40th Chicago Latino Film Festival
During these past four decades, the Chicago Latino Film Festival has introduced audiences to the new voices of Iberoamerican cinema and the latest works by its masters. It has also, in its own unique way, documented the history of this art form in our continent, with all its ups and downs. An arts festival is as good as the art created by its guest artists.
This year we received close to 725 submissions out of which we selected 50 features and 35 shorts. Those numbers reflect the abundance of offerings coming from our Pan-Latino diaspora and how difficult it is to select what will play at our Festival. Add those numbers to the many Iberoamerican films shown at other festivals or receiving a theatrical or streaming release and collectively we are barely showing the tip of the iceberg. This is a good problem to have.
Out of those 50 features, half are first features, which is another testament to the vitality and vibrancy of 21st Century Iberoamerican cinema. And yet, regrettably, many of these films go unremarked upon, not to mention ignored, by most critics in the United States. As a festival, we have an obligation to break through this wall of silence and we will continue to do so until they give our filmmakers and their work the attention they deserve.
