Winners

Best Film:
LA MAMI by Laura Herrero Garvín, Mexico/Spain

Best Director:
Karim Aïnouz, INVISIBLE LIFE / A VIDA INVISÍVEL, Brazil/Germany

Best First Film:
NIGHT SHOT / VISIÓN NOCTURNA by Carolina Moscoso, Chile

Best U.S. Latinx Film:
THE JOURNEY OF MONALISA, Nicole Costa, USA/Chile

The winners of the 11th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards were announced on Tuesday,
January 19, 2021 at a special online.

The Cinema Tropical Awards are presented in partnership with The Latino Network, an Employee Resource Group at The New York Times. Cinema Tropical’s programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Cinema Tropical Awards Producer: Juan Pedro Agurcia.

Cinema Tropical's Shortlist 2020
Latin American Films

Cinema Tropical announces its annual list of the Best Latin American Films of the Year, comprising 25 titles from ten different countries that the organization has selected as the best of 2020.

Featuring productions from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela, the films selected will compete for the 11th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards in the categories of Best Film, Best Director, and in some cases, Best First Film.

The nominees for Best U.S. Latinx Film, as well as the jury members for this competitive category, will be made public on Monday, December 21.

The winners of the 11th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards will be announced at a special online ceremony on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 on Facebook Live. This ceremony is co-presented by The Latino Network, an Employee Resource Group at The New York Times.

All of the films under consideration had a minimum runtime of 60 minutes and premiered between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020.

LATIN AMERICAN FILMS
List (in alphabetical order):

BACURAU Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, Brazil/France — **BACURAU**
Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, Brazil/France

THE CORDILLERA OF DREAMS / LA CORDILLERA DE LOS SUEÑOS Patricio Guzmán, Chile/France — **THE CORDILLERA OF DREAMS / LA CORDILLERA DE LOS SUEÑOS**
Patricio Guzmán, Chile/France

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY / RESPONSABILIDAD EMPRESARIAL Jonathan Perel, Argentina — **CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY / RESPONSABILIDAD EMPRESARIAL**
Jonathan Perel, Argentina

THE DOVE AND THE WOLF / LA PALOMA Y EL LOBO Carlos Lenin, Mexico — **THE DOVE AND THE WOLF / LA PALOMA Y EL LOBO**
Carlos Lenin, Mexico

EMA Pablo Larraín, Chile — **EMA**
Pablo Larraín, Chile

THE FEVER / A FEBRE Maya Da-Rin, Brazil/France — **THE FEVER / A FEBRE**
Maya Da-Rin, Brazil/France

I NEVER CLIMBED THE PROVINCIA / NUNCA SUBÍ EL PROVINCIA Ignacio Agüero, Chile — **I NEVER CLIMBED THE PROVINCIA / NUNCA SUBÍ EL PROVINCIA**
Ignacio Agüero, Chile

IDENTIFYING FEATURES / SIN SEÑAS PARTICULARES Fernanda Valadez, Mexico/Spain — **IDENTIFYING FEATURES / SIN SEÑAS PARTICULARES**
Fernanda Valadez, Mexico/Spain

I'M NO LONGER HERE / YA NO ESTOY AQUÍ Fernando Frías, Mexico/USA — **I'M NO LONGER HERE / YA NO ESTOY AQUÍ**
Fernando Frías, Mexico/USA

INVISIBLE LIFE / A VIDA INVISÍVEL Karim Aïnouz, Brazil/Greece — **INVISIBLE LIFE / A VIDA INVISÍVEL**
Karim Aïnouz, Brazil/Greece

ISABELLA Matías Piñeiro, Argentina/France — **ISABELLA**
Matías Piñeiro, Argentina/France

LA FORTALEZA Jorge Thielen Armand, Venezuela/France/Netherlands/Colombia — **LA FORTALEZA**
Jorge Thielen Armand, Venezuela/France/Netherlands/Colombia

LA LLORONA Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/France — **LA LLORONA**
Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/France

LA MAMI Laura Herrero Garvín, Mexico/Spain — **LA MAMI**
Laura Herrero Garvín, Mexico/Spain

LA VIDA EN COMÚN Ezequiel Yanco, Argentina/France — **LA VIDA EN COMÚN**
Ezequiel Yanco, Argentina/France

LOS CONDUCTOS Camilo Restrepo, France/Colombia/Brazil — **LOS CONDUCTOS**
Camilo Restrepo, France/Colombia/Brazil

THE MOLE AGENT / EL AGENTE TOPO Maite Alberdi, Chile — **THE MOLE AGENT / EL AGENTE TOPO**
Maite Alberdi, Chile

NIGHT SHOT / VISIÓN NOCTURNA Carolina Moscoso, Chile — **NIGHT SHOT / VISIÓN NOCTURNA**
Carolina Moscoso, Chile

