Credit: Sundance Film Festival
Film festivals across the world play a vital role in showcasing diverse voices, including those from Latin American countries and from the minds of Latine filmmakers. One of the most important annual film festivals to step up and ensure festival goers have the opportunity to see features about underrepresented communities is the Sundance Film Festival.
The next edition of Sundance takes place from January 23 to February 2, 2025, and will include Latine-themed films that challenge stereotypes and highlight issues like death, politics and love through a Latine-centric lens. It’ll also include films starring Latine talent or Latine directors.
If you’re attending Sundance in January in person or online, be sure to keep out the 10 films below!
Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Aurora. It stars Diego Luna (Andor) as Valentín and Tonatiuh (Vida) as Molina. Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) stars as Aurora. It’s based on the musical of the same name, which is based on a book by Manuel Puig of the same name.
Written and directed by Dominican American filmmaker Joel Alfonso Vargas, the film tells the story of a young man who sells homemade cocktails from his cooler in the Bronx. Things become complicated when his girlfriend moves in with him and his family.
Written and directed by Colombian filmmaker Gala del Sol, the fantasy dramedy follows a group of misfits who hang out at the dive bar Babel, which also serves as purgatory. There, patrons attempt to outsmart the Grim Reaper, who is better known as La Flaca.
The new documentary about late Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla is directed by Mexican American filmmaker Isabel Castro. The film will include “never-before-seen footage from the family’s personal archive.” Some question whether another Selena project crosses the line into exploitation.
Music video director Pasqual Gutierrez, who has shot videos with artists like Bad Bunny and The Weeknd, stars in his own film as a music video director and soon-to-be father who hires doppelgänger to help him balance his work and life responsibilities.
Set in the outskirts of Bueno Aires, Argentina, in 2001, the thriller follows three teenagers who fall in love with the same guy, Diego. Natalia has always had the most chemistry with him, but when it seems inevitable that their friendship will turn into something more, the older and more experienced Silvia appears and soon captures Diego’s attention.
The documentary is by Argentine American filmmaker Cristina Costantini, who screened her Walter Mercado doc, Mucho Mucho Amor, at Sundance in 2020. Her new doc tells the story of the secret same-sex relationship between Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, and former tennis player Tam O’Shaughnessy.
Panamanian and Puerto Rican actress Yumarie Morales stars in director Addison Heimann’s sci-fi/horror dramedy about two codependent best friends who become addicted to the touch of an alien that may be trying to take over the world.
The documentary from Mexican and Filipino co-director Jennifer Tiexiera follows five top-ranked high school orators who are competing in a global speech contest.
Argentine writer-director Amalia Ulman takes the impressive cast of Chloë Sevigny (Big Love), Alex Wolff (Hereditary) and Simon Rex (Red Rocket) to tell the story of a media crew who ends up in the wrong country during a health crisis.
