Three Latino documentary features are among the nominees for the 20th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which recognize outstanding artistic achievement in nonfiction filmmaking. The nominations, announced today, include the Mexican films Jaripeo by Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig and A Child of My Own by acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi, as well as TheyDream by William D. Caballero, a filmmaker of the Puerto Rican diaspora.
Alberdi's A Child of My Own received a nomination for the Heterodox Award, which recognizes films that challenge conventional distinctions between documentary and fiction. The latest feature from the Oscar-nominated director of The Mole Agent and The Eternal Memory tells the extraordinary true story of Alejandra, a Mexican woman who, after suffering multiple miscarriages and facing mounting societal pressure to become a mother, fakes a pregnancy, setting off a chain of events that culminates in a national scandal.
Blending dramatic reenactments with firsthand testimony, Alberdi explores the complexities of motherhood, deception, and societal expectations while challenging the boundaries between documentary and fiction.
Two films received nominations for the Spotlight Award: Jaripeo and TheyDream. Set against the backdrop of traditional Mexican rodeos in Michoacán, Jaripeo explores queer desire, masculinity, memory, and belonging within a deeply rooted culture of machismo. Blending observational footage, Super 8 cinematography, intimate conversations, and dreamlike sequences, the film offers a visually striking and deeply personal exploration of queer identity, revealing the hidden lives and desires of men navigating the tensions between tradition, sexuality, and self-expression.
Caballero's TheyDream, which won a Special Jury Award for Creative Expression at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, is an inventive hybrid animated documentary drawing on two decades of family archives to explore memory, grief, and the Puerto Rican diaspora. Collaborating with his mother, Migdalia “Milly” Caballero, the filmmaker uses miniature sculptures, rotoscoping, motion capture, and other animation techniques to bring departed loved ones back to life. Moving between humor and heartbreak, the film becomes an intimate portrait of a family confronting loss, generational trauma, and queer self-acceptance, while celebrating the transformative power of art and storytelling.
Meanwhile, Nuisance Bear, co-directed by Venezuelan-Canadian filmmaker Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman, earned three nominations, including Outstanding Achievement in Debut Feature Filmmaking. The documentary, which won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at Sundance, examines the increasingly fraught relationship between polar bears and humans in the Canadian Arctic. The film also received nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score, recognizing Chilean-Canadian composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, and Sound Design.
The 20th annual Cinema Eye Honors ceremony will take place on January 11, 2027, at the Times Center in New York City.
