Program

How do we show up for our gente and stand up to erasure with our art and films in 2026?

Adrián works far from home, mediating between the company that employs him and the workers who trust him. He believes he can balance both worlds — until a workplace accident uncovers the quiet brutality beneath the surface. Adrián must decide where his loyalty truly lies. Featuring CLAIFF alum Alejandra Herrera.

Three generations of Venezuelans exiled inside their own country - trapped and submerged at the whim of the barbarians who govern it. Isabel, Jesús, Darwin and Juan Pablo's parents survive by resisting, desperate and cornered between flight, hunger for justice, and resilience.

When a young Mexican politician loses his presidential bid, he retreats with his wife to their countryside estate. There, their lust for power festers, and they reinvent themselves as monarchs; ruling over their employees with cruelty, delusion, and decadence

In Ciudad Peronia, Guatemala, sisters Lesli and Lupe use art and performance to inspire local youth and heal deep wounds. After 41 girls are killed in a State-run ''Safe Home'' and the government refuses to act, they respond with a community comparsa — towering puppets, fire-breathing stilt walkers, and thundering drums. With brave vulnerability, they expose a system that permits violence against women while confronting their own survival. Their youth movement takes to the streets, reclaiming public space through joy and community care.

Join us for a fireside chat with Director/Writer/Producer/Actress Marta Mendez Cross as she talks about her journey from Panama to UT-Austin to Hollywood and the successes and struggles that have defined her career and pushed it further. Whether on network television (NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, Castle) or cinema screens (Las Tres Sisters, The Bounce Back), Marta will share what it's like to act, write, and direct as a Latina in Hollywood. Exclusive: Marta will also share her new film Ichild, an award-winning short she wrote and directed that she is currently expanding into a feature film.

What do we carry, what do we protect, and what do we pass on? This year's Documentary Shorts Competition spans the Americas in search of answers. Four films explore tradition, survival, memory, and the transformative power of art across Chile, Argentina, Cuba, and the United States.

Filmmaking is hard! The toll it can take on you mentally can be harder. How do you find a way to stay grounded while you prep a project, film a project, finish a project, or all of the above?

This year's Hecho en Tejas Competition celebrates Texas filmmakers capturing lives rarely seen on screen. Intimate, urgent, and rooted in real communities, these films ask what it means to survive, remember, and resist. The films in this showcase are eligible for both an Audience Award and a Jury Award, presented in partnership with the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI). Meet the directors, cast your vote, and stay for the party!

Azucena, a woman in her thirties, approaches Julio, a teenage boy living in a group home, for reasons he doesn’t understand. As they spend time together, an uneasy closeness grows, changing the shape of a bond neither expected to find.

A weathered tribal cop (Lou Diamond Phillips) and his new trainee (Dana Namerode) must find a ruthless fugitive, whose return to their rural Indigenous reservation has exposed its darkest secrets and could ignite a violent gang war. Featuring a predominantly Indigenous cast including Irene Bedard, Lane Factor, and Elisha Pratt.

Born in the fields of Pacoima and raised on dreams, Ritchie Valens rises from a young Chicano farmworker to a rock 'n' roll pioneer, the first to bring a Spanish-language song to mainstream American audiences. But as his star rises, tensions with his older brother Bob intensify, and a recurring nightmare of a plane crash looms over his first national tour. Luis Valdez's love letter to Chicano resilience, culture, and the cost of the American dream. Screening in celebration of American Pachuco, our Opening Night documentary portrait of the legendary Luis Valdez.

From the jungles of Guatemala to the borderlands of the US Southwest, this year's Narrative Shorts Competition gathers fiction filmmakers who prove that the short form is anything but small. These are complete worlds, told with intention and precision: love, loss, resistance, and the everyday courage of ordinary people.

Rafaela, a young nun in a precarious congregation, is haunted by a recurring dream. When she is sent to a nearby town in search of the new archbishop, she encounters people whose struggles with faith, wealth, and purpose mirror her own. Each meeting pulls her closer to — or further from — her path. A quiet, spiritual journey through a broken world in search of something sacred.

