The University of Central Florida is pleased to announce the 5th Latin American Film Festival to be held from September 27 – October 19, 2025. Times and locations of the films will vary, so please check each film for more details.
Admission is free for all the films and post-film discussions.
If interested in attending, please RSVP.
The 2025 Latin American Film Festival is made possible with the support of Pradga, SPAIN Arts & Culture and the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain, and by the generous funding and sponsorship of the University of Central Florida’s College of Sciences, School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs, the Nicholson School of Communication and Media, and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
Film Festival Coordinators:
Annabelle Conroy, School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs (Annabelle.Conroy@ucf.edu)
Esmeralda Duarte, Department of Modern Languages and Literature (Esmeralda.Duarte@ucf.edu)
Marketing Director:
Katherine “Kate” Shults, Nicholson School of Communication & Media (Katherine.Shults@ucf.edu)
WHEN: September 27 – October 19, 2025
TIME & LOCATION: Times and locations vary by film, so please check each film for more details. Films will also be available on-demand on a virtual platform for one week after the in-person screening. Click the RSVP button to register and get access to the films.
COST: Admission is FREE
PARKING
Main Campus: UCF parking is free during the weekends. Please park in any “D” parking lots and garages. “D” parking areas are denoted with GREEN signs. Visit https://parking.ucf.edu/maps/ for a listing of parking areas.
Student Video Competition
The Latin American Film Festival will concurrently hold a student video competition. The competition is designed to showcase the experience of the Latin American community. Topics can include short oral histories, issues of social justice, gender, race, identity, memory, or fiction. The chosen finalists will be presented in a virtual screening on October 19, 2025. Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2025.
More Information / ApplyOn the Roof (El Techo)
Patricia Ramos/ Cuba, Nicaragua/ 2017/ 75 min
Date: Saturday, September 27, 2025
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: UCF/Main Campus/ Nicholson COM Room NSC 145
View on the Virtual Platform: One week streaming from 9/13/25 to 9/19/25
Pragda | On the Roof
SYNOPSIS
Spanish with English subtitles
With Enmanuel Galbán, Andrea Doimeadiós, Jonathan Navarro Elóseguis
In this feel-good ensemble dramedy, a flat rooftop in an old Havana neighborhood is the natural habitat for three friends who spend their days and nights dreaming about the future.
Yasmani is an amateur pigeon fancier who is too shy to talk to a girl he likes; Victor José has convinced himself of his Sicilian descent and now prefers to go by Vito; Anita is five months pregnant and pretends that she doesn’t care who the father is. In the midst of their boredom, without money and dreaming about success, they decide to set up their own business. The cost of this dream will finally lead them to personal maturity, but with some difficulty.
A deliciously off-beat romantic comedy, On the Roof doesn’t shy away from tackling the problems facing contemporary Cuban youth. The film offers an impeccable balance of colloquial charm and universal appeal. Patricia Ramos and her excellent cast have crafted highly relatable characters with varying degrees of ambition, ingenuity, and quirk.
We Shall Not Be Moved (No nos moverán)
Pierre Saint Martin Castellanos/ México/ 2024/ 94 min
Date: Sunday September 28, 2025
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: UCF/Main Campus/ Nicholson COM Room NSC 145
View on the Virtual Platform: One week streaming from 9/20/25 to 9/26/25
Pragda | We Shall Not Be MovedSYNOPSIS
Spanish with English subtitles
With Luisa Huertas, Rebeca Manríquez, José Alberto Patiño
Why will your students be captivated by We Shall Not Be Moved? Because of its unique take on the revenge thriller genre. It masterfully blends drama, satire, and Mexican dark comedy elements to create a compelling narrative that subverts expectations. Luisa Huertas shines in a standout performance reminiscent of Kathy Bates, and the film’s unexpected turns will make for a thought-provoking and entertaining experience.
A mature lawyer lives with an obsession to identify the soldiers who killed her brother in 1968 during the Tlatelolco massacre. After decades of waiting, she receives the missing clue to find the culprit, leading her to conjure an absurd revenge plan that puts her assets, family, and even her own life at risk.
This Mexican debut film by director Pierre Saint Martin is shot with hypnotic black-and-white cinematography. While it may sound like a thriller, We Shall Not Be Moved is a fable offering a unique take on historical trauma and personal healing. Mexican actress Luisa Huertas, in one of the best roles of her career, adds humanity and sensitivity to her character, paying homage to all families trapped in mourning for the death of a relative during armed conflict.
