The festival will open with Oca<\/em>, Karla Badillo\u2019s directorial debut. At its heart is a young nun sent in search of a missing archbishop. Its creators describe the film as bearing the unmistakable influence of Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s surrealist tradition. The project is also notable for having women at the helm of its direction, production, and cinematography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the festival\u2019s central themes will be humanity\u2019s relationship with the land, natural resources and climate change, with a dedicated award for films in this strand. The documentary Nunkui<\/em> follows a young woman from Ecuador\u2019s Shuar community as her people face the expansion of the mining industry. Our Seeds<\/em> centres on a Maya K\u2019iche\u2019 farmer trying to preserve traditional seed varieties in the face of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contemporary LGBTQ+ cinema from Latin America will also have a prominent place in the programme. The documentary \u00a1Quba!<\/em> traces the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights in Cuba through the life of transgender political activist Adela Hern\u00e1ndez, from the repressions of the past to the country\u2019s adoption of new family legislation in 2022. This part of the programme also features Merlyn\u2019s Beard<\/em>, Tratto<\/em>, I Don\u2019t Know if I\u2019ll Have to Say Everything Again<\/em> and Baracoa<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alongside the new releases, audiences will be able to see six films in the Latin Legacy retrospective. They include the Chilean drama A Fantastic Woman<\/em>, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The screening will be presented by co-writer Gonzalo Maza, who received the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin International Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another highlight will be a screening of the celebrated 1993 Cuban film Strawberry and Chocolate<\/em> (Fresa y chocolate<\/em>), the first Cuban film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the film\u2019s star, Jorge Perugorr\u00eda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The festival will also bring leading figures from film and the arts to London. On 3 October at Regent Street Cinema, Argentine actor Oscar Mart\u00ednez will answer questions from the audience following a screening of The Distinguished Citizen<\/em>. That same day, Jorge Perugorr\u00eda will meet festivalgoers at the ICA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On 5 October at Regent Street Cinema, the special guest will be the world-renowned Cuban dancer and former Royal Ballet principal Carlos Acosta. The programme includes the 2018 film Yuli<\/em>, based on the story of his childhood and his journey from Havana to the international ballet stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The festival extends well beyond its film programme. On 4 October, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama will host three masterclasses, including a screenwriting session with Gonzalo Maza, co-writer of the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even before the official opening, an exhibition of Cuban film posters will begin at Eclectic Gallery on 28 September. The works on display were hand-printed in Havana by the national film institute, ICAIC, and specially stamped for the London festival. The exhibition will run for three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The parallel programme will include salsa classes, a community festival day in Portsoken and evening events following the screenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The competition programme features eight awards across a range of categories, including Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best Feature Documentary, Best Short Documentary, Best Animation and Best Environmental Film. The winners will be announced at Cin\u00e9 Lumi\u00e8re on 6 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahead of the closing ceremony, there will be a screening of Sugar Island<\/em>, directed by Johanne Gomez Terrero and previously selected for competition at Venice Days. The film tells the story of a pregnant teenage girl from a Dominican batey who finds herself threatened with eviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The festival jury includes Grierson Award-winning editor Jaime Estrada-Torres, Cuban director Carlos Barba Salva, Dominican director Lia Chapman, Colombian actress M\u00f3nica Lopera, animator Helen Piercy, sound designer Rob Marshall and screenwriter Gonzalo Maza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The organisers have also paid careful attention to accessibility. Films will be shown with English subtitles, while most short-film programmes will have open captions. Some events, including the family programme, will be free with advance registration. There will also be a relaxed screening of the Uruguayan animated film Anina<\/em>, with softer lighting and sound, no adverts and the freedom to move around the auditorium during the screening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The London Latino Film Festival was founded in 2025 by Cuban actress Ketty Rodriguez. Its first open call attracted hundreds of submissions across feature and short fiction, documentary and animation. The project is supported by the British Film Institute through National Lottery funding, the City of London Corporation, Instituto Cervantes and several Latin American diplomatic missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dates:<\/strong> 2\u20136 October 2026 Main venues<\/strong>:<\/strong> Festival website:<\/strong> londonlatinofilmfestival.org.uk<\/a> From 2 to 6 October 2026, London will host the inaugural London Latino Film Festival, a new celebration of Latin American cinema bringing together contemporary feature films and documentaries, animation, classics, masterclasses, conversations with actors and directors, exhibitions and musical events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"type_post":[184],"column":[],"class_list":["post-67757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67769,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67757\/revisions\/67769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67757"},{"taxonomy":"type_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_post?post=67757"},{"taxonomy":"column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/column?post=67757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Oscar](\"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/goyas_2025_-_oscar_mart-nez_cropped.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a><\/a>London Latino Film Festival<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Cuban film poster exhibition<\/strong>:<\/strong> from 28 September, for three weeks<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barbican
ICA
BFI Stephen Street
Regent Street Cinema
Cin\u00e9 Lumi\u00e8re
The Garden Cinema
Everyman Broadgate
Instituto Cervantes
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Eclectic Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instagram:<\/strong> @londonlatinofilmfestival<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"