Cinema Tropical Unveils Nominees for 2016 Awards

Twenty-nine films from 12 countries have been nominated in the sixth annual edition of the Cinema Tropical Awards.

The event is the only U.S. awards honoring the best of Latin American cinema of the year.

Nominations were announced in six categories: feature film, documentary film, director of a feature film, director of a documentary film, first film and U.S. Latino film.

A pioneer organization in promoting the release of independent LatAm cinema within the U.S., Cinema Tropical announced the full slate on Wednesday, including the five films competing for best feature film of the year: Chile’s Oscar bid The Club by Pablo Larraín; Lisandro Alonso’s Cannes-entry Jauja, starring Viggo Mortensen (Argentina); Oscar Ruiz Navia’s Los Hongos  (Colombia); Matías Piñeiro’s The Princess of France (Argentina); and Adirley Queirós‘ White Out, Black In (Brazil).

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Highlights among the other nominations include Dominican Republic’s Oscar bid Sand Dollars (starring Geraldine Chaplin), Gabriel Ripstein’s 600 Miles (Mexico’s Oscar bid and winner of the best first film award at this year’s Berlinale), Panama’s first-ever Oscar submission Invasion and Berlinale’s Alfred Bauer award-winner Ixcanul (Guatemala).

The winners of the 6th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards will be announced during a Jan. 20 ceremony at The New York Times Company headquarters in New York, and the winning films will be screened as part of the Cinema Tropical Festival, set to run Feb. 25-28 at Museum of the Moving Image and celebrating the 15th anniversary of the organization.

This year’s jury will be comprised of Amalia Córdova, film programmer and scholar; Aaron Cutler, film critic and programmer; Paul Dallas, film critic; Vanessa Erazo, film editor at Remezcla; Michelle Farrell, film scholar; Sandra Kogut, filmmaker; Dominic Davis, film programmer at Rooftop Films; David Schwartz, chief curator at the Museum of the Moving Image; and Diana Vargas, artistic director at the Havana Film Festival in New York.

The Cinema Tropical Awards are presented in partnership with The New