ONCE UPON A TIME IN VENEZUELA / ÉRASE UNA VEZ EN VENEZUELA Anabel Rodríguez Ríos, Venezuela/United Kingdom/Brazil/Austria — **ONCE UPON A TIME IN VENEZUELA / ÉRASE UNA VEZ EN VENEZUELA**
Anabel Rodríguez Ríos, Venezuela/United Kingdom/Brazil/Austria

ONE IN A THOUSAND / LAS MIL Y UNA Clarisa Navas, Argentina/Germany — **ONE IN A THOUSAND / LAS MIL Y UNA**
Clarisa Navas, Argentina/Germany

PANQUIACO Ana Tejera, Panama — **PANQUIACO**
Ana Tejera, Panama

SONG WITHOUT A NAME / CANCIÓN SIN NOMBRE Melina León, Peru/Spain/USA — **SONG WITHOUT A NAME / CANCIÓN SIN NOMBRE**
Melina León, Peru/Spain/USA

THE TANGO OF THE WIDOWER AND ITS DISTORTING MIRROR / EL TANGO DEL VIUDO Y SU ESPEJO DEFORMANTE Raúl Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento, Chile — **THE TANGO OF THE WIDOWER AND ITS DISTORTING MIRROR / EL TANGO DEL VIUDO Y SU ESPEJO DEFORMANTE**
Raúl Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento, Chile

WINDOW BOY WOULD ALSO LIKE TO HAVE A SUBMARINE / CHICO VENTANA TAMBIÉN QUISIERA TENER UN SUBMARINO Alex Piperno, Uruguay/Argentina/Brazil/Netherlands/Philippines — **WINDOW BOY WOULD ALSO LIKE TO HAVE A SUBMARINE / CHICO VENTANA TAMBIÉN QUISIERA TENER UN SUBMARINO**
Alex Piperno, Uruguay/Argentina/Brazil/Netherlands/Philippines

WORKFORCE / MANO DE OBRA David Zonana, Mexico — **WORKFORCE / MANO DE OBRA**
David Zonana, Mexico

LATINX FILMS
List (in alphabetical order):

1. BORN TO BE Tania Cypriano, USA, 2019 — **1. BORN TO BE**
Tania Cypriano, USA, 2019

2. DE LO MÍO Diana Peralta, USA, 2019 — **2. DE LO MÍO**
Diana Peralta, USA, 2019

3. THE GARDEN LEFT BEHIND Flavio Alves, USA, 2019 — **3. THE GARDEN LEFT BEHIND**
Flavio Alves, USA, 2019

4. THE JOURNEY OF MONALISA / EL VIAJE DE MONALISA Nicole Costa, USA/Chile, 2019 — **4. THE JOURNEY OF MONALISA / EL VIAJE DE MONALISA**
Nicole Costa, USA/Chile, 2019

5. LA LEYENDA NEGRA Patricia Vidal Delgado, USA, 2020 — **5. LA LEYENDA NEGRA**
Patricia Vidal Delgado, USA, 2020

6. MUCHO, MUCHO AMOR: THE LEGEND OF WALTER MERCADO Cristina Costantini and Kareem Tabsch, USA, 2020 — **6. MUCHO, MUCHO AMOR: THE LEGEND OF WALTER MERCADO**
Cristina Costantini and Kareem Tabsch, USA, 2020

LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA JURY

Diana Cadavid is a Colombian/Canadian curator of film and new media, with wide experience in international film festivals. She's currently the Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) and the Festival Internacional de Cine de Cali (FICCALI). Diana was responsible for the concept and film programming of LALIFF Connect 2020, the first Virtual Festival of the organization, in response to the crisis of the COVID 19 pandemic. Diana has also worked as Associate Director of Program and Industry for the Miami Film Festival (MFF), Director of Programming for the International Film Festival of Panama (IFF Panamá), and Programmer for the aluCine Film+Media Arts and Parkdale Film Festivals in Toronto. As a Programming Associate for eight editions of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) she provided effective support for Diana Sanchez, at the time, the Ibero-American Programmer of the festival. Diana has also produced and edited the short films Breathe the Night (2000), Bleiben (2006), Still Life with Echo (2008) and Define Solidarity (2013), directed by Álvaro Girón. She was the Production Manager for the feature film Mañana a esta hora (2016) by Lina Rodriguez.

Jordan Cronk is a film critic, programmer, and founder of the Acropolis Cinema screening series in Los Angeles. His writing has appeared in Artforum, Cinema Scope, Film Comment, frieze, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Reverse Shot, Sight & Sound, and more. He is a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Tamara Falicov is Professor of the Department of Film and Media Studies and the Center of Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Associate Dean for Research in the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas. Professor Falicov’s specialty is Latin American cinema. She is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to Argentina, the result of which is the book The Cinematic Tango: Contemporary Argentine Film (London: Wallflower Press/Columbia University Press, 2007) and Latin American Film Industries (London: Bloomsbury/BFI, 2019). She has written essays on co-productions, the cultural politics of Programa Ibermedia, Cine en construcción, and the role of European film funds for Global South filmmakers. She has given workshops on film festival funds and taught seminars in Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and Portugal, and has been on film festival juries in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala, among others.

