We all know we stated one thing comparable final yr, however 2025 gave us an abundance of unbelievable movies in regards to the Latino/Latin American expertise— from absurdist metafictions involving doppelgängers to a documentary a couple of slain music star that makes use of never-before-seen dwelling footage.
For the needs of this listing, we solely included movies that heart on characters who’re Latinos within the U.S. or Latin Individuals. Primarily based on this parameter, you’ll see Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” is lacking, however a documentary in regards to the grasp of monsters himself is included. Equally, although a number of the movies on this listing had been launched internationally in 2024, all of them had their U.S. debut in 2025.
25. ‘Magic Farm’
Chloë Sevigny in Amalia Ulman’s “Magic Farm.”
(Mubi)
To the tune of cumbia villera, an Argentine subgenre first popularized amongst working-class communities, this biting satire observes clueless gringos in Latin America as they fail to know the nuances of a world outdoors their restricted bubble. For her sophomore function, Argentine-born artist Amalia Ulman took Chloë Sevigny, Simon Rex, Alex Wolff and Joe Apollonio to a rural city to play a crew for a Vice-style media firm that mines tradition for mass consumption. Ulman additionally acts within the movie as the one bilingual member of the group.
Streaming on Mubi.
24. ‘Pepe’
What would the hippopotamus that belonged to the notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar say if given the possibility to inform its story? That’s the query that Dominican director Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias asks on this bizarrely imaginative imaginative and prescient. Talking in 4 completely different languages, Pepe shares its impressions about being uprooted from its African homeland and on the facility dynamics among the many hippos as soon as in South America. By means of the animal’s viewpoint, De Los Santos Arias considers the enduring grip of colonialism and the implications of human irrationality.
Streaming on Mubi.
23. ‘Bob Trevino Likes It’
In a disarming efficiency, Brazilian American actor Barbie Ferreira performs Lily, an emotionally numb younger lady with a tough childhood. After her self-absorbed father disowns her, she finds solace in an unlikely friendship with Bob Trevino (John Leguizamo), a Latino man with out kids she meets by way of Fb. Their surrogate father-daughter bond on this crowd-pleaser about two lonely folks soothing one another’s ache additionally serves as a showcase for the great Leguizamo, without delay humorous and poignant.
Streaming on Hulu and Disney+ and out there on VOD.
22. ‘Critical Folks’
Miguel Huerta, left, and Pasqual Gutierrez within the film “Critical Folks.”
(Pasqual Gutierrez and Ben Mullin / Sundance Institute)
Careworn in regards to the impossibility of work-life stability, a Mexican American music video director hires a doppelgänger on this movie, which premiered at Sundance. Whereas his look-alike takes over skilled commitments, Pasqual can spend time along with his pregnant associate. A intelligent ploy at first, the concept shortly turns right into a nightmare primed for uncomfortable comedy. Blurring the traces between fiction and actuality — everybody on display is enjoying a model of themselves — the result’s a tongue-in-cheek metafiction in regards to the pitfalls of an trade that prioritizes productiveness over folks.
Out there on VOD.
21. ‘A Vanishing Fog’
Photographer Sebastian Pii is the right information by way of the bewildering mysticism of Colombian writer-director Augusto Sandino’s debut. Filmed partially in an at-risk ecosystem, the beautiful Sumapaz Páramo, the narrative witnesses how F (Pii) cares for his father and worries about the way forward for this land by the hands of those that want to exploit it. But greater than a plot-driven work, this curio performs like a sensorial and surreal journey the place a magical staircase to heaven blends with the already hypnotic panorama.
Out there on VOD.
20. ‘Motel Destino’
Sultry and neon-soaked, this sexually charged thriller from versatile Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz follows Heraldo (Iago Xavier), a good-looking legal on the run. Interested in him, Dayana (Nataly Rocha) permits him to cover and work on the roadside motel she runs together with her husband, the deranged former cop Elias (Fábio Assunção). A love triangle marked by voyeurism and secrecy develops. Throughout the halls and rooms of this hedonistic property, they’re all the time on the verge of crossing the road between eroticism and hazard.
