The New York Film Festival (NYFF) has announced the titles for its Main Slate for its 63rd edition, and among the selection are three standout films from Latin America—works that span genres, histories, and national borders, while offering deeply personal and politically resonant cinema. Marking a powerful presence at this year’s festival are new films by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina), Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil), and Milagros Mumenthaler (Argentina), whose bold and formally distinctive works continue to define Latin American cinema on the global stage.
Lucrecia Martel returns to NYFF with Landmarks / Nuestra Tierra, her first feature-length documentary and one of the most anticipated Latin American films of the year. A sweeping, visually arresting work, the film investigates the 2009 murder of Indigenous leader Javier Chocobar, who was killed defending his community’s ancestral lands in northern Argentina. Interweaving courtroom drama, historical inquiry, and sensuous portrayals of the natural landscape, Martel builds a complex portrait of a centuries-long struggle over land, memory, and Indigenous resistance.
Also returning to the festival is Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho with his Cannes-awarded epic The Secret Agent / O Agente Secreto. Set in Recife during the late 1970s, the film follows a former academic (a tour-de-force performance by Wagner Moura) forced into hiding under Brazil’s military dictatorship. What begins as a political thriller expands into a kaleidoscopic reflection on cinema, memory, and survival, laced with Mendonça’s trademark blend of genre play and sharp social critique. Winner of Best Director at Cannes, this thrilling and deeply personal film will have its New York Premiere at NYFF, ahead of a U.S. release from NEON in November.
Rounding out the Latin American selections is the U.S. Premiere of The Currents / Las corrientes, the latest feature by Milagros Mumenthaler. Shot between Switzerland and Argentina, the film centers on a celebrated fashion designer whose sudden plunge into icy waters triggers a deep psychological rupture. Returning to Buenos Aires, she finds herself unable to resume her former life, drifting instead into an introspective unraveling. With its elliptical narrative structure and richly textured sound design, Mumenthaler crafts a haunting meditation on dissociation and transformation—echoing the sensibilities of Martel and Haynes while asserting a distinctive vision all her own.
The 63rd edition of the New York Film Festival will take place September 26 - October 13.