An auteur emerges from America’s underclass: from migrant farmworker to revolutionary artist, Luis Valdez changed American culture. In the 1960s, his El Teatro Campesino performed on flatbed trucks and helped mobilize workers to win the first farmworker union contract. His production Zoot Suit was the first Chicano play on Broadway. Despite critical rejection that killed the show, he persevered, creating La Bamba—a breakout blockbuster that authentically depicted Mexican-American life to the world. Now in its 60th year, El Teatro continues to be a beacon for Latino/a creators. This is the story of an artist who gave voice to the overlooked and opened pathways for generations.

Elsa, a trans woman born in the Peruvian jungle, is deported from Paris to Lima after surviving prison, where she was enslaved by Sergio, whose obsession follows her even after release. Back home, she finds refuge with friends and meets Yena and Aymeric, a couple whose attraction to Elsa upends all three lives. As Sergio's threats close in, Elsa must choose between love, survival, and returning to Pucallpa to reclaim herself.

After being separated from their sacred stone for nearly a century, the Kaw (Kanza) Nation reunites with In ́zhújé waxóbe, a 28 ton quartzite boulder, marking a new era of accountability for the city of Lawrence, Kansas and healing for the Kaw people. This film documents the honorable cooperation between community and governmental stakeholders in Lawrence, Kansas and the Kaw people in rematriating In ́zhújé waxóbe. The film follows the events leading up to and culmination of the Red Rock’s relocation to Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park in Council Grove, Kansas.

After 30 years denying her pain, Angela is confronted by her past when her father appears to her in a dream, asking her to find him. With her sister Juliana, she embarks on a trip across Colombia to the Indigenous lands where their father, a farmer of Afro-descent, became a victim of forced disappearance. The journey from Medellin to Caloto, in the challenging Cauca’s province, confronts the sisters with paradoxes of the land, family emotions, and the Indigenous spirituality that will connect Ángela with her father's activism.

STREET SMART: Lessons from a TV Icon is a feature documentary about Sonia Manzano — known to millions as ''Maria'' from Sesame Street. The film follows Sonia’s remarkable journey, from a young girl in the South Bronx finding refuge in television, to becoming the first Latina on American TV in a regular role, through 44 years on screen on Sesame Street, and now as the creator of Alma’s Way. Featuring interviews with luminaries, original animation, and scripted scenes that blend humor and heart, this inspirational documentary invites viewers to learn once again from this beloved icon.

The quest for funds is constant. Join us for a workshop on what decks have actually worked and the feedback panelists have given and received on their most successful pitches, including looks at fundraising avenues, tax incentives, investors, and more.

It's hot, and the public hospital is the worst place to spend the afternoon. But El Ciego has a terrible headache, and it's been going on for a while. Discharged from the police force, he lives off his sister's charity. His friend Román offers him a way out: work for Cesar. With no time for doctors anymore, he spends his days in the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires taking care of his new boss's business. But this afternoon, his work ends up being a real headache.

In the heart of Argentine Patagonia, Emma and her teenage granddaughter Alicia share a life built around dance — a bond as beautiful as it is controlling. The sudden arrival of Barbara, Alicia's mother, from a psychiatric facility disrupts their quiet world. As tensions, desires, and secrets surface among three generations of women, the film becomes a fairy tale of sorts — a reflection on motherhood, happiness, and the space between desire and art.

On January 9, 2023, Peruvian police opened fire on Indigenous Quechua and Aymara protesters in Juliaca, killing at least 18 civilians. Uyariy responds to this massacre through the music and song of Andean artists, taking us on a journey through the Puno region and its long history of repression and Indigenous uprising. Weaving in testimonies from victims' families, the film becomes a meditation on memory, identity, and justice.

Twenty years after Mi vida dentro (2007), filmmaker Lucía Gajá revisits Rosa Estela Olvera's story. Vidas en la orilla portrays the flaws of the criminal justice system in the United States and the tragic consequences of a wrongful conviction. Two interconnected narratives revealed what Rosa Estela Olvera (My life inside, 2007) had to endure in prison for 18 years: a psychoemotional exploration of the loneliness of confinement; and the long and arduous legal battle to clear her name.

¡Videos Musicales! celebrates the cinematic artistry of Latine/x and Indigenous musicians and filmmakers who use the form to tell stories, preserve culture, and push creative boundaries. Spanning Argentina, Colombia, and the United States with sounds ranging from Latin Alternative and Cumbia to Zydeco and Folk, sung in English, Spanish, and French. Latin Grammy nominee Gina Chavez curates this year's selection. Watch, dance, vote, and stay for the party.