Three Latin American films—from Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Brazil—were announced this morning as nominees for the 41st Film Independent Spirit Awards, presented by Film Independent in celebration of the best of independent cinema.
Esta Isla (This Island), the debut feature by Puerto Rican directors Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero, was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award, presented to the creative team of a film budgeted under $1,000,000. The Caribbean drama follows young lovers Bebo and Lola—who come from opposite social circles in Puerto Rico—as they flee to a remote part of the island in the wake of a heinous murder. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last May, where it won three awards: Best New Narrative Director, a Special Jury Mention for U.S. Narrative Feature, and Best Cinematography.
In the Best International Film competition, two South American titles were included among the five nominees: the Colombian film A Poet / Un Poeta by Simón Mesa Soto and the Brazilian film The Secret Agent / O Agente Secreto by Kleber Mendonça Filho.
A Poet premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival last May, where it received the Jury Prize, and it has since become the top-grossing Colombian film of the year following its local release in August. Starring Ubeimar Ríos, the film tells the story of Óscar Restrepo, whose lifelong devotion to poetry has brought him little recognition. Aging and erratic, he has become the cliché of the poet in the shadows. When he meets a humble teenager and helps her cultivate her talent, a flicker of light enters his life—yet ushering her into the world of poets may not lead her down the right path.
Starring Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent is set in 1977 and follows a widower who arrives in Recife, a city as vibrant as it is violent. A technology researcher, he suddenly becomes an unwitting target in the heart of the dictatorship’s political maelstrom. On the run from mercenary killers, haunted by ghosts of the past, and confronting the city’s mischievously militant energy, he focuses on a single goal: escaping Brazil with his young son. With the help of a mysterious woman and her compatriots in the growing underground resistance, he navigates a tense, unpredictable world of danger and deception.
Brazil’s official Oscar submission, the film was just named Best International Film by the New York Film Critics Circle, and Moura became the first Latin American actor to be named Best Actor in the organization’s 90-year history.
The winners of the 41st Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Sunday, February 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
