This year’s Hispanic Heritage Month started last Friday, September 15 and is now in full swing in the United States bringing a dozen of film festivals that will offer a plethora of U.S. Latinx and Latin American titles to audiences across the country.
Check them out!
GAINESVILLE LATINO FILM FESTIVAL
September 14 - 24
Florida’s Gainesville Film Festival presented the Gainesville Latina Women's League is an eight-day festival highlighting Latin American culture through film, music, and dance. In its 19th edition, the festival is presenting different films from Latino USA, Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia.
New York Latino Film Festival
September 15 - 24
The New York Latino Film Festival (NYLFF) is the premier Urban Latino film event in the country. Since its founding in 1999, the NYLFF produces culturally relevant and entertaining experiences that build audiences for Latino cinema, support the film community with professional development and foster relationships for Latino talent. Programming includes the flagship film festival in New York City, competition programs and community programs.
This year’s lineup includes free sneak previews of the movies Cassandro, Radical, and Carlos, as well as the local premieres of Martínez by Lorena Padilla, The Punishment / El castigo by Matías Bize, Daughter of Rage / Hija de todas las rabias by Laura Baumeister, Sister & Sister / Las hijas by Kattia G. Zúñiga, and A Thousand Pines by Noam Osband and Sebastián Díaz.
GEORGIA LATINO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
September 21 - 24
The Georgia Latino International Film Festival (GALIFF) is produced every September in Atlanta during Hispanic Heritage month. Founded by the Georgia Latino Film Alliance (GALFA), an Afro–Latino multi-disciplinary arts nonprofit, the festival aims to develop, promote and increase awareness of Latino cinema among Latinos and other communities by presenting a wide variety of films, music and entertainment.
The 12th annual version of the festival kicks off with the North American premiere or I Am Queen, by U.S. Latinx filmmaker and actor Maite Bonilla, and includes We Are Echoes / Somos Ecos, by Colombian filmmaker Julian Diaz Velosa, among other titles.
AFI LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
September 21 - October 11
The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center is presenting the 34th edition of the AFI Latin American Film Festival, one of the largest and longest-running showcases of Latin American cinema in the United States, dedicated to presenting Latin America's prolific and versatile talent. This year's wide-ranging selection of 41 films from 21 countries spans international festival favorites and award winners, local box-office hits and dynamic debuts from a new generation of Latin American filmmakers.
This year’s opening night selection is the Mexican film Tótem / Totem by Lila Avilés. Other highlights include the Argentine films The Delinquents / Los delincuentes by Rodrigo Moreno and The Practice / La práctica by Martín Rejtman, the Chilean film El Conde by Pablo Larraín, the Colombian Oscar candidate A Male / Un varón by Fabián Hernández, and the Cuban documentary The Padilla Affair / El caso Padilla by Pavel Giroud.
IN FOCUS: LATINX & HISPANIC CINEMA
September 22 - 23
NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) hosts the 2023 edition NFMLA’s Film Festival InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema Film Festival. The Festival will take place at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. The InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema line-up consists of four short film programs of noteworthy independent films from new talent that encompass a diversity of genres, narrative approaches and stories, told by emerging filmmakers from São Paulo Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Spain, Venezuela and the United States.
NEW YORK BRAZILIAN FILM FESTIVAL
September 23 - 24
The independent New York Brazilian Film Festival (NYBRFF) infuses the Brazilian film industry's creative spirit and multi-ethnic culture. NYBRFF will showcase work from a vast and influential generation that is indelibly leaving its mark on the international film circuit. NYBRFF highlights the impact of Brazilian diversity in films, exploring subversive themes that challenge boundaries of class, gender, race and politics. Brazilian cinema draws on the best of these influences to create narratives of the country's rich and complex culture.
Among this year’s featured films are Fogaréu by Flávia Neves, the documentary Corpolítica by Pedro Henrique França, Private Desert by Aly Muritiba, Pacarrete by Allan Deberton, Anna by Heitor Dhalia, and the documentary The Other Side of the Atlantic by Danielle Ellery and Márcio Câmara.
CINEFEST LATINO BOSTON FILM FESTIVAL
September 27 - October 5
CineFest Latino Boston Film Festival is annual festival highlighting stories by and about Latinos, and committed to using the power of film to break stereotypes, bring cultures and communities together and reveal the complex issues affecting the Latinx community in the United States, as well as communities in Latin America and Spain.
Some of the highlights of the 2023 edition include the Puerto Rican drama The Fishbowl / La pecera by Glorimar Marrero Sánchez, Charcoal / Carvão by Carolina Markowicz, and the documentary film Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster.
PORTLAND LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
September 27 - November 30
The Portland Latin American Film Festival announces its 17th Season at the Hollywood Theatre from September 27 to November 30 with a mix of seven feature films and documentaries from Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Panama, USA, and co-produced with Norway, Peru, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark.
