwined stories of Colombia’s disappeared, connecting personal loss and national identity through memory, recovery, and ongoing search efforts. It weaves together three narratives: the murder of a transgender woman outside Katalina Ángel’s home and her decision to care for the unnamed body in the absence of state intervention; the disappearance of the filmmaker’s uncle, Jorge Arteaga, and the decades of fabricated stories that concealed the family’s truth; and the work of forensic anthropologist Karen Quintero, whose testimony underscores the country’s present-day search for the missing. Blending archival footage, animation, dreams, maps, and hybrid formats in an essayistic style, Forensics reflects on how Colombia's history is also the history of its disappeared.
HUAQUERO
(Juan Carlos Donoso Gómez , Ecuador/Peru/Romania, 2024, 81 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Amid the landscapes of Ecuador and Peru, Huaquero reconstructs the fragmented memories of ex-looters of pre-Hispanic artifacts, blending documentary and fiction to reveal the tensions between ancestral knowledge, heritage crime, and colonial wounds that persist in these lands.
I DREAMED HIS NAME
(Soñé su nombre, Ángela Carabalí, Colombia, 2025, 86 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Through powerful, poetic storytelling, I Dreamed His Name / Soñe su nombre, by Colombian filmmaker Ángela Carabalí, follows the director and her sister, Juliana, as they traverse Colombia’s Indigenous farmlands to investigate the disappearance of their father. Thirty years ago, the Afro-Latino farmer became a victim of the violence enveloping the country during a period of civil unrest. Now, as Ángela and Juliana probe their missing father’s story, they encounter others who have lost family members in similar circumstances.
I'M STILL HERE
(Ainda Estou Aqui, Walter Salles, Brazil/Spain, 2024, 135 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Director Walter Salles won Brazil its first Academy Award for Best International Film with I’m Still Here / Ainda Estou Aqui, a family political drama. Adapted from his son Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s memoir, the overwhelming, richly realized political drama I’m Still Here from Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) stays tightly wedded to the perspective of Rubens’s wife, Eunice, whose indefatigable search for the truth about her husband would stretch out for decades. Featuring a deeply affecting appearance from Fernanda Montenegro (Oscar nominee for Salles’ Central Station), I’m Still Here is a devastating true story that is exhilarating in its portrayal of human tenacity in the face of injustice.
KILL THE JOCKEY
(El jockey, Luis Ortega, Argentina/Mexico/Spain, 2024, 96 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A wild and surreal crime comedy from Luis Ortega (El Angel), Kill the Jockey explores the fluidity of identity, desire, and animal magnetism in a wholly original and unpredictable register. Winner of the Ariel Award for Best Ibero-American Film and Argentina's submission for Best International Film at the 97th Academy Awards, Kill the Jockey stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (120 Beats per Minute) as Remo Manfredini, a jockey whose self-destructive tendencies begin to eclipse his talent, jeopardizing both his career and personal life. After a life-threatening accident on race day, he vanishes, embarking on a transformative journey through the city, fleeing from both his identity and a dangerous criminal underworld.
LÁZARO AT NIGHT
(Lázaro de noche, Nicolás Pereda, Canada/Mexico, 2024, 76 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Lázaro at Night centers on a trio of friends, connected by a writing workshop they attended years earlier. Today, as they navigate romance and infidelity, their bond is further complicated by the fact that they are all auditioning to be in the same low-budget movie. Connected by a complex sound design that occasionally collapses time and space, scenes of absurd mundanity give way to the fantasy of fiction, its triangle of poets, artists, and actors motivated equally by wishful dreaming and comic, everyday neuroses.
NIGHT HAS COME
(Vino la noche, Paolo Tizón, Peru, 2024, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Paolo Tizón’s Night Has Come is a portrait of an elite military unit in Peru and a powerful meditation on innocence and experience, fragility and brutality. Young recruits, escaping girlfriend troubles and estranged parents back home, endure grueling physical and mental tests to prepare for surveillance, counterinsurgency, and combat missions in the VRAEM, Peru’s so-called “cocaine valley,” a hotbed of drug trafficking and violence.