Out there on VOD.
19. ’31 Minutes: One Sizzling Christmas’
For those who haven’t but encountered the cheeky puppets of the Chilean TV present “31 Minutos,” adored throughout Latin America because the early 2000s, their new Christmas film is the right introduction. When excessive temperatures threaten the vacations within the city of Titirilquén, reporter Juan Carlos Bodoque (a pink rabbit with an habit to betting on horseracing) should embark on a mission to the North Pole. A group of strange characters, together with Bodoque’s finest good friend Tulio Triviño, a monkey who serves as information anchor of the satirical 31 Minutos newscast on the heart of this present, populate this irreverent universe.
Streaming on Prime Video.
18. ‘The Fishbowl’
The unjust, neocolonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S. is addressed by way of the non-public story of Noelia (Isel Rodriguez), a lady dwelling with most cancers who decides to return to her hometown on the island of Vieques, which for six many years the Navy used as a website for navy workout routines. The primary Boricua movie nominated for Spain’s Goya Awards as finest Ibero-American movie and the primary to premiere on the Sundance Movie Competition illustrates how the political and the non-public are all the time intertwined.
Out there on VOD.
17. ‘Corina’
Though terrified of the world past the few blocks that separate her dwelling from her job at a publishing home, Corina (Naian González Norvind), a timid 20-year-old with aspirations to develop into a author, lastly takes an opportunity. She steals a well-known scribe’s manuscript and improves on it in secret. Hassle ensues. Filmmaker Urzula Barba Hopfner channels the beloved French movie “Amélie” for a fascinating dramedy about reinventing your self by yourself phrases that brings Cristo Fernández (of “Ted Lasso” fame) alongside for the trip.
Streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
16. ‘The Astronaut Lovers’
Pedro (Javier Orán) is homosexual. Maxi (Lautaro Bettoni) just isn’t. That doesn’t cease them from teasing one another with explicitly vulgar jokes that shortly rework into playful flirtation. The extra time they spend collectively throughout a summer season in an Argentine beachside city, the extra Maxi’s straight man curiosity approximates actual romantic curiosity for the cautious however enticed Pedro. The newest titillating work from Marco Berger, a director who’s lengthy explored the much less outlined edges of masculinity, thrives on the leads’ ebullient chemistry.
Out there on VOD.
15. ‘Belén’
First documented in Ana Correa’s e book “Somos Belén,” this rousing and well timed courtroom drama follows the 2014 case of a younger lady from Argentina’s Tucumán province who’s falsely accused of killing her personal youngster after experiencing a miscarriage. Her decided lawyer, Soledad Deza (performed by the movie’s co-writer and director Dolores Fonzi), brings gentle to such egregious injustice and ignites a second throughout the South American nation. The true story resonates with the plight of girls’s reproductive rights around the globe right this moment, together with on this nation the place entry to protected abortions stays in danger.
Streaming on Prime Video.
14. ‘Selena y Los Dinos’
With entry to never-before-seen footage and new interviews with these closest to Selena Quintanilla, filmmaker Isabel Castro manages to assemble an sudden and life-affirming portrait of a younger lady nonetheless discovering herself and her pursuits. Making a profile documentary in regards to the martyred Tejano music icon, whose life and profession have already been the topic of a well-liked movie and a scripted TV collection, have to be a frightening process. However Castro succeeds by zeroing in on the moments away from the highlight the place Quintanilla’s playful persona and weak ambivalence paint her in a brand new, extra humane gentle. The movie made its debut at Sundance, the place it generated a lot buzz it needed to be pulled from the competition’s on-line platform due to piracy considerations.
Streaming on Netflix.
13. ‘Ponyboi’
New Jersey’s city grit contrasts with the ethereal visions of Ponyboi (River Gallo), an intersex Latinx intercourse employee. Caught within the crossfire of lethal legal exercise, Ponyboi desires of escaping within the arms of their idealized man. The extraordinary Gallo, who additionally wrote the screenplay, brings a mix of fierceness and fragility to a task that explores expectations of masculinity in Latino households. Ponyboi embodies the power that it takes to take area in a world that’s wanting to crush you for being completely different from the norm.
