THURSDAY, APRIL 16

6 p.m. – Opening Night Reception
7:15 p.m. – Aún es de noche en Caracas 🇲🇽 🇻🇪 (Mexico, Venezuela)
⭐ Southeast U.S. Premiere

Spanish with English subtitles

In a collapsing Caracas, Adelaida buries her mother and returns home to find it seized by a violent militia. As society crumbles around her, she must risk everything — even her identity — to survive.

FRIDAY, APRIL 17

HECHO AQUÍ (Made Here)*
7 p.m. – TheyDream 🇺🇸 (USA)
Followed by Q&A with filmmaker William D. Caballero

In English

After 20 years of chronicling his Puerto Rican family, a director and his mother face devastating losses. Through tears and laughter, they craft animations that bring their loved ones back to life,
discovering that every act of creation is also an act of letting go.

SATURDAY, APRIL 18

3:30 p.m. – Vainilla 🇲🇽 (Mexico)

Spanish with English subtitles

In late 1980s Mexico, eight-year-old Roberta watches her family of seven women fight to save their home from mounting debt, a struggle that reshapes how she sees herself and those around her.

SATURDAY, APRIL 18

7 p.m. – American Pachuco 🇺🇸 (USA)
Followed by Q&A with Alicia Tafoya, Charlotte-based theater director

In English

Against political resistance and industry skepticism, Luis Valdez pushes Chicano storytelling from the fields to the film screen with Zoot Suit and La Bamba, crafting iconic works that challenge, celebrate, and expand America’s story.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19

1 p.m. – La cena 🇪🇸 (Spain)
Followed by a reception at 3 p.m.

Spanish with English subtitles

Set in the turbulent aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, a grand dinner is planned to celebrate the nationalist triumph of Franco in the iconic and luxurious Hotel Palace in Madrid. But what the victors don’t know is who’s in the kitchen: A group of defeated chefs are secretly preparing the meal – while also cooking up their last chance to escape the country.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19

4 p.m. – Comandante Fritz 🇩🇪 🇨🇺 (Germany, Cuba)
Preceded by a reception at 3 p.m.

Spanish, German with English subtitles

East German Stasi officer Fritz travels to Cuba with orders to thwart a suspected CIA operation against Fidel Castro. In Havana he meets Lola, a young woman who will both endanger his mission, and change the course of his life dramatically.

THURSDAY, APRIL 23

7 p.m. – Runa Simi 🇵🇪 (Peru)

Spanish, Quechua with English subtitles

Ten million people speak Quechua, yet no film has been dubbed in the language. In Cusco, Fernando and his young son set out to dub The Lion King, transforming dubbing into a tool of resistance.

FRIDAY, APRIL 24

7 p.m. – Zafari 🇵🇪 🇻🇪 (Peru, Venezuela)
⭐ East Coast Premiere

Spanish with English subtitles

The arrival of a hippopotamus in a small zoo sets off an avalanche of conflict between neighbors of opposing social classes. In a dystopic world gone wild, Zafari the hippopotamus is the only one who still has enough to eat.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25

3:30 p.m. – O último azul 🇧🇷 (Brazil)

Portuguese with English subtitles

To maximize economic productivity, the government orders the elderly to relocate to distant housing colonies. Tereza, 77, refuses, instead embarking on a journey through the Amazon that will change her destiny forever.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25

6:30 p.m. – Llueve sobre Babel 🇨🇴 (Colombia)
Followed by the Closing Night Party

Spanish with English subtitles

In a retro-futuristic, tropical-punk twist on Dante’s Inferno, a group of misfits converge at Babel, a legendary dive bar that doubles as purgatory, where La Flaca — the city’s Grim Reaper — presides. Here, souls gamble years of their lives with her, daring to outwit Death Herself.

SUNDAY, APRIL 26

1:30 p.m. – Sorda 🇪🇸 (Spain)

Spanish, Spanish Sign Language with English subtitles

Ángela and Darío are a young couple facing a new challenge: having a child. Both must solve their communication problems, but Ángela fights a different war, how can a deaf woman cope with a society full of prejudices?

SUNDAY, APRIL 26

Preceded by a reception at 3 p.m.

4 p.m. – The Changebaker 🇺🇸 (USA)
Spanish, English with English subtitles

After a string of ICE raids, a small bakery becomes a ground zero for local immigration activism, and its proprietor—an unlikely leader.

Comparsa 🇬🇹 (Guatemala)
Spanish with English subtitles

In a Guatemalan barrio silenced by fear, two teenage sisters lead a luminous rebellion—unleashing giant puppets, fire, and artful performance to protest gender violence in a joyful fight for survival.