L.A. Latino International Film Festival 2026: Here are five standout movies

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

Last weekend the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) screened a diverse slate of feature films, both by U.S.Latino storytellers and those from Latin America, at the TCL Chinese Theatre complex in Hollywood.

Conversations with visiting filmmakers, industry panels, multiple short film programs and the Youth Cinema Project showcase (which screened shorts made by California public school students in fifth through 12th grades) completed the expansive program highlighting Latino talent across the entertainment landscape.Here are five films we enjoyed from the selection — and that are worth keeping an eye out for in months to come, as they (hopefully) become more widely available.Unresolved trauma involving parents and their children was the common thread among many of this year’s films at LALIFF.Searching for their missing migrant children, a caravan of Central American mothers traverses Mexico with tireless, even superhuman determination.

In this heart-sore and compassionate investigation of unresolved pain, director Marialuisa Ernst makes a parallel between their plight and how her uncle’s disappearance during Argentina’s dictatorship affected her family.Testimonies from Ernst’s mother and countless other women — who now carry their loved ones’ photos around their necks as they seek for clues of their whereabouts — speak of a traumatic wound that has been part of the collective history of Latin America.Ecuadorean filmmaker Ricardo Ruales Eguiguren inherited his name from his father — as well as Treacher Collins syndrome.

This affects his facial bones, his hearing and his speech, which for a long time, manifested in difficulties with pronouncing the letter R.Giving himself a voice and a mirror through this intimate self-portrait, the artist poses the questions he’d never dared ask his parents before.

His raw and reflective narration meets evoc...