Out there on VOD.
12. ‘The Hyperboreans’
Within the new mind-bending, handcrafted nightmare from Chilean duo Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña, who beforehand directed the terrifying stop-motion function “The Wolf Home,” a single actor, Antonia Giesen, retells the biography of Miguel Serrano, a author of otherworldly texts with neo-Nazi ideologies. His eyebrow-raising biography is dissected by means of ingenious vignettes that mix efficiency and wildly interactive units. The expertise is endlessly modern and bitingly important of the topic’s abhorrent views.
Streaming on Movie Motion+.
11. ‘The Falling Sky’
Whereas documentarians Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha vividly seize the traditions of the Yanomami Indigenous folks and their ongoing flight to guard their Amazonian dwelling, it’s the sudden interrogation of the movie’s motives that elevates it from one more doc in regards to the conflict between historic practices and voracious course of. At one level a Yanomami man questions the filmmakers’ intentions. His mistrust relies on earlier encounters with unscrupulous guests. “Are you actually going to be our allies?” he asks.
Out there on VOD.
10. ‘Oceans Are the Actual Continents’
An exquisitely photographed, black-and-white triptych set in Cuba, this unsung gem portrays the hopes of these with an opportunity to flee their difficult circumstances and the anguish of those left behind. An artist with a possibility to go away the island for good however with out her romantic associate, two younger boys whose friendship could also be misplaced to geographical separation, and an aged lady ready for a liked one who might by no means return, exemplify a profound longing. If solely the world would allow them to keep collectively.
Out there on VOD.
9. ‘Sangre Del Toro’
Utilizing the “At House With Monsters” exhibit as a bodily labyrinth by way of Guillermo del Toro’s thoughts, this insightful portrait of the Mexican grasp director goes past the talking-head format. It engages with the fabric manifestations of the tales and concepts that formed Del Toro’s artistry. Listening to the director speak about his obsessions and convictions about existence and creativity can be compelling by itself — Del Toro is a gifted speaker — however French filmmaker Yves Montmayeur succeeds at invoking a phantasmagoric ambiance by way of sound and picture, becoming for his fascinating topic.
Streaming on Netflix.
8. ‘Kill the Jockey’
Feminine jockeys stretching within the altering room seem to maneuver to an digital tune in one of the crucial singular sequences of this enigmatic concoction of a movie about Remo Manfredini (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), a drug-addicted jockey. A lot to the dismay of his malevolent benefactor (Daniel Giménez Cacho), Remo is able to throw his profession away. However what begins because the sleazy and alluring story of a person parachuting into self-destruction turns into an exploration of the transformative energy of dwelling in a single’s true identification.
Streaming on Prime Video and out there on VOD.
7. ‘Kiss of the Spider Lady’
Dazzling musical numbers and an inconceivable but poignant love connection energy this cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical, which was based mostly on Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel set throughout Argentina’s Soiled Conflict. Mexican American actor Tonatiuh instructions consideration along with his star-making twin position. He embodies movie-obsessed homosexual prisoner Luis Molina, who’s falling for his revolutionary cellmate performed by Diego Luna. And in sequences in a movie inside the movie alongside Jennifer Lopez, a consummate entertainer right here, Tonatiuh transforms into a trendy, closeted man orbiting Lopez’s fictional display diva Ingrid Luna.
Out there on VOD.
6. ‘The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo’
Raised by a bunch of vivacious trans ladies within the desert, younger Lidia (Tamara Cortés) has seen firsthand the consequences of AIDS on the folks round her, together with the individual she considers her mom, Flamingo (Matías Catalán). On this mining space, nonetheless, the boys imagine they’ve contracted the sickness by way of the piercing gaze of their trans lovers. With a mixture of Almodóvar-like seductiveness and imagery atypical of westerns, Diego Céspedes’ provocative and tonally unpredictable first function is as a lot a coming-of-age story as it’s a story about queer resilience tinged with the fantastical.
