These Are the 2017 Nominees for the Only U.S. Awards Recognizing Latin American Cinema

Since 2001, New York’s Cinema Tropical has been casually ahead of the curve in bringing the best in Latin American cinema to one of the most important centers of global film. From US premieres of watershed features like Y tu mamá también, to eye-opening film series like “Indocumentados”, the non-profit founded by Carlos A. Gutierrez and Mónika Wagenberg has effectively put Latin American cinema on the map in the United States while keeping its pulse on diverse tendencies throughout the region.

But perhaps the crowning achievement of Cinema Tropical’s 15 years has been the Cinema Tropical Awards: a yearly celebration of Latin American cinema that gives a platform to the most audacious, innovative, and powerful films to come out of the region. Of course, the last few years have seen a boom in Latin American-centric awards ceremonies – and the more the merrier – but the Cinema Tropical Awards still holds its own next to glamorous celebrations like the Premios Fénix, and even forges its own path with an award for Best US Latino Film.

The ceremony’s 7th edition, slated for January 13, 2017 at the New York Times Company Headquarters, promises to keep this spirit alive with a list of nominees that reads like a greatest hits of Latin American cinema from the last year – including high-profile titles like the Oscar-nominated El abrazo de la serpiente from Colombia, or the documentary Lucha Mexico by Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz. With films representing countries from the Dominican Republic all the way down to Chile, this should basically be your Christmas DVD shopping list. Here are the nominees.