Athena Film Festival
March 6-8, 2026 at Barnard College in New York City
Founded in 2011, the Athena Film Festival advances original, thought-provoking, compelling, and diverse women-centered stories through its annual showcase of narrative films, documentaries, and short films. Screenings are complemented by panels, filmmaker Q&As, and other events that investigate the intersections of gender, power, culture and society.
Check out this year’s Latin American selections below!
For tickets and more information visit: https://aff26.eventive.org/
BEYOND
(Bettina López Mendoza, Más allá. Venezuela, United States of America, Colombia, Canada, 2025, 15 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A young girl, who’s given up her childhood to survive crossing the treacherous Darien Gap, discovers a portal to a magical world where she learns to be a kid again.
Screens Sunday, March 8, 12pm at Held Auditorium, Barnard Hall
BIRTHDAY PARTY (OR THE REVENGE OF THE STEPDAUGHTER)
(Anastasia Ayazi, Fiesta de cumpleaños (o la venganza de la hijastra), Chile, 2024, 11 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
At her new family’s frenzied reunion, 7-year-old Carolina tries to give her stepfather a birthday card and learns the adults see her as decoration.
Screening Saturday, March 7, 1pm at LeFrak Theatre, Barnard Hall
THE EMBRACE
(John Owens, United Kingdom, 2025, 17 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Amid Argentina’s economic crisis, a woman who risked it all to teach tango navigates political and personal turmoil, using dance as a form of resistance.
NIÑXS
(Kani Lapuerta, Mexico, Germany, 2025, 86 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
At the foot of Tepozteco, a sacred hill that governs the winds and fertility, lies the small town of Tepoztlán. Against this backdrop, fifteen-year-old Karla's body and mind are undergoing a revolution. While Karla navigates her transition, Kani shapes eight years of footage into a joyful film, as they handle the vagaries of a rural trans adolescence together.
HILDA O. VS. THE STATE OF NEW YORK
(Alison Cornyn and Heather Greer, USA, 2025, 17 min. In English)
The film follows 81-year-old New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, Hilda O., between deposition and court judgment as she seeks justice for the sexual abuse she endured at the NY State Training School for Girls in 1958-9.