In theaters in New York Metropolis; extra cities to come back.
5. ‘Elio’
The younger Latino protagonist of Pixar’s most up-to-date journey desires of being kidnapped by aliens. An orphan within the care of his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an Air Power main, the endearingly peculiar Elio (Yonas Kibreab) doesn’t really feel like he belongs on this planet. When his want is granted and he finds himself amid extraterrestrial new pals and foes in a gorgeously animated imaginative and prescient of area, he should rethink what it means to really feel at dwelling. As eye-catching as it’s heartfelt, the movie faucets into our shared want to seek out someplace to belong.
Streaming on Disney+.
4. ‘We Shall Not Be Moved’
The enduring devastation of the 1968 Tlatelolco pupil bloodbath in Mexico Metropolis is examined right here from the angle of a lady within the current. Socorro (Luisa Huertas), a no-nonsense lawyer with a skewed sense of justice, is bent on avenging her brother, one of many victims, after discovering the title of the soldier accountable. Anchored by Huertas’ blazing efficiency, Pierre Saint-Martin’s trenchant debut performs each as a portrait of an individual caught in a state of perpetual grieving and an indictment of a troubled nation.
In theaters in New York and can debut on Hulu and Disney+ on Jan. 1.
3. ‘A Poet’
First-time actor Ubeimar Rios performs Oscar Restrepo, a down-on-his-luck poet compelled to work as a trainer, with cringe-inducing brilliance. Pathetic and prideful, but in the end a principled father, Oscar tries to revitalize his nonexistent profession by encouraging one in every of his college students to pursue poetry. This uncomfortably hilarious and reducing dramedy from Simón Mesa Soto addresses each inventive failure and the way typically artistic fields count on voices from deprived backgrounds to take advantage of their trauma for the edification of the bourgeoisie.
The movie had an awards-qualifying run and can open in additional theaters on Jan. 30.
youtube.com/watch?v=xRyVkKYG3BA
2. ‘Apocalypse within the Tropics’
Evangelical Christianity infiltrated Brazilian politics with such virulent persuasion that it propelled the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro (lately sentenced to 27 years in jail) to the presidency in 2018. With incisive narration and potent imagery, Oscar-nominated documentarian Petra Costa crafts an eye-opening account of how a rustic fell prey to the warped ideologies of a religion that preaches violence and division beneath the guise of divinity. The mirror this scorching documentary holds to what’s occurred within the U.S. during the last decade is completely bone-chilling.
Streaming on Netflix.
1. ‘The Secret Agent’
The previous communicates with the current in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s masterfully realized, genre-defying thriller set within the late Nineteen Seventies throughout Brazil’s navy dictatorship. With Wagner Moura (“Narcos”) in a career-best flip as a father hiding from a robust enemy and dwelling beneath a special identification, Mendonça’s knockout about reminiscence, collective and private, has set a brand new excessive bar for Brazilian cinema. It’s a fruits of the themes that the director has mentioned throughout his physique of labor, conveyed right here within the reflective and gripping ordeal of a daily man standing for what he believes in.
Now enjoying in theaters.
Honorable mentions
And since this yr there was a humiliation of riches so far as Latino movies goes, listed below are some honorable mentions we simply needed to embody:
‘Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires’
A brand new tackle the Darkish Knight comedian e book hero that faces off in opposition to conquistador Hernán Cortés.
‘Child’
An attractive and fantastically acted Brazilian queer drama about an age-gap relationship.
‘Brownsville Bred’
A heartfelt, autobiographical Nuyorican coming-of-age story.
‘Most Folks Die on Sundays’
An Argentine dramedy a couple of homosexual man in his 30s nonetheless figuring himself out.
Párvulos: Youngsters of the Apocalypse’
A Mexican zombie film centered round three younger brothers in an remoted dwelling.
‘The Unexpecteds’
After falling for a rip-off, a bunch of on a regular basis folks decides to battle again on this motion comedy.
