The Los Angeles-based organization Film Independent announced last week the nominees for the 40th annual edition of its Spirit Awards, which includes several Latin American and U.S. Latinx nominees: In The Summers by queer Colombian-American writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza, Problemista by Salvadoran-American director and producer Julio Flores, the Mexican film La Cocina by Alonso Ruizpalacios, the Argentine documentary Gaucho Gaucho by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, Afro-Latino actor Colman Domingo, the Texas-Mexico border documentary Hummingbirds by Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía "Beba" Contreras, and Frida by Mexican director Carla Gutiérrez.
Lacorazza’s In The Summers was nominated for Best First Feature and Best Breakthrough Performance for René Pérez Joglar (Residente). Winner of the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Directing Award at Sundance, this powerful and deeply personal directorial debut offers a nuanced study of young people questioning their place within their families, communities, and identities. Following sisters Violeta and Eva over the course of four formative summers spent with their loving yet unpredictable father, In The Summers proves both an emotional capsule of growing up within a fragmented family and a love letter to the resilience needed to survive.
Flores’ eccentric immigration comedy Problemista was also nominated for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay. The film follows Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time runs out on his work visa, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast becomes his only hope to stay in the country.
Acclaimed Mexican director Ruizpalacios was nominated for Best Director for his latest film La Cocina. The film, which also scored Juan Pablo Ramírez a nomination for Best Cinematography, stars Oscar-nominated Rooney Mara and Ariel Award-winner Raúl Briones and is set in the heart of a bustling Times Square kitchen, where dreams and desperation collide as the back-of-house staff each chase the elusive American dream. Ruizpalacios’ film is a high-stakes drama that explores the intersection of personal ambition and systemic exploitation of undocumented immigrant workers within the pressure-cooker environment of a New York restaurant.
Afro-Latino actor Colman Domingo—of Belizean and Guatemalan descent–was nominated for Best Lead Performance for his performance as John Divine G Whitfield in the prison drama Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar.
Hummingbirds, the coming-of-age feature by Castaños and Contreras, was also nominated for Best Documentary. Captured during the balmy summer nights of their fleeting youth in Laredo, Texas, best friends and directors Castaños and Contreras narrate their coming-of-age journey, transforming their border-town locale into a haven of creative expression and activist mischief. Through collaborative filmmaking, their cinematic self-portrait exalts the potency of friendship and joy as tools of survival and resistance. Winner of the Berlinale Generation Grand Jury Prize, Hummingbirds celebrates the power of friendship, laughter, and joy as tools of survival and resistance.
The feature film Gaucho Gaucho was also nominated for Best Documentary. Set in the northwestern cattle country of Argentina, Gaucho Gaucho is an intimate portrait of a small community of iconic gauchos (cowboys and cowgirls) who proudly preserve their traditions despite changing modern customs. With superb black-and-white cinematography and exquisite sound design, directors Dweck and Kershaw conjure a dreamlike landscape to tell a life-affirming story.
The feature directorial debut of acclaimed editor Gutiérrez, Frida, will be presented the Truer Than Fiction Award at the 30th Spirit Awards Ceremony. This honor is to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of Frida Kahlo, Frida tells the artist’s story through her own words for the very first time, drawing from her famed illustrated diary, revealing letters, essays, and candid print interviews—and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork. Frida posits a striking context as to why the artist—and her art remains as powerful as ever.
The winners of the 40th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday, February 22, 2025.
