The Argentine feature Trenque Lauquen by Laura Citarella was announced as the winner of the top award for Best Latin American Film of the Year at the 14th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards, which were announced this evening in a special event at Film at Lincoln Center in New York City.

The Chilean filmmaker Manuela Martelli was the winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best Director for her debut feature Chile ‘76, while the Costa Rican feature, I Have Electric Dreams (Tengo sueños eléctricos) by Valentina Maurel was announced winner of the award for Best First Film. The jury gave the award for Best Documentary to The Trial (El juicio) by Ulises de la Órden.

In the U.S. Latinx Cinema competition, the winner of the award for Best Film was the fiction film Story Ave, the debut feature by Aristotle Torres.

The Latin American winners of this year’s Cinema Tropical Awards were selected by a jury panel composed of Mónica Castillo, Senior Film Programer Curator at the Jacob Burns Film Center; Mara Fortes, Senior Curator at the Telluride Film Festival; María Paula Lorgia, Artistic Director of the San Diego Latino Film Festival; Marian Luntz, Film Curator at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Manuel Santini, Senior Manager, Programming at Film at Lincoln Center.

The winners of the U.S. Latinx Film Awards were selected by scholar Arlene Dávila, Founding Director of the Latinx Project at New York University; Marángeli Mejia-Rabell, Director of the Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival (PHLAFF); and film programmer Ernie Quiroz.

All the films under consideration had a minimum of 60 minutes in length and premiered between May 1, 2022, and April 30, 2023.

Cinema Tropical’s programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Complete List of Winners — 13th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards:
Best Film: Trenque Lauquen by Laura Citarella, Argentina
Best Director: Chile ‘76 by Manuela Martelli, Chile
Best First Film: I Have Electric Dreams (Tengo sueños eléctricos) by Valentina Maurel, Costa Rica
Best Documentary: The Trial (El juicio) by Ulises de la Órden, Argentina
Best U.S. Latinx Film: Story Ave by Aristotle Torres, USA