Winners

Best Film:
TRENQUE LAUQUEN
by Laura Citarella, Argentina

Best Director:
CHILE ‘76
by Manuela Martelli, Chile

Best First Fiction Film:
I HAVE ELECTRIC DREAMS / TENGO SUEÑOS ELÉCTRICOS
by Valentina Maurel, Costa Rica

Best Documentary:
THE TRIAL / EL JUICIO
by Ulises de la Órden, Argentina

Best U.S. Latinx Film:
STORY AVE
by Aristotle Torres

The winners of the 14th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards were announced on Tuesday,
January 9, 2024 at a special ceremony at Film at Lincoln Center.

Cinema Tropical’s programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Cinema Tropical Awards Producer: Juan Pedro Agurcia.

Cinema Tropical announces its annual list of the Best Latin American Films of the Year, comprising 25 titles from twelve different countries that the organization has selected as the best of 2023.

Featuring productions from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela, the films selected will compete for the 14th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards in the categories of Best 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 14th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 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, 2022 and April 30, 2023.

LATIN AMERICAN FILMS
(in alphabetical order):

**ARGENTINA, 1985**
Santiago Mitre, Argentina

**CALLS FROM MOSCOW / LLAMADAS DESDE MOSCÚ**
Luis Alejandro Yero, Cuba

**CHILE ‘76 / 1976**
Manuela Martelli, Chile

**THE CASTLE / EL CASTILLO**
Martín Benchimol, Argentina

**THE ECHO / EL ECO**
Tatiana Huezo, Mexico

**THE ETERNAL MEMORY / LA MEMORIA INFINITA**
Maite Alberdi, Chile

**THE FACE OF JELLYFISH / EL ROSTRO DE LA MEDUSA**
Melisa Liebenthal, Argentina

**HERBARIA**
Leandro Listorti, Argentina

**HOME IS SOMEWHERE ELSE**
Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos, Mexico

**HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN / HUESERA**
Michelle Garza Cervera, Mexico

**I HAVE ELECTRIC DREAMS / TENGO SUEÑOS ELÉCTRICOS**
Valentina Maurel, Costa RIca

**THE KINGS OF THE WORLD / LOS REYES DEL MUNDO**
Laura Mora, Colombia

**THE KLEZMER PROJECT / ADENTRO MÍO ESTOY BAILANDO**
Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann, Argentina

**MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY / MI PAÍS IMAGINARIO**
Patricio Guzmán, Chile

**NOTES FOR A FILM / NOTAS PARA UNA PELÍCULA**
Ignacio Agüero, Chile

**OUR MOVIE / NUESTRA PELÍCULA**
Diana Bustamante, Colombia

**THE PUNISHMENT / EL CASTIGO**
Matías Bize, Chile

**RAMONA**
Victoria Linares Villegas, Dominican Republic

**RULE 34 / REGRA 34**
Júlia Murat, Brazil

**SILENT WITNESSES / MUDOS TESTIGOS**
Luis Ospina and Jerónimo Aterhortúa, Colombia

**TRENQUE LAUQUEN**
Laura Citarella, Argentina

**THE TRIAL / EL JUICIO**
Ulises de la Orden, Argentina

U.S. LATINX FILMS
(in alphabetical order):

**GOING VARSITY IN MARIACHI**
Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn

**HUMMINGBIRDS**
Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras

**YOU WERE MY FIRST BOYFRIEND**
Cecilia Aldarondo

LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA JURY

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to RogerEbert.com. Previously, she curated for the Paley Center for Media, and her work has appeared in NPR, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Colorado Public Radio, NBC News, The Wrap, Remezcla, Elle Magazine, Marie Claire, and Vulture among others. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Online News Association, and the Critics Choice Association.

Mara Fortes is a film and media researcher and curator. Her research interests include media archaeology, experimental and expanded cinema, sound studies, and queer media. She has curated programs for different institutions and festivals, including the Reina Sofia Museum, La Otra Bienal, REDCAT, and the Center for Digital Culture in Mexico City, where she headed the audiovisual division Cine más allá (Cinema Beyond). Since 2003, she has worked in film distribution and exhibition, starting at Women Make Movies, and later programming for various film festivals, including the Morelia, Ambulante, and CUORUM. Since 2014 she has worked for the Telluride Film Festival, where she is currently Senior Curator. Her publications include the books Chris Marker Inmemoria, El cine como arte subversivo by Amos Vogel (both edited with Lorena Gómez Mostajo), and Historias de la noche (co-authored with Fabiola Torres-Alzaga). In 2021 she helped create and co-hosted the public television program 41 Tropiezos de la heteronorma en México, a show devoted to LGBTQ+ figures in Mexico’s cultural and social history.

