With the Golden Globes and Academy Awards happening within the next two months, controversy over both awards bodies continued ignorance of films outside the U.S. blockbusters rages on. Thankfully, the Cinema Tropical Awards are here to widen the pool for accolades, announcing their Latin American shortlist as well as their nominees for Best U.S. Latino Film. For the last nine years, Cinema Tropical has offered the only US-based awards to promote and honor the work of Latin American cinema. This year’s crop of U.S. Latino films is wonderful, spotlighting several features that have gone wholly unrecognized by bigger groups, particularly Carlos López Estrada’s searing examination of race relations in Oakland, Blindspotting, as well as the Rudy Valdez-directed documentary The Sentence. For the Latin American awards, a list of 25 movies will compete for categories such as: Best Film, Best Director, and Best First Film. See them all below.
This year’s winners will be announced at a ceremony at The New York Times Company headquarters in New York on January 10. The winning films will be screened as part of a showcase alongside other Cinema Tropical Award winners at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, February 1–3.
Nominees for Best U.S. Latino Film
- 306 Hollywood – Elan and Jonathan Bogarin
- Blindspotting – Carlos López Estrada
- Monsters and Men – Reinaldo Marcus Green
- Nobody’s Watching – Julia Solomonoff
- The Sentence – Rudy Valdez
- Tyrel – Sebastián Silva
Shortlist for Latin American Film Awards
- Alanis (Argentina) – Anahi Berneri
- Amanecer (Colombia/Spain) – Carmen Torres
- Azogue Nazaré (Brazil) – Tiago Melo
- Baronesa (Brazil) – Juliana Antunes
- Bixa Travesty (Brazil) – Kiko Goifman and Claudia Priscilla
- Central Airport THF (Brazil/Germany/France) – Karim Ainouz
- Cocote (Dominican Republic/Brazil/Argentina) – Nelson Carlo de los Santos
- The Desert Bride / La novia del desierto (Argentina/Chile) – Valeria Pivato and Cecilia Atán
- Good Manners / As boas maneiras (Brazil/France) – Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra
- The Heiresses / Las herederas (Paraguay/Uruguay/Germany/Brazil) – Marcelo Martinessi
- I Remember the Crows / Lembro mais dos corvos (Brazil) – Gustavo Vinagre
- La Familia (Venezuela/Chile/Norway) – Gustavo Rondón
- The Little Match Girl / La vendedora de fósforos (Argentina) – Alejo Moguillansky
- Museo (Mexico) – Alonso Ruizpalacios
- Once There Was Brasilia / Ere uma vez Brasilia (Brazil) – Adirley Queirós
- Silence is a Falling Body / El silencio es un cuerpo que cae (Argentina) – Agustina Comedi
- Solitary Land / Tierra sola (Chile) – Tiziana Paniza
- Theatre of War / Teatro de guerra (Argentina/Spain) – Lola Arias
- The Trial / O processo (Brazil/Germany/Netherlands) – Maria Ramos
- Virus Tropical (Colombia) – Santiago Caicedo
- The Wandering Soap Opera / La telenovela errante (Chile) – Raúl Ruiz
- The Weak Ones / Los débiles (Mexico) – Raúl Rico and Eduardo Giralt Brun
- Wiñaypacha (Peru) – Óscar Catacora
- The Wolf House / La casa lobo (Chile) – Cristóbal León and Joaquin Cociña
- Zama (Argentina/Brazil/Spain) – Lucrecia Martel