Alegría is a proudly independent woman, living in the family's ancestral home in the Spanish city of Melilla nestled on the Moroccan coast. When her niece is set to marry, Alegría reluctantly agrees to host the event. Supported by Dunia, her bubbly Moroccan housekeeper, and Marian, her chill Christian best friend, Alegría must open her home and revisit her Jewish roots. 

“Every one of us inherits the curses of our ancestors. But we may put an end to this cycle by constantly going to war with ourselves…” So says filmmaker Rebeca “Beba” Huntt in her brilliant and poignant documentary that will challenge all of your notions of filmmaking, race and class in America.

Hatzín, a young boy, heads to a small industrial town in northern Chihuahua to collect the remains of his father, who died in a work-related accident. There he sees Mario, a man whom Hatzín –perhaps through grief– is convinced is his father, alive and well. Mario takes him in, at first reluctantly and then seeing an opportunity, turns the cunning boy into a criminal understudy.

When her family moves to Buenos Aires from Mar del Plata to care for their ailing grandmother, Camila has to abandon her friends. From an open-minded public school to a conservative private school, Camila quickly rebels–both politically and sexually–in ways that will change her life.

Teenager Sara’s powerful family from Santo Domingo has just moved to the coastal town of Las Terrena. With them comes Yasira, Sara’s nanny and confidante, whom the girl considers to be like family. When a tragedy occurs, threatening the family, their relationship is tested.

Señora María runs the family-owned Dos Estaciones tequila distillery in the Jalisco highlands, carrying on a tradition that dates back generations. Strong-willed, she is both admired and secretly pitied, for the business is failing on all fronts, and with it, Maria García begins to subtly transform in tender and surprising ways.

Willy works for a Mexican drug cartel and falls in love with Marlena, the boss’ wife. Big mistake. When Marlena flees to Montreal, Willy follows her to Canada in the hopes of reconnecting. He works as a migrant worker on a family farm whose secrets begin to entangle with his own. Ivan Grbovic’s stunning feature was Canada’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

15+ YA drama (LGBTQ)

Following the death of her beloved great-aunt, 13-year-old Joana grows curious about family secrets. How could her aunt have lived to age 70 without dating anyone? As Joana and her friends are exploring their own sexual identities in a provincial Brazilian town, stories about the women in her life reveal many mysteries.

This whip-smart corporate corruption satire was Spain’s Oscar submission this year and made it to the short list. The entire confection flies high on the charisma of its eponymous star, Javier Bardem, the seemingly benevolent CEO of a small industrial scales manufacturer.

Luisa is coming home. Institutionalized for severe postpartum depression–and accused of having tried to harm her baby–she returns to the palatial estate, where family and servants watch her every move. Everyone wants her troubles to vanish, but are they pushing her to a more profound suffering?

The Martins are a Brazilian family struggling to make ends meet in right-wing president Bolsonaro’s cruel new world. Gabriel Martins’ lovely family drama examines the vicissitudes of Black life in lower-middle-class Brazil.

In this dystopian/mythological satire, a gang of young Brazilian women don creepy masks and beat women they deem as being too promiscuous. But when convert, Mariana, begins to question her life, all hell breaks loose, in writer-director Anita Rocha da Silveira stunningly stylized film.

Age 15+, YA documentary

Mija is an emotional and moving portrait of Doris Muñoz, an ambitious young woman moving up in the music world while staying deeply connected to her parents as they struggle for secure permanent residency status, financial stability, and the freedom to safely visit their beloved family in Mexico.

A jaded police officer from Madrid accepts a post in a small village by the sea hoping to heal his sick daughter and gain some inner peace. Once there, he starts investigating his predecessor’s murder. The inquiry leads him to a group of high-ranking Nazis living in a closed community on the coast.

Age 11+ coming of age drama

Melién is literally too cool for school. The 15-year-old girl has nonstop imagination and endless talent for drawing fantasy illustrations for her own original horror stories. Fascinated by goth characters, monsters, and ghosts, Melién finds she may need mortal help after all when her drawings mysteriously leap off the pages of her sketchbook.

“The Amazon is not just the heart of Brazil, but of the whole world.” These are the words of Bitate, a 19-year-old Uru-eu-wau-wau, who is fighting, possibly to the death, to save his community and the rain forest. Though promised constitutional protection, the Uru-eu-wau-wau’s homeland is under dire threat from farmers and land-grabbers. 

Across two continents, Elizabeth Unger’s harrowing documentary eco-thriller tracks different sides of the illegal trade in jaguar teeth that is threatening this beloved big cat. Marcos Uzquiano, director of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park, chases poachers and leads undercover operations. Meanwhile, Hong Kong journalist Laurel Chor investigates the reasons for the rising demand for jaguar teeth in China.

Virginio and Sisa live in the arid Bolivian highlands. Virginio attends to their animals, Sisa is responsible for gathering water. But global warming’s destructive reach has touched them, as the water is becoming more and more difficult to acquire in Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s studied debut.