Cinema Tropical to Celebrate 25 Years with Special Screenings in NYC

Cinema Tropical, the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States and recipient of the National Society of Film Critics' Film Heritage Award, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a first wave of special screenings and events across New York City, marking a quarter century at the forefront of shaping the presence and circulation of Latin American and U.S. Latinx cinema nationwide.

Over the past 25 years, Cinema Tropical has played a pivotal role in bringing the work of groundbreaking filmmakers-from Lucrecia Martel and Alejandro G. Iñárritu to Natalia Almada, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Maite Alberdi-to U.S. audiences, while fostering a wide spectrum of voices across documentary, experimental, and narrative traditions.

The anniversary year opens with a symbolic return to the beginning. A special screening in dazzling 4K of Silvia Prieto, Martín Rejtman's landmark 1999 deadpan masterpiece, will take place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on Wednesday, March 11. The Argentine absurdist comedy was the very first film Cinema Tropical ever presented, on February 20, 2001, at the Pioneer Theater in downtown Manhattan-a modest cine-club screening that would grow into a leading international force in the exhibition and advocacy of Latin American and U.S. Latinx cinema. Revisiting the film 25 years later is both a tribute to its enduring modernity and a nod to the organization's origins.

The first wave of festivities will also include a special sneak preview of the Brazilian film The Blue Trail (O Último Azul) at Museum of the Moving Image on Sunday, March 1, offering audiences an early look at one of the most anticipated new films from Latin America ahead of its U.S. theatrical release in April by Dekanalog.

Winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale, Gabriel Mascaro's striking dystopian sci-fi is a lyrical and immersive adventure celebrating resilience, intergenerational connection, and the courage to defy ageist and authoritarian constraints. The screening underscores Cinema Tropical's ongoing mission: not only to honor the canon, but to continually introduce vital new works to U.S. audiences.

On Wednesday, March 18, Cinema Tropical joins forces with the legendary Flaherty Seminar for a rare dual celebration at Anthology Film Archives, marking Cinema Tropical's 25th anniversary alongside the Flaherty's 70th. Bringing together two organizations that have, in distinct yet complementary ways, shaped film culture in the United States, the evening highlights a shared commitment to rigorous curation, artistic risk, and transnational dialogue.

Titled "Defiant and Playful: Flaherty at 70 and Cinema Tropical at 25," the program is an incisive and provocative selection curated by Zaina Bseiso and Carlos A. Gutiérrez. Originating from their collaboration at the 70th Flaherty Seminar, it features artists from across the Global South who reclaim humor, popular culture, and aesthetics as spaces of resistance and resilience amid the enduring threat of colonial forces.