NewFilmmakers LA and The Academy Celebrating Latino Cinema

NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will co-host a virtual edition this year too. The 8th annual NFMLA InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema Film Festival.

The program line-up consists of three short film programs and a presentation of the feature documentary A La Calle, which was recently acquired by Warner Media 150 and will release on HBO Max in September 2021.

The Festival features exceptional independent films by emerging talent, with filmmakers and stories from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Argentina, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Spain and the Cuban diaspora. The Festival hosts one world premiere and three North American premieres, as well as Lorena Gordon’s At Last, which stars Zack Gottsagen (The Peanut Butter Falcon) and George Lopez. “This year’s program pulls strongly on thematic threads of resilience and community, and is so much about finding strength in relation to others,” says NFMLA Programming Director Bojana Sandic.

NFMLA and the Academy have brought together industry professionals, executives and creatives to support the programmed filmmakers and projects.

“Like clockwork we see talent from NFMLA’s Latinx and Hispanic Cinema Festival excelling in incredible ways. In just the last year we’ve had alumni of the Festival sell an original TV series to a lead streamer, write a feature for a major studio, get signed to top-tier agencies and management companies and earn notable nominations and wins during awards season. We couldn’t be prouder of the Festival’s alumni and this year’s collection of films and filmmakers definitely command attention. The Academy is helping us take these storytellers to the next level,” says NFMLA Executive Director and Co-Founder Larry Laboe.

The festival will kick off with four panels beginning in the afternoon on Friday, September 17th, including conversations with Gloria Calderón Kellett, showrunner of the sitcom One Day at a Time, Cristina Garza, Senior Vice President of Development and Production at Endeavor Content, Emily Cohen Ibañez, director of the POV feature documentary film Fruits of Labor and Bruno Santamaría, director of the POV feature documentary film Things We Dare Not Do.

The weekend’s film programming begins Friday evening with the Los Angeles premiere of the award-winning documentary A La Calle, directed by Maxx Caicedo and Nelson G. Navarrete. This vivid multi-perspective on Venezuela’s recent political history clandestinely shot over three years both delves into the larger political factors involved, as well as the ordinary Venezuelan citizens’ grassroots struggle for freedom.

Saturday’s film programming kicks off with Shorts Program I – A Day at Work, a selection of films that explore work and labor in a meaningful way, as a source of identity, survival, pride and mastery. Following is Shorts Program II – Generational Echoes, a collection of stories centering on the relationships between generations and the effects that they have on one another on both a personal and societal level.

The evening concludes with Shorts Program III – In Search of Self and Place, a compilation of narratives that revolve around the pursuit of a sense of personal strength, both through internally finding and asserting oneself and through determining one’s place in relationship with others.

A full list of official selections is available below.

● A La Calle (Dir. Nelson G. Navarrete & Maxx Caicedo)
Shorts
● A Heart Dies Twice (Dir. & Writ. Itziar Martinez)
● At Last (Dir. & Writ. Lorena Gordon)
● Back Then (Dir. & Writ. Hernán Velit)
● El Triste (Dir. & Writ. Manuel Del Valle)
● Hijos Del Sol (Dir. & Writ. Fernando Guisa)
● Huella (Dir. & Writ. Gabriela Ortega)
● Imaginary Portrait (Dir. & Writ. Felipe Martinez Carbonell)
● Lily <3 (Dir. & Writ. Jimena Muhlia)
● Manos De Oro (Hands Of Gold) (Dir. & Writ. Merced Elizondo)
● Nymph (Dir. & Writ. Maria del Mar Rosario)
● Split Ends (Dir. & Writ. María Alvarez)
● Spoon (Dir. & Writ. Victor Velasco)
● Superestar (Dir. & Writ. Daniel Larios)
● Rocket (Dir. & Writ. Pedro Henrique Chaves)
● The Ugliest (Dir. & Writ. Victor Ridaura)
● Under the Heavens (Seiva Bruta) (Dir. & Writ. Gustavo Milan)
● Viral (Dir. Laura A. Martínez Hinojosa, Writ. Laura A. Martínez Hinojosa, Miguel Ferráez)
● Yoruga (Dir. & Writ. Federico Torrado Tobon)

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