NFMLA’s InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema Film Festival

A great way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month is with New Filmmakers Los Angeles! The festival, (NFMLA) will host the 2024 edition of NFMLA’s InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema Film Festival, scheduled for September 20th-21st 2024. The Festival will be held at the 500-seat South Park Center in Downtown Los Angeles, conveniently located near prominent entertainment and media venues such as L.A. Live, GRAMMY Museum, Peacock Theater, and Crypto.com Arena.

The Festival’s two-day program will feature four short film programs with audience Q&A sessions and two live panels, including Feature Filmmaking: In Conversation with Oscar®-Winning Producer Daniel Dreifuss. This discussion with Daniel Dreifuss, acclaimed for producing the Academy Award®-winning film All Quiet on the Western Front, will delve into the current landscape of feature filmmaking and share insights into the process of bringing projects to life. The second panel, TV Development: In Conversation with Loreli Alanís at Point Grey Pictures, will offer an insider perspective on TV development and best practices for securing a series green-light.

Point Grey Pictures, founded by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, has a first-look film deal with Universal Pictures and a TV deal with Lionsgate.
The Festival will showcase 25 short films spanning narrative live action, documentary, and animation, representing nearly a dozen countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, France, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

Among the selections are the Los Angeles premieres of five new short films by emerging talent from São Paulo, Brazil, the Los Angeles Premiere of When Big People Lie by NFMLA’s Best New Filmmaker of 2024 Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz and the world premieres of Petalos by NFMLA Best of Award winner Nicole Mejia, The Mourning Of by NFMLA alum and NewNarratives grant winner Merced Elizondo and The Devil’s Plot by Julia Weisberg Cortés.

NFMLA will bring together industry professionals, executives and creatives to support the programmed filmmakers and projects in the 2024 edition, including Diana Mogollón at Dan Lin’s Rideback Rise, Fidel Barajas at WME, Georgina González at NBCUniversal, Giulia Cardamone at El Estudio, Gloriana Paz at Latino Public Broadcasting, Graciela Garcia at Cinetic Media, Henry Kittredge at Iconoclast, Jeff Valdez at New Cadence Productions, Joan Wai at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Julia Iglesias at Focus Features, Leonardo Zimbron at 3pas Studios, Nando Vila at Exile Content Studio and Ramón Campos at Bambú Producciones, Tatiana Castro at Sofía Vergara’s Latin World Entertainment and Yira Vilaro at Pablo Larraín’s Fabula, among others.

“We’re looking forward to an amazing edition of this beloved annual event, the opportunity to spotlight fresh storytelling, and to welcome back celebrated alumni as well as new talent from across the world,” said NFMLA Programming Director Bojana Sandic and Executive Director/Co-Founder Larry Laboe.

The in-person festival day programming begins with InFocus: São Paulo, a collection of films curated in partnership with SPCINE and Kinoforum that highlight the work of a diverse range of filmmakers from the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

This block of films explores ideas of home, family and motherhood, mental health, ambiguous loss, self-determination and fighting for what’s right under seemingly impossible circumstances.

The program continues with InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema I, a selection of shorts which offers a wealth of characters with creative approaches to problem solving, who are finding their own ways of overcoming and coming to terms, who are grieving and holding space for hope and joy.

Next, InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema II, a collection of stories about self-determination, healing and creating our own destiny. These are stories of overcoming generational trauma, reviving traditions, coming to terms with complicated childhood experiences, escaping a predetermined future, coming to terms with betrayal and finding your own voice and self-expression.

The night concludes with InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema III, which takes us into the realm of magical realism, experimental narratives and things that aren’t as they seem. There are heroes emerging from unlikely places, a dreamlike exploration of wealth and immigration, great joy found in simple pleasures, the madness of grief, the pursuit of a better future, and fraught expeditions to the depths of our own psyche.

A full list of official selections is available below.
● Aureo & Mirele (Dir. Filipe Galvon & Writ. Adele Autin)
● Bajo La Tierra (Dir. & Writ. Pablo Guillen)
● Boi De Conchas (The Shell Covered Ox) (Dir. & Writ. Daniel Barosa)
● Canta Santiago (Dir. & Writ. James Valdez)
● Carpeteo (Dir. Adriana González-Vega & Writ. Gabriela Acevedo Gándara, Adriana González-Vega)
● Casulo (Womb) (Dir. Aline Flores, Writ. Aline Flores)
● Chuck and Fern (Dir. & Writ. Henry Alexander Kelly)
● Contando Aviões (Counting Planes) (Dir. Fabio Rodrigo)
● Cooking With Claudia (Dir. Priscila Torres & Writ. Priscila Torres, Vincent Bates)
● Fruits and Veggies that Help your Projections (Dir. & Writ. Marian Fragoso Basauri)
● In The Fold (Dir. Manuel Del Valle & Writ. Erika Aldana, Manuel Del Valle)
● In Tow (Dir. & Writ. Sharon Arteaga)
● Iron Lung (Dir. Andrew Reid & Writ. Vee Saieh)
● Na Savi (Dir. & Writ. Sofia Ayerdi)
● Nea (Dir. & Writ. Alex Ulises, Nelson G. Navarrete)
● No se ve desde acá (Dir. Enrique Pedráza-Botero, Writ. Faye Tsakas, Enrique Pedráza-Botero)
● Peccadillo (Dir. & Writ. Sofia Garza-Barba)
● Petalos (Dir. Nicole Mejia & Writ. Nicole Mejia, Don DiPetta)
● Taka Taka (Dir. Thomas Webber)
● Tapuia (Dir. Kay Sara, Begê Muniz & Writ. Begê Muni)
● The Devil’s Plot (Dir. & Writ. Julia Weisberg Cortés)
● The Mourning Of (Dir. & Writ. Merced Elizondo)
● Verde (Green) (Dir. Rodrigo Ribeyro & Gustavo Auricchio)
● When Big People Lie (Dir. & Writ. Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz)
● Wishful Thinking (Dir. Rodrigo Carvalhedo, Silvia Lara & Writ. Rodrigo Carvalhedo)

Additional Festival information is available at www.NFMLA.org/Events