Greetings from the Director

This Festival, our biggest ever, will showcase over 120 feature and short films from all over Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.

The Festival represents the great diversity of themes and genres of Latino filmmaking from around the world.

The Festival serves as a vehicle to break the barriers created and perpetuated by stereotypes and provoke the audience to challenge mainstream ideals of the Latino identity by showing through film that Latinos are defined by more than 20 different nationalities and come from all social and racial backgrounds.

The many highlights of this year’s Festival include the Puerto Rican director, poet, actor, comedian, and playwright Jacobo Morales being honored with the Career Achievement Award the “Gloria” --Gloria being the pinnacle of success and splendor, the highest recognition of excellence.

We are extremely proud of our work and the response of the growing audience that has followed the Festival for almost a quarter of a century. I am delighted to share that the Chicago Latino Film Festival is the nation’s largest, oldest and best Latino film festival; also it is Chicago’s biggest and most diverse Latino cultural event.

The Festival could not be possible without the talent of our filmmakers, the support from the sponsors and our partner Columbia College Chicago, the work of the Board of Directors, and the many volunteers.

Without the commitment and hard work of the small teams I have lead, the Festival would not be what it is today. I am deeply appreciative to everyone for their contributions.
I proudly invite everyone to enjoy the Festival. ¡Nos vemos en el cine!

Pepe Vargas
Festival Director