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BORROWED
(Algo viejo, algo nuevo, algo prestado, Hernán Rosselli, Argentina, 2024, 100 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Hernán Rosselli's Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed follows the Felpetos, a working-class family running a well-established underground sports betting business. Following the father’s death, the family operation is now led by the matriarch. Set on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Rosselli's film blends family home videos (old/new) with fictionalized events to explore memory, loyalty, and a collapsing criminal empire, mixing
SUGAR ISLAND
(Johanne Gómez Terrero, Dominican Republic. 2025, 91 min. In Spanish, Haitian; Haitian Creole with English subtitles)
An immersion into the Dominican Republic’s sugarcane fields, where Makenya, a Dominican-Haitian teenager, navigates an unwanted pregnancy and the harsh labor that defines her world. Director Johanné Gómez Terrero masterfully blends social realism, spirituality, and Afro-futurism to expose the enduring legacy of colonial exploitation. As Makenya confronts family burdens and the specter of displacement, the arrival of a mysterious theater troupe illuminates haunting connections between past and present struggles. As Makenya fights for her future and her grandfather battles for justice, Sugar Island unfolds as a lyrical, visually rich meditation on identity, survival, and the enduring power of cultural memory.
THE BLUE TRAIL
(O Ultimo Azul, Gabriel Mascaro, Brazil/Mexico/Netherlands/Chile, 85 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), The Blue Trail follows Tereza, an elderly woman who has spent her entire life in a small industrialized town in the Amazon. One day, she receives an official government order to relocate to a senior housing colony—a secluded facility where the elderly are sent to “enjoy” their final years, freeing the younger generation to focus on productivity and growth. Unwilling to accept this fate, Tereza embarks on a transformative journey through the rivers and tributaries of the Amazon to fulfill one last wish before her freedom is taken away—a decision that will change her destiny forever.
THE DEVIL SMOKES
[El Diablo Fuma (y guarda las cabezas de los cerillos quemados en la misma caja), Ernesto Martínez Bucio (Mexico, 2025, 97 min. In Spanish with English subtitles]
Set in Mexico City in the nineties, as crowds prepare to welcome Pope John Paul II, the Palacios López children are left waiting for someone who never returns—their mother. While their father sets off in search of his missing wife, the five siblings remain behind under the erratic care of their grandmother Romana, in a household where superstition and fear begin to take root. Winner of the Best First Feature Award at the Berlin Film Festival, Ernesto Martínez Bucio’s remarkable and beguiling debut captures the uncanny blur between childhood fantasy and haunting reality.
THE FALLING SKY
(A Queda do Céu, Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, Brazil/Italy/France, 2024, 110 min. In Yanomamö and Portuguese with English subtitles)
A standout at major international festivals—including Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, DOC NYC, and Doclisboa—The Falling Sky follows the Yanomami people as they gather to perform the reahu, a ritual honoring a recently deceased shaman. But an even greater threat looms over them—the relentless advance of miners destroying their land. Through sacred ceremonies and spiritual invocations, the shamans seek to push back against this invasion. Inspired by the 2010 book of the same name by Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa—who serves as both protagonist and narrator—and French anthropologist Bruce Albert, this breathtaking and collaborative film gives voice to the remote Yanomami and Watoriki communities as they issue a dire warning to the world: environmental catastrophe is imminent, driven by the greed of industrialized nations.
THE HYPERBOREANS
(Los hiperbóreos, Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León, Chile, 2024, 71 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
When the negative of a film she starred in disappears, an actor embarks on a quest to recover it, in the process butting up against Chilean history and the legacy of fascist thinker Miguel Serrano. Antonia Giesen plays a version of herself as an actor and psychologist who initially stole the missing film’s idea from her patient Metalhead’s dreams. That dream state infects her search as she transforms into a cop contending with ailing parents, Metalhead’s declining state, Chile’s fascist history, and amazing things that live beneath Antarctica’s ice. Filmmakers Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León appear as twisted versions of themselves in this fantastically surreal and virtuoso blend of live action, animation, puppetry, and practical effects.
