The Chicago Latino Film Festival continues the legacy begun by Pepe Vargas in 1985. Over the decades, Vargas grew the festival into the longest continually running Latino Film Festival in North America before retiring on June 30, 2026. While his presence will be missed, his legacy continues under the leadership of Mateo Mulcahy, with the 43rd edition set to take place April 15–26, 2027.

The festival is one of the only places in the Midwest where audiences can access feature and short films in Spanish, Portuguese, and Indigenous Latin American and Iberian languages. Its goal is to reach audiences of all ages by showcasing some of the world’s best — and most thought-provoking, funny, scary, and thrilling — films available today.

The International Latino Cultural Center (ILCC) is the parent organization of the Film Festival and provides diverse arts programming, including music, film, dance, literary arts, and culinary events. The ILCC is one of the few organizations — if not the only one — to approach Latino arts on a global scale, celebrating the culture, traditions, and arts of over 22 Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, including all their regional and native languages.