The annual Festival promotes Latino culture in the United States by presenting the finest and most recent films from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States. The Festival stresses the importance of the artistic and educational value of film. The Festival is non-competitive; however, the most popular feature film is awarded the Audience Choice Award.
The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC) produces events throughout the year including workshops, retrospectives and premieres. In addition, the ILCC maintains a cinema library as a resource for educators, filmmakers, distributors, television stations, and others members. The cinema library is composed of past participating Festival films and is used for educational and non-commercial purposes.
The Festival’s Film Selection Committee selects all features and shorts films. Works from Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the United States are considered as well as works from other countries if the director is of Ibero-american descent, or the subject matter is directly related to Latino culture. Preference is given to premieres, however works with an educational value, strong historical and artistic importance are stressed and in choice decisions. The Festival presents all forms of film making including, animation, documentaries, experimental, narrative etc. The Festival encourages the submission of works for young audiences as they are presented for students during matinees.