THE LOST CHAPTERS
(Los capítulos perdidos, Lorena Alvarado, Venezuela, 2025, 68 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Lorena Alvarado's debut feature The Lost Chapters is a tender and inquisitive story about a father and daughter brought together by literature. After years abroad, Ena returns to Caracas to find her grandmother losing her memory and her father searching for rare Venezuelan books.
THE MEMORY OF THE BUTTERFLIES
(La memoria de las mariposas, Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski, Peru/Portugal, 77 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Winner of the Best Ibero-American Film award at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in 2020, and an official selection at the 2020 Havana Film Festival and 2021 Seattle International Film Festival, The Song of the Butterflies spotlights indigenous histories of storytelling and processes of collective memory, trauma, and healing in the Peruvian Amazon. A nuanced depiction of contemporary indigenous life, Frigola Torrent’s debut documentary follows Rember Yahuarcani, an Indigenous painter from the White Heron clan of the Uitoto Nation in Peru. Through the stories and dreams of his parents and his grandmother, he confronts the horrors his community faced as a result of the rubber boom in Peru, immersing himself in the past so that he can rediscover his own creativity.
THE MESSAGE
(El mensaje, Iván Fund, Argentina/España/Uruguay, 2025, 91 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Set along the dusty roads of rural Argentina, The Message follows a young girl whose mysterious gift allows her opportunistic guardians to sell pet medium consultations to make a living. Whether magic or fraud, one thing is certain: the service is real, and innocence is a treasure. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).
THE PRINCE OF NANAWA
(El príncipe de Nanawa, Clarisa Navas, Argentina/Paraguay, 2025, 212 min. In Spanish and Guaraní with English subtitles)
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the International Feature Film Competition at Visions du Réel, the second feature by Navas is set on a bustling footbridge separating Argentina and Paraguay—where people traffic all kinds of goods in a mix of Guarani and Spanish— and the film begins when the director meets nine-year-old Angel. Struck by his expressiveness and panache, she follows him home. Over the course of ten years, they create a film together, during which Angel must make life-defining choices about his future.
UNDER THE FLAGS, THE SUN
(Bajo las banderas, el sol, Juanjo Pereira, Paraguay/Argentina/Germany/USA/France, 2025, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A fully archival journey through the 35 years of Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship, Under the Flags, the Sun uncovers long-forgotten propaganda films, newsreels, and broadcasts to expose the machinery of control that shaped Paraguay’s national identity and upheld the cult of Stroessner. Winner of the FIPRESCI jury prize at the Berlinale, this cinematic excavation reveals how the media manipulated memory, fueled Cold War alliances, and sustained oppression—traces of a past whose influence still lingers today. Paraguay’s official submission for the 2026 Best International Film Oscar.
WHEN CLOUDS HIDE THE SHADOWS
(Cuando las nubes esconden la sombra, José Luis Torres Leiva, Chile/Argentina/South Korea, 2024, 71 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
María travels to Puerto Williams, at the southern tip of Chile, to star in a film. But when a powerful storm prevents the crew from arriving, she finds herself stranded and alone. As she seeks relief for a sudden bout of severe back pain, María begins to discover the rhythms of life in the world’s southernmost city – and with it, an unresolved chapter from her own past. The latest film by acclaimed director José Luis Torres Leiva features María Alché—the Argentine director of A Family Submerged and star of Lucrecia Martel’s The Holy Girl—in a quietly luminous performance. Meditative and atmospheric, the film unfolds like a diary of solitude and revelation, capturing the fragile beauty of place, memory, and the passage of time.
