24 Must-Watch Films at NYLFF 2024
Clemente still. Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
For 24 years, the New York Latino Film Festival (NYLFF) has consistently highlighted the nuances of Latino cinema and shone a spotlight on Latino talent. For 2024, NYLFF has yet again delivered another exciting slate.
From narrative features to feature-length documentaries, here are 24 films you must watch from this year’s lineup.
1. Clemente
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Fresh off its win for the Documentary Spotlight Audience Award at SXSW, Clemente documents the life and legacy of Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player Roberto Clemente. Director David Altrogge pays tribute to the career of one of baseball’s greatest and finest, bringing the audience along for a journey from his humble beginnings in Carolina, Puerto Rico, to his untimely death in 1972 when Clemente’s plane crashed while trying to supply emergency goods to Nicaraguans following a devastating earthquake.
The film, which LeBron James and Oscar nominee Richard Linklater produced, features Rita Moreno, Michael Keaton, Francisco Lindor, Richard Linklater, Bob Costas, Tom Morello, and Yadier Molina.
2. Las Amazonas de Yaxunah
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Oscar-nominated Mixtec-Triqui actress Yalitza Aparicio narrates Alfonso Algara’s feature-length documentary about a trailblazing Maya women's softball team. The documentary captures the incredible journey of players shattering gender stereotypes and fighting for equal rights. Playing barefoot in traditional Maya dresses due to a lack of resources, Las Amazonas became a traveling softball team that defied cultural norms and brought a new generation closer to their roots.
3. Unstoppable
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Emmy Award winner Jharrel Jerome stars in this inspiring sports drama based on a true story. With Oscar-winning editor William Goldenberg at the helm, Jerome plays Anthony Robles, a one-legged wrestler looking for a college willing to recruit him. The film also counts on performances from Jennifer Lopez, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, and Don Cheadle.
4. Your Monster
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Melissa Barrera returns to the silver screen in another genre-bending piece with snippets of horror, romance, and comedy. Barrera plays Laura Franco, a recently dumped woman recovering from surgery. After her ex-boyfriend (Edmund Donovan) moves on by producing a stage musical they had previously collaborated on together, she finds refuge in her childhood home where she ends up forming a connection with a monster (Tommy Dewey). With an undeniable bond between them, Laura begins to embrace the version of herself raging to come out.
5. A Little Family Drama
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Nadia Zoe makes her directorial debut at this year’s festival. Described by NYLFF as a “heartfelt dramedy about family, legacy, and unfulfilled dreams,” A Little Family Drama follows a Mexican-American family preparing for an annual reunion dinner when unexpected events upend their lives. Instead of opening a taco truck to expand their family restaurant, things go awry.
6. Cajita
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
In Miami, an Afro-Latinx immigrant named Cajita makes a living working for an upper-middle-class Latinx family. While he’s saving money to eventually buy a home for the family he left behind, a part of him, mentally, remains in the shipping crate where he hid to flee his home. Performing odd jobs along the way, Cajita must find a way to come to terms with who he is and the life he now leads as an immigrant.
Based on a true story—the Luis Gispert-directed film features performances by Michelle Fragoso, Vladimir Escudero, and Susana Pérez—Cajita questions what encompasses a home and what it truly means to leave our comfort zone.
7. Clocked
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Noah Salzman’s dramatic feature is about a teenage boxer trying to make a living out of the sport to support their family while tackling their gender identity. An undefeated boxer, Adolfo Rivera resides in Miami, Florida, with a conservative Catholic family. While they are willing to endure so much for their relatives, the ultimate goal for all of their winnings is to fulfill their dream of transitioning into a woman.
8. F.L.Y.
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Friends and costars Rafael Albarrán and Trend Kendrick directed, wrote, and produced this heartfelt comedy about exes who have to quarantine together when a global pandemic hits. Inspired by Albarrán and Kendrick’s real-life friendship, the film explores how exes Max and Rafael rediscover each other and themselves throughout this forced rekindling. Through music, sex, and drag, this film highlights the importance of chosen family and embracing your truth.
9. Fallen Fruit
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Chris Molina crafts a debut feature perfect for fans of coming-of-age dramas. A breakup forces protagonist Alex (Ramiro Batista) to move back to his childhood home in Miami—a move he expects will be temporary.
But when the crushing weight of adulthood strikes his life like a hurricane, he documents it all with a camcorder found in his old bedroom. Along the way, a random hookup with Chris (Austin Cassel) may turn into something more, showing him how everything he left behind could offer him a new beginning.
Ultimately, it’s a moving tale about what it means to grow into one’s self while being unsure of who that is or what you need to do to get there.
10. My Dead Friend Zoe
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Starring Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Gloria Reuben, and Utkarsh Ambudkar, this dark comedy-drama from Kyle Hausmann-Stokes tackles the life of Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. She now spends her time back home with Zoe (Natalie Morales), her dead best friend from the Army.
Despite Merit’s best attempts to get better, her dynamic with Zoe keeps her from fully being present. That is until she comes to her estranged grandfather Dale’s (Ed Harris) aid. The two come together in this charming film about what moving on looks like.
11. Say a Little Prayer
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Adela (Vannessa Vasquez) comes from a religious family; it is no surprise that one day her grandmother urges her to pray to St. Anthony—the patron saint of lost things—believing he can help her granddaughter find her “very lost husband.” After Adela gives in and prays to the saint alongside her friends, three men come into her life—from a sexy, mysterious Rafael (Luis Fonsi) to handsome wounded warrior Jarret Raincloud (Tatanka Means) to a French mime by the name of Jean François. These men put her friendships to the test.
12. Books & Drinks (Libros & Copas)
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Geoffrey Cowper brings us a lighthearted romantic comedy spanning from New York to the Dominican Republic. David (Jackson Rathbone) is a bookstore owner who isn’t doing well financially. One day his mother stops by to let him know that his father, whom he thought was dead, is alive and living the good life in D.R. Well, he was—until he died of a heart attack a week ago.
However, he did leave David his Caribbean mansion, which is when the wheels start turning: David concocts a plan to sell it with the help of real estate agent María, so he can pay off his debts and revamp his business. However, the more time passes and the longer the house remains unsold, the more time David spends in the Caribbean, increasingly understanding why his father chose to stay. Now the question is: Will he do the same?
13. Malu
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
From Brazilian filmmaker Pedro Freire, this feature debut follows the life of Freire’s mother, Malu. Unemployed actress Malu Rocha (Yara de Novaes) takes it upon herself to turn her home into an arts center for underprivileged kids in her neighborhood. Despite her best intentions, the world isn’t always kind. Caught between wanting a better life for herself as a free-spirited middle-aged actress and being at odds with her conservative and religious mother, Malu must take her life into her own hands despite what others may want for her.
14. Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean (Érase una vez en el caribe)
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Puerto Rican filmmaker Ray Figueroa reimagines the Caribbean island through the lens of a samurai Western, honoring the legacy of the work of both Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone with a criollo twist. Armed with machetes in 1930s Puerto Rico, Juan Encarnación (Héctor Aníbal) will stop at nothing to get his wife, Pura (Essined Aponte), back from Jr. Walker (Robert García Cooper) even if it means taking on all of his henchmen and some of his old rivals to see it through.
15. Igualada
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
With unprecedented access, director Juan Mejía Botero captures the life of Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez throughout her historic campaign. Navigating death threats as a Black woman in Colombia, she retakes the term “igualada,” and by doing so, challenges the status quo. Fifteen years in the making, this inspiring documentary of a trailblazing figure in Latin America, proves that change—when fought for with genuine honesty, integrity, and fervor—is possible.
16. Patrol
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Camilo de Castro and Brad Allgood directed this award-winning documentary, which chronicles the Indio-Maíz Biological Reserve on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. Sacred ground to the Rama and Afro-descendant Kriol people who call it home, the land is in danger because of cattle ranchers, who turn to illegal activities as a response to the growing demand for beef.
With the looming possibility that the reserve could cease to exist in less than five years, the Indigenous rangers work alongside an American conservationist and undercover journalists to expose the conflict taking place on their land.
17. TransMexico
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Mexico has one of the highest murder rates of trans women in the world; many of these crimes end up dismissed or ignored. Three remarkable trans women, who refused to live their lives in fear, took inspiration from their own lives and documented the challenges they’ve faced in this chilling portrait of resilience.
18. Malta
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Mariana is a young Colombian woman with dreams of traveling the world. She navigates the usual challenges of a dysfunctional family while taking German lessons on top of working at a call center. She specifically dreams of traveling to the island of Malta, but a sudden relationship with one of her classmates forces her to face why she wants to escape her life.
19. Broken Borders (Soy lo que nunca fui)
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Rodrigo Álvarez Flores’s award-winning debut feature takes place in Tijuana. We follow the lives of Renato (César Kancino), Abel (Ari Lopez), and Gabriela (Ángeles Cruz) who let their emotions tear their family apart. The highs and lows of their time together could ruin everything or lead to them finally breaking free from the cards that life has dealt them.
20. Pimpinero: Blood and Oil (Pimpinero: sangre y gasolina)
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Colombian director and writer Andrés Baiz, known most recently for directing Netflix’s Griselda, returns with a thriller about family, survival, and truth. Taking place across the border of Colombia and Venezuela, this period piece set in the early 2010s follows a set of pimpineros (gasoline smugglers) as they transport fuel illegally between the two countries. The cast features performances from Laura Osma, Alejandro Speitzer, Alberto Guerra, and Juanes.
21. Our Dream (Nosso Sonho)
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Brazilian filmmaker Eduardo Albergaria directs a genre-defying story that recounts the lives of Claudinho and Buchecha, childhood friends who eventually rose to become one of the most successful Brazilian funk duos of all time. Set in the outskirts of Rio, the film is a story of strength, faith, and friendship that embraces the country’s magic, culture, rhythm, and poetry.
22. The in Between
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
In this inspiring tale about grief, Robie Flores returns to her hometown on the Texas–Mexico border after news of her brother’s death. Unable to accept the reality of this loss, she comes face-to-face with the town she left behind but that her brother undeniably loved. Flores directs this documentary that captures life on the border, growing pains, and the possibility of happiness after losing a loved one.
23. Vida nueva
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Actor, producer, and emerging filmmaker Eliana Reyes directed this documentary that chronicles the life of the Reyes siblings leading up to a reunion with their father, Maximo Reyes Sr., after a 26-year separation due to his imprisonment in the Dominican Republic. As the Reyes family recalls their childhood growing up without a father, we process their collective trauma alongside them as the date of their reunion quickly approaches.
24. The Low End Theory
Courtesy of New York Latino Film Festival.
Francisco Ordonez brings us an indie feature set in the world of Veronica (Sidney Flanigan), an aspiring beats producer, working against the backdrop of the Latinx and LGBTQ+ scene in Los Angeles. Caught between the woman she loves and a crime boss she betrayed, Veronica tests her loyalties when she gets involved with a beautiful woman who might just end up being bad news for her as well.
The New York Latino Film Festival will run from September 15 to September 22. For more information, visit the festival’s official website.
Josie Meléndez is a New York-based writer from Puerto Rico. With a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design, she is the founder of the Film Posers podcast. Previously named an emerging content creator by NALIP and an emerging journalist by TIFF, her work can be found in multiple publications including Elle, Sundance, Them, and The Mujerista. She is the author of the poetry collection Gotas de amor.