2025 LFI Works in Progress | Latino Film Institute

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LFI WORKS IN PROGRESS

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In its third year, LFI Works in Progress sponsored by Amazon MGM Studios, supports independent U.S-based filmmakers in the completion of a feature film (fiction or documentary). The program grants finishing funds towards the final stages of post-production. The fund supports films with high production value, a distinctive directorial voice, culturally significant and commercially viable. The fund allocates $50,000 between three projects selected through an open call. A jury of industry professionals divides the funds among the projects, based on their post production needs.

2025 Works In Progress Recipients

Cancuncito Carlos Marulanda Headshot

Cancúncito

Written and directed by Carlos Alejandro Marulanda and Isael Gutierrez

Using gambling as an escape from her social isolation, Valeria, a disabled woman with limited use of her hands, recruits a poor AfroMexican industrial worker to help her play the casinos and attempts to seduce him. When her ultra religious mother threatens to destroy their burgeoning love affair, Valeria must move beyond the limits of her disabilities.

2024 Works In Progress Recipients

Brownsville Bre Elaine Del Valle

Brownsville Bred

Written and directed by Elaine Del Valle

A Nuyorican girl learns resilience as she copes with her once-idolized musician father’s decline and the challenges of her notorious neighborhood.
Exodus Stories Ilse Fernandez (1)

Exodus Stories

Produced and directed by Ilse Fernandez

Immigration is not a crime; seeking asylum is a right. The quest for a safer, better life through immigration is a generations-long story shaping the United States into the diverse nation it is today. It is also a complex, polarizing issue, acknowledged by all sides as broken. Exodus Stories aims to provide an unfiltered, authentic account of the Central American-Southwest Border migration experience. It explores the resilience of three Central American immigrants -Deisy, Dennis, and Cindy-, part of the 2018-2019 mass migrant caravans seeking refuge in the United States.

2023 Works In Progress Recipients

Sisters Mar Novo

Sisters

Produced and performed by Marta Cross, Valeria Maldonado and Virginia Novello

Using gambling as an escape from her social isolation, Valeria, a disabled woman with limited use of her hands, recruits a poor AfroMexican industrial worker to help her play the casinos and attempts to seduce him. When her ultra religious mother threatens to destroy their burgeoning love affair, Valeria must move beyond the limits of her disabilities.

Papa Melissa Sophia Stieglitz

Papá Melissa

Directed by Sophia Stieglitz and produced by Constanza Castro and Doménica Castro

In the heart of Mexico City, Melissa and Claudia, a married couple for over 20 years and the proud parents of five, navigate Melissa’s own version of gender identity. Through laughter, conflict, and unconditional love, they challenge binary thinking and embrace Melissa’s paradoxical evolving self — a bold and uncanny celebration of identity, resilience, and the challenges of the path of becoming one’s true self.
Omni Loop Bernardo Britto

Omni Loop

Directed by Bernardo Britto

Diagnosed with a black hole growing inside her chest, a 55 year old woman from Miami, Florida decides to try to solve time travel.

MORE NEWS

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Dr. Rachel Raimist has always understood the power of storytelling to shape lives. Long before she directed episodes for major networks or broke barriers within the Directors Guild of America, she experienced firsthand how filmmaking could uncover truth and inspire change.
The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), founded by Edward James Olmos in 1997, will celebrate its milestone 25th edition from May 27 – May 31, 2026, in Hollywood, CA. Marking a quarter-century of elevating Latino voices, this year’s festival will introduce a new Best Feature Film Award and debut LALIFF Connect: Market & Creative Forum, expanding opportunities for filmmakers while continuing its Oscar®-qualifying recognition for short films.

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