This year’s selection includes Over There / Allá, cartas al corazón by Montserrat Larqué, Sister & Sister / Las hijas by Kattia G. Zúñiga, Vicenta B by Carlos Lechuga, Huesera: The Bone Woman / Huesera by Michelle Garza Cervera, and The Settlers / Los colonos by Felipe Gálvez.
www.hollywoodtheatre.org/programs/series/portland-latin-american-film-festival/
SAN FRANCISCO LATINO FILM FESTIVAL
September 28 - October 15
Cine+Más SF is back during Heritage Month to present the 14th San Francisco Latino Film Festival. This year the festival will be a hybrid event with both online and in-person screenings. This year’s Cine+Más kicks off with the world premiere of Moe, by the Mexican-American theatre director and filmmaker José Luis Valenzuela.
HOLA MEXICO FILM FESTIVAL
September 29 - October 7
2023 marks the 15th edition of the Hola Mexico Film Festival, founded with the mission to bring the best of Mexican cinema to Los Angeles. The festival showcases a wide range of films, from independent productions to documentaries and dramas, resulting in a carefully curated selection of the finest stories emerging from Mexico.
This year’s selection includes the comedy Love & Mathematics / Amor y matemáticas by Claudia Sainte-Luce, the coming-of-age drama Trigal by Anabel Caso, the drama Heroic / Heroico by David Zonana and the documentary film Pedro by Liora Spilk Bialostozky.
NORTH CAROLINA LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
September 29 - October 17
Hosted and presented by UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, The North Carolina Latin American Film Festival celebrates the power and artistry of Latin America’s film and audiovisual production. This year, the festival’s theme is… plants! Per their program: “Cinema is [a] form of photosynthesis, a light that creates food for inspiration.
NCLAFF 2023 will be honoring plants, as present in the everyday, in the landscape, and the economies that have had an important impact in the region (timber, rubber, sugar, banana, coca, etc.). Not all festival films will have plants as a theme, but every person lives within a landscape shaped, contained, and supported by them.” Some of these plant-based films include the Argentine film Trenque Lauquen, about the disappearance of a flower biologist, and Gods of Mexico, a visually stunning documentary of Mexico’s rural landscapes.
MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL, ¡VIVA EL CINE!
October 5 - 15
Mill Valley Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals in the world. Its “¡Viva el cine!” initiative is a showcase of the best of the year’s Latin American, Latinx, and Spanish-language stories, connecting audiences with a diversity of cultures, identities, and histories explored through the magic of cinema. This year’s festival includes the world premiere of Heartbeat by Mexican filmmaker Katina Medina Mora and the North American premiere of River of Desire by Brazilian filmmaker Sergio Machado.
SEATTLE LATINO FILM FESTIVAL
October 6 - 14
The Seattle Latino Film Festival was founded in 2009 and is the only one of its kind in the entire Northwest of the United States. The Festival runs during the month of October to coincide with the National Hispanic Heritage Month. SLFF includes international filmmakers, producers, and actors with the specific purpose of engaging the Seattle community with cross-cultural perspectives, and to create a forum to explore those perspectives, many of which are integral to the experience of "Latinidad." This year’s opening night is the Mexican-Canadian film Undocumented by Chilean-Canadian filmmaker Christian de la Cortina.
CINEMA TUCSÓN
October 11
Cinema Tucsón, the cultural initiative featuring monthly screenings of Mexican films at the historic Fox Tucson Theatre, is proud to present a sneak preview of the powerfully inspiring drama Radical on Wednesday, October 11 at 7pm, starring popular Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez (Coda, Instructions Not Included) in an unforgettable performance. Winner of the Festival Favorite Award at the Sundance Film Festival and based on a true story, Radical is set in a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence. In that place a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential … and maybe even their genius.
Directed by Christopher Zallas (Sangre de mi Sangre) and also produced by Derbez, Radical is an uplifting and heartfelt tale that shines a light on the incredible potential children can manifest when an innovative teacher empowers them to think for themselves.
CINE LATINO
October 11 - 15
Taking place at the heart of Minneapolis, Cine Latino is the upper Midwest’s largest showcase of the best new films from U.S. Latinx, Latin American, and Iberian cinema, and the 11th edition of the festival promises to blow the roof off with a full array of lively film screenings, engaging filmmaker conversations, and exciting parties to engage the Twin Cities’ growing Spanish-speaking populations and vast community of global cinephiles. Some of the highlights for the 11th edition of the festival include The Extortion / La extorsión by Argentine filmmaker Martino Zaidelis, and the documentary feature Going Varsity in Mariachi by U.S. Latinx filmmaker Alejandra Vasquez.