U.S. LATINX FILMS
(in alphabetical order):
ASCO: WITHOUT PERMISSION
(Travis Gutiérrez Senger, USA, 2025, 90 min. In English)
A genre-defying film profiling the extraordinary, Los Angeles-based, Chicano art group of the 70’s-80’s, ASCO, who merged activism and art as they challenged representation in the art world, Hollywood, and the news media. Unrecognized in their time, they are now being considered amongst the most important artists of the 20th century. Utilizing a wholly original approach to filmmaking where nonfiction and fiction are interconnected through collaborative film works made with the next generation of Latinx artists, “Without Permission” reimagines what is possible today in cinema and art while celebrating an iconoclastic group that was far ahead of its time.
GOODBYE HORSES: THE MANY LIVES OF Q LAZZARUS
(Eva Aridjis Fuentes, Mexico/USA, 2025, 103 min. In English)
An intimate journey through the life of singer Diane Luckey aka Q Lazzarus, narrated through her own words, lyrics, and music. The exceptionally talented but vastly underappreciated Q, who sang the cult hit song "Goodbye Horses," reveals the reason behind her mysterious 25-year-long disappearance and paves the way towards her re-emergence, with stories heartbreaking, hilarious, and moving.
MAD BILLS TO PAY
(Joel Alfonso Vargas, USA/UK, 2024, 101 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
In Mad Bills to Pay (Or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), Rico’s carefree Bronx summer is filled with chasing girls and selling homemade cocktails at Orchard Beach. But when his teenage girlfriend, Destiny, moves in with his family, his life spirals out of control. With the characters shifting rapidly between English and Spanish, director Joel Alfonso Vargas has crafted a debut of great verisimilitude and empathy.
SELENA & LOS DINOS
(Isabel Castro, USA, 2025, 117. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
The second feature by director Isabel Castro (Mija) chronicles the rise of Selena Quintanilla—the “Queen of Tejano Music”—and her family band, Selena y Los Dinos, from performing at quinceañeras to selling out stadium tours. The film celebrates Selena’s life and legacy, featuring never-before-seen footage from the family’s personal archives.
THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER
(Mabel Valdiviezo, USA, 2034, 90 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Filmmaker and former punk artist Mabel Valdiviezo reunites with her family in Peru after 16 years of silence, confronting haunting childhood memories, her youth in war-torn Peru, and a troubled past as an undocumented immigrant artist in the United States. Weaving vérité scenes with family photos, Valdiviezo transforms the images into vibrant mixed media “photo-paintings” to convey her emotional separation from her family and her longing to reconnect with them, using art as both a tool for storytelling and as a healing method. Through Valdiviezo’s vibrant lens, the film challenges stereotypes and encourages a deeper understanding of the immigrant story, ultimately celebrating resilience, passion, and the quest for belonging in an ever-changing landscape.
UVALDE MOM
(Anayansi Prado, USA, 2025, 86 min. In English)
When a school mass shooting rocks a town in Texas, a mom desperate to save her kids is launched into the public eye. She speaks out against a faulty system. The community challenges the powers that failed to protect its children. As her narrative unfolds, the Uvalde community demands accountability and change. Conflicting narratives emerge from authorities, and the U.S. Department of Justice launches an investigation. On the first anniversary, the grieving community continues to seek justice.
LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA JURY
Luis Felipe Ragua Miranda is a Program advisor at Cinemateca de Bogotá. Programmer at Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International and Alternativa Film Festival. He holds a MA in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image from the University of Amsterdam, a MA in Anthropology from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), and has led and participated in curating and preservation projects at Museo Reina Sofía (Spain), Eye Filmmuseum and LIMA Institute for Media Art (Netherlands), the Spanish Film Showcase (Colombia), among others. Formerly program coordinator at the Bogota International Film Festival (BIFF).
Juan Pablo Bastarrachea is
Marcia Vaz is
US LATINX CINEMA JURY
