Monika Wagenberg and Carlos A. Gutiérrez at the inaugural Cinema Tropical Awards, The Times Center, New York City, October 2010.
The National Society of Film Critics has named Cinema Tropical the recipient of this year’s Film Heritage Award, recognizing the organization for its tireless work to distribute, program, and champion Latin American cinema in the United States. Cinema Tropical is one of three recipients of the award this year, alongside The Film Desk and Ken and Flo Jacobs, an honor recognizing outstanding contributions from institutions and individuals to U.S. film culture.
Founded in 1966, the National Society of Film Critics brings together more than 60 of the country’s leading film critics, representing outlets including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Variety. Each year, the Society honors outstanding achievements in cinema while celebrating institutions whose work sustains film culture and history.
“This is a tremendous surprise and a deeply meaningful honor for our organization,” said Carlos A. Gutiérrez, co-founder and executive director of Cinema Tropical. “We’re truly humbled by this recognition, and it couldn’t arrive at a better moment—at the start of Cinema Tropical’s 25th anniversary in 2026.”
Based in New York City, Cinema Tropical is a nonprofit media arts organization and the leading promoter of Latin American cinema in the U.S. Founded in 2001 by Gutiérrez and Monika Wagenberg, the organization emerged alongside a historic resurgence of Latin American filmmaking and has introduced U.S. audiences to many of the region’s most significant contemporary voices. Over the past 25 years, Cinema Tropical has remained a dynamic and innovative force, continuously reimagining how international cinema can be distributed, exhibited, and experienced in the United States.
Cinema Tropical’s work has been recognized by major cultural institutions, including The Museum of Modern Art, which honored the organization with retrospective series in 2011 and 2021. The organization produces, curates, and co-presents year-round screenings and series in collaboration with venues such as Film at Lincoln Center, Museum of the Moving Image, Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and GALA Hispanic Theatre.
Many of the directors Cinema Tropical has championed throughout the years—including Lucrecia Martel, Michèle Stephenson, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Maite Alberdi, Matías Piñeiro, Natalia Almada, Karim Aïnouz, Tatiana Huezo, Jayro Bustamante, Dominga Sotomayor, and Martín Rejtman—have become leading figures in international cinema.
In addition to its exhibition work, Cinema Tropical collaborates with U.S. distributors including Kino Lorber, NEON, Cinema Guild, Oscilloscope Laboratories, Strand Releasing, Grasshopper Film, MUBI, and KimStim, supporting theatrical releases and festival premieres at major North American festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, and Toronto. The organization has also overseen the Oscar campaign for several Latin American official submissions.
Since 2002, Cinema Tropical has theatrically released 30 films in U.S. cinemas and maintains an educational catalog available to universities, cinematheques, and libraries. During the pandemic, it launched its VOD platform, Tropical on Demand, which received praise from IndieWire, The Guardian, and Los Angeles Times en Español for its curatorial vision and accessibility.
Cinema Tropical also fosters community and conversation through initiatives such as its TropicalFRONT blog, the annual Cinema Tropical Awards—now in its 16th edition—and TropiChat, an ongoing series of conversations with filmmakers.
Other Latin American winners announced at the 60th Annual National Society of Film Critics Award are the Brazilian film The Secret Agent / O Agente Secreto for Best Film Not in the English Language, Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro for Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another, and the Argentine documentary Landmarks / Nuestra tierra by Lucrecia Martel received a Special Award for a Film Awaiting U.S. distribution.