Originally from Wales, Jim Kolmar is a Film Programmer and writer who curated features for South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) from 2009-2020, and where he continues to consult. His primary interest is international films, with a particular focus on Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx films. Since 2010, he curated the SXSW Global section for international films, and also served as a member of the inaugural selection committee for Festival Internacional de Cine Tulum (FICTU). He is currently guest programming US features for Portland International Film Festival (PIFF). Jim has worked with numerous local film organizations, including Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, Austin Asian American Film Festival, and Austin Film Society (AFS), where he programmed Austin’s first series of Welsh films in 2012. Jim is also a contributing writer for Ambulante Film Festival in Mexico, and has served on juries, panels and committees at events including BAFICI, Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM), CONNeXT, CPH:DOX, Docaviv, DocsDF, IDFA, IFFPanama, Krakow Film Festival, New Horizons, and Ventana Sur.

Chris Stults has been an associate curator in the Wexner Center for the Arts’ Film/Video Department, where he has organized screenings, festivals, and retrospectives ranging from Nelson Pereira dos Santos to Joe Dante. In 2012, he curated the touring series Cruzamentos: Contemporary Brazilian Documentary, the largest North American film survey on the topic and, along with Genevieve Yue, he co-curated the 2016 Flaherty NYC series “Wild Sounds,” exploring films about gender and voice. His writing has appeared in ArtForum, Cinema Scope, Film Comment, and the Viennale catalogue, among others.

LATINX CINEMA JURY

Kiko Martinez is the film editor at Remezcla. He earned his degree in journalism and has been writing reviews and articles on film since 2001 for a number of different newspapers and magazines around the U.S. Kiko is a member of the prestigious Broadcast Film Critics Association, which earns him a vote each year in the Critic’s Choice Awards. He is also a member of the Houston Film Critics Society and the Online Film Critics Society. Kiko contributes to a number of outlets including the San Antonio Current. His film reviews are featured on News4SA (NBC affiliate) and FoxSanAntonio.com (Fox affiliate).

Michèle Stephenson is a filmmaker, artist, and author who pulls from her Panamanian and Haitian roots, and experience as a human rights attorney to tell compelling, deeply personal stories that are created by, for, and about communities of color. In her film American Promise, Stephenson and her partner Joe Brewster tell the story of their son and his friend, two African-American boys whose struggles through the education system tell complicated truths about America’s struggle to come of age on issues of race, class, and opportunity. Stephenson’s film American Promise was nominated for three Emmys including Best Documentary. The film also won the Jury Prize at Sundance, and was selected for the New York Film Festival’s Main Slate Program. Her collaborative film series with New York Times Op-Docs, A Conversation on Race, won the 2016 Online Journalism Award for Commentary. Stephenson was awarded the Chicken & Egg Pictures Filmmaker Breakthrough Award and is a Guggenheim Fellow. Her most recent film, Stateless, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was supported by the National Film Board of Canada and the Sundance Documentary Fund. Her community engagement accomplishments include the PUMA BritDoc Impact Award for a Film with the Greatest Impact on Society, and she is a Skoll Sundance Storytellers of Change Fellow. Her book, Promises Kept, written along with co-authors Joe Brewster and Hilary Beard, won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work.

Barbara Vásconez is the Program Manager at New York Women in Film & Television. Before joining NYWIFT, she held the position of General Manager at the Quad Cinema for three years. She has worked for a variety of film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, Rooftop Films, Hamptons Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, DOC NYC, and the Nantucket Film Festival. Her spare time is spent programming panels and creating unique community engagement opportunities for the New York Latino Film Festival. In 2019, she launched and founded the Ville Film Festival in Somerville, New Jersey. In 2020, she joined the Ecuadorian Film Festival as Co-Director. Her educational goals include working to develop film programs in New Jersey that improve film education for low income students. She works on amplifying the Latinx community and speaking on important issues like immigration and minimum wage. She is committed to the importance of film as a means of community engagement. Barbara has a degree in Film and Video Production from the School of Visual arts in NYC and holds a Business certificate from W.O.R.C in Philadelphia.

Winners

Cinema Tropical's Shortlist 2020
Latin American Films

LATINX CINEMA JURY

Cinema Tropical's programs are made possible with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts.
They are also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
in partnership with the City Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cinema Tropical is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.
All donations are tax deductible.

Cinema Tropical Inc. © 2025

Winners

Cinema Tropical's Shortlist 2020Latin American Films

LATINX CINEMA JURY

Cinema Tropical's programs are made possible with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts. They are also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairsin partnership with the City Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cinema Tropical is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.All donations are tax deductible.

Cinema Tropical's Shortlist 2020
Latin American Films

Cinema Tropical's programs are made possible with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts.
They are also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
in partnership with the City Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cinema Tropical is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.
All donations are tax deductible.