María Paula Lorgia is a researcher and curator of film and visual arts. She holds a Master of Arts in Media Studies with an emphasis in Documentary Studies from The New School University in New York City. She is currently the artistic director of the SDLFF -San Diego Latino Film Festival in the United States. She also works as a creative director at the Tulpa audiovisual platform and as a film professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the Universidad de los Andes. She worked for nine years at the Cinemateca de Bogotá, Colombia, as head curator, where she curated retrospectives of authors such as Barbara Hammer, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Roberto Minervini, Marlon Riggs, Sarah Maldoror, Luis Ospina, among others. She has been part of the jury for the Teddy Award at the Berlinale, the Dortmund Women's Film Festival in Germany, the Ceará de Fortaleza Ibero-American Film Festival in Brazil, and the Mar de Plata International Film Festival, among others.

Marian Luntz, a native New Yorker who was in the first coeducational class at Dartmouth College, has worked in the film and media arts field for over four decades. After positions with Kino International and the Independent Feature Project, she moved to Houston as Director of Exhibition at the Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP). Since 1990 she has been the Film Curator at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, programming over 200 screenings annually and overseeing the museum’s circulating collection of films by the legendary photographer and filmmaker, Robert Frank. Marian has served on numerous juries, panels, and boards, and was named one of Houston’s “Pioneering Women in Media."

Manuel Andrés Santini is a film worker with over 15 years experience in film exhibiting organizations and festivals in New York, Qatar, and the Netherlands. His focus has been primarily on operational and programming teams having held senior roles at the New York Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and the Doha Film Insitute. Puerto Rico born/Brooklyn based, Manuel is a graduate of Columbia University's Film Studies Program and served on the FLC bargaining committee which successfully attained the FLC Union's first collective bargaining agreement in 2021. He currently serves as Senior Manager, Programming at Film at Lincoln Center in New York City.

US LATINX CINEMA JURY

Arlene Dávila is Founding Director of The Latinx Project at NYU and a Professor of Anthropology and Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. She studies the political economy of culture and media, consumption, immigration, and the geographies of inequality and race. These research interests grew out of her early work in Latinx art and culturally specific museums and spaces in New York City, and have developed through her continued involvement in Latinx advocacy and interest in creative industries across the Americas. She has authored six books among them, Latinx Art: Artists, Markets and Politics and El Mall: The Spatial and Class Politics of Shopping Malls in Latin America.

Marángeli Mejía Rabell is a Puerto Rico-born, Philadelphia-based connector, cultural organizer & producer, arts & culture curator, and programmer whose work is centered on co-creation, capacity building, leadership development, cross-sector collaborations, and honoring our roots as a tool for social change and community self-actualization. Marángeli’s practice is focused on community media practices, cultural organizing, intersectionality, accessibility, and diversity. As Director of the Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival (PHLAFF) and Co-Founder/Partner of AFROTAINO and GUSTO, she co-curates, designs, and executes arts and culture programming, collaborations, and multidisciplinary projects. She has served as the PHLAFF’s Festival Director for nine years supporting the groundbreaking work of Latinx filmmakers. Throughout Marángeli’s career, she has centered Latinx creators, stories, and culture to bring about positive change and representation. Marángeli also serves as a Leadership Coach with the National Arts Strategies Coaching Collective. She also served as part of the inaugural DOC NYC’s Documentary New Leaders cohort. Marángeli received a 2021 Arts & Business Council for Greater Philadelphia Leadership Award and a 2021 Leeway Foundation's Transformation Award.

Ernie Quiroz is a filmmaker and film programmer with over 10 years of experience having programmed for film festivals, film societies and museums. He currently works for several festivals including Sundance and Telluride. He is the film curator at the Phoenix Art Museum and programs for the Loft Cinema in Tucson, Cine Las Americas in Austin, Milwaukee Film and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Winners

Cinema Tropical is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.
All donations are tax deductible.

Cinema Tropical Inc. © 2024

Winners

Cinema Tropical is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.All donations are tax deductible.

Cinema Tropical is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.
All donations are tax deductible.