Latinx Talent Shines at 2025 Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival celebrates storytelling and creatives at the annual event hosted in Park City, Utah by the Sundance Institute and this year there are a few Latinx films being showcased. From the coming-of-age film Real Women Have Curves to the documentary film Frida, the festival has seen immense Latinx talent over the course of its 40-year history and this year is no different. The 2025 Sundance Film Festival will see Latinx talent in front and behind the camera ranging from creative animated shorts to documentaries centering our cultura. Major Latina icons—like Puerto Rican singer/actress Jennifer Lopez and the late Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez—are taking center stage in films this year and newer voices in the industry are sharing their point of view with the world.

Lopez stars as Ingrid Luna/Aurora—a role that earned the late Puerto Rican actress Chita Rivera a Tony Award—in the 2025 film adaptation of the 1992 musical Kiss of the Spider Woman based on the novel of the same name by Argentine author Manuel Puig. The film, premiering on January 26, follows the bond formed by Valentín, a political prisoner, sharing  a cell with a window dresser, Luis Molina, who was convicted of public indecency. Throughout the film, Molina imagines the plot of a musical starring his favorite actress Ingrid Luna. This adaptation also stars Mexican actor Diego Luna (Y tu mamá también, La Máquina) as Valentin Arregui and Tonatiuh as Luis Molina. 

Premiering as part of the U.S. Documentary competition, Isabel Castro returns to Sundance (Mija) with a new documentary Selena Y Los Dinos about the life of the Queen of Tejano Music including never-before-seen footage. Through interviews of loved ones and home videos, this film is a heartfelt tribute to a beloved performer, sister, daughter and wife.

Two Latina directed films are competing this year including the documentary Speak., focused on students competing in one of the biggest public speaking competitions by Mexican and Filipina director Jennifer Tiexiera and The Virgin of Quarry Lake from Argentine writer/director Laura Casabe, a film about love centering three teenagers in Buenos Aires in 2001. Other feature-length films in the Sundance lineup include: Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), Touch Me, Llueve sobre Babel, Serious People, Magic Farm, and Sally—a documentary on the trailblazing astronaut Sally Ride directed by Latina documentary filmmaker Cristina Costantini (Mucho, Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado).

Mexican American filmmaker Gregory Nava’s (Selena, My Family) drama film El Norte will be shown at Sundance through their “From the Collection” category. The film, which Nava developed at the first Sundance Institute Directors Lab in 1981, centers on Indigenous siblings Rosa and Enrique fleeing to the United States from Guatemala during the Guatemalan Civil War.

Eleven short films centering Latinx stories and/or made by Latinx filmmakers also form part of the lineup. These films are made by filmmakers from throughout Latin America including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, and Latinxs from the United States. These shorts include Trokas Duras, Miss You Perdularia, The Long Valley, We’re Not Done Yet, Pasta Negra, En Memoria, SUSANA, Platanero, and The Things We Keep as well as two animated shorts Luz Diabla and Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado.

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival will have its run from Thursday, January 23 through Sunday, February 2.