Championing Latino talent in film, music, and arts. The 7th Annual Official Latino Film and Arts Festival will take place online this year. The dates for the online event will be from November 26-30, 2021. We are proud to announce that for the third year in a row, the mega giant network HBO is providing much needed support to our filmmakers, via the HBO Latinx Short Film competition. The festival
along with the HBO team will coordinate three licenses from our screening films. That means three lucky winners will get a licensed for their film to be showcased on HBO. This is a dream come true, not only for the filmmakers, but also for our organization. We are also proud to announce that the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) will be partnering and providing extra support to the festival. NHMC is a 35-year-old non-profit civil rights organization that was founded to eliminate hate, discrimination, and racism towards the Latino community. We welcome them to guide us and to mentor us during our growth. DIAGEO, our founding partner, returns again as they provide the backbone support for this festival to operate. And cannot forget our friends from Verizon Media who for the last three years have partnered with us bringing insightful panels and activation for our filmmakers. WHO WE ARE
Filmmaker Danny Hastings created the Festival in 2015, in response to the lack of Latinx representation in Hollywood films and TV shows. Our mission is to showcase, nurture, and support the emerging creative Latinx filmmakers who produce, direct and/or write their films in the United States. Our festival is a community of U.S. filmmakers that support each other. Each One, Teach One. Our festival alumni are involved in the organization of the festival every year. Whether helping out judging films, or at the physical event, we are building a community of Latinx talent that helps and supports one another. This year we have a new and vital addition to our staff. We are very excited to announce and welcome Manuel Solis, the new and official Programmer of the Official Latino Film and Arts Festival. Solis has extensive experience in the festival circuit, and many of you know him from the prestigious CineFestival in San Antonio. Manuel will bring his expertise to our festival and we are promising it is going to be the best yet. Each year we highlight our U.S. spirit by only accepting films that were made by Latinx filmmakers or include Latinx actors and were produced within the 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. As the first American domestic Latinx film festival of its kind, we wanted to stand out from the many international Latino film festivals out there and do something different by focusing on what we are doing here in the United States. Whether you filmed in the bustling New York streets, the majestic Grand Canyon, or near the beaches of Hawaii, we want our amazing nation to be the backdrop of your films. The theme for this year is “Latinx Films of a Pandemic Era.”* It was a tough, tough, year to say the least. So many challenges, but our filmmakers here in the United States went out in the middle of challenging times for production to tell our stories against all odds. We have witnessed the comradery of our community of filmmakers and actors. We want to continue to tell our stories and nothing is going to stop us. We salute all the filmmakers that have submitted their films to this year’s festival. We take our hats off to your whether you get accepted or not. We have to continue the progress and thank you for doing just that.
*This is the theme for the festival in general, Films submitted do not need to have a pandemic theme. AWARDS & PRIZES
TOP AWARD:
BEST FILM
HBO LATINX SHORT FILM COMPETITION:
Licensing award provided to three films. Official Rules. ADDITIONAL CATEGORIES:
BEST DRAMA AWARD
BEST COMEDY AWARD
BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD
EXCEPTIONAL ARTISTRY AWARD (Animation/Stop Motion/Experimental)
BEST MUSIC VIDEO AWARD
BEST WEBISODE
BEST SKETCH COMEDY
BEST VIDEO BLOG
BEST OUT OF THIS WORLD AWARD (Horror and SCI-FI)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BEST SCRIPT