La Suprema
Felipe Holguín Caro/Colombia/2023/83 min
Date: Sunday, October 5, 2025
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: UCF/ Main Campus/ Nicholson COM Room NSC 145
View on the Virtual Platform: One week streaming from 9/27/25 to 10/03/25
Pragda | La SupremaSYNOPSIS
Spanish with English subtitles
With Elizabeth Martínez, Antonio Jiménez, Pabla Florez, Ana Victoria Rodríguez, Juan José Jiménez, Moisés Ramírez, Miguel Angel Fontalvo, Domingo Zabaleta
Teeming with irrepressible energy, La Suprema takes us back to 2001 Colombia and to a tiny and remote village in the Caribbean region far from any beach and seemingly lost in time.
Laureana is a strong-willed teenager who’s not about to conform to what society or her abuela have in store for her. When she finds out via the newspaper that her estranged uncle is days away from fighting in a boxing world championship in Venezuela, she ignites a spark that will quickly get the whole town on board with watching the match live on national television. The problem? It may be the 21st century, but the village has no electricity and no one has a TV set.
Laureana enlists the help of Efraín, the local trainer who discovered her uncle years ago. After much hesitation, he agrees to follow her lead and set sail for the big city. All odds are against them, but they know this history-making moment might put their town on the map and it is worth giving it their all.
Director Felipe Holguín Caro’s moving film captures the vibrancy of the town’s inner life; the musicality of daily talk and chores being done by the river, time spent playing dominoes, and just kids being kids. Much more than a setting or background, La Suprema and its inhabitants embody the endearing — and enduring — qualities of collective effort, joy, and pain. – Diana Cavadid, Toronto International Film Festival.
23 Hours (23 Horas)
Bruno Irizarry/ Puerto Rico/ 2022/ 93 min
Date: Saturday, October 11, 2025
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: UCF/Main Campus/ Nicholson COM Room NSC 145
View on the Virtual Platform: One week streaming from 10/04/25 to 10/10/25
Pragda | 23 HoursSYNOPSIS
Spanish with English subtitles
When engineer Manolo uncovers a mysterious medallion at an archaeological site once believed to be an ancient Taíno village, he’s catapulted into alternate realities of Puerto Rico. Guided by Lorena, a gatekeeper who safeguards the integrity of these parallel worlds, Manolo learns the artifact is one of four objects needed to return him home.
Directed by BRUNO IRIZARRY, 23 Hours delves deep into Puerto Rican folklore—drawing on Taíno heritage, ancestral rituals, and indigenous cosmologies—to create surreal yet culturally rooted environments. These alternate realities both celebrate and warn of the fragility of Taino culture, especially when modern development threatens to erase archaeological sites and ancestral memory.
Through sci-fi adventure infused with local legends, vibrant folk beliefs (like spirits of the hupia), and the haunting presence of Taíno petroglyphs and ceremonial spaces, 23 Hours offers a layered exploration of cultural preservation. As Manolo and Lorena journey across familiar and fantastical Puerto Rican landscapes, the film underscores the urgency of protecting indigenous roots against environmental and infrastructural encroachment.
Blending comedy, road movie, and speculative fantasy, 23 Hours is a richly imaginative tribute to identity, folklore, and homeland—asking whether one man’s search for home can also become a larger plea to preserve a disappearing legacy.
The Second Mother (Que Horas Ela Volta?)
Anna Muylaert/ Brazil/ 2015/ 121 min
Date: Saturday, October 12, 2025
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: UCF/Main Campus/ Nicholson COM Room NSC 145
View on the Virtual Platform: One week streaming from 10/11/25 to 10/17/25
Pragda | The Second MotherSYNOPSIS
In Portuguese with English subtitles
With Regina Casé, Michel Joelsals, Camila Márdila, Karine Teles, and Lourenço Mutarelli
BRAZIL’S OFFICIAL ENTRY TO THE ACADEMY AWARDS®
An excitingly fresh take on some classic themes and ideas, The Second Mother dissects with both impeccable precision and humor such matters as class differences and family. The film centers around Val, a hard- working live-in housekeeper in modern day Sao Paulo.
Val (stunning performed by Regina Casé) is perfectly content to take care of every one of her wealthy employers’ needs, from cooking and cleaning to being a surrogate mother to their teenage son, who she has raised since he was a toddler. But when Val’s estranged daughter Jessica suddenly shows up, the unspoken but intrinsic class barriers that exist within the home are thrown into disarray. Jessica is smart, confident, and ambitious, and refuses to accept the upstairs/downstairs dynamic, testing relationships and loyalties and forcing everyone to reconsider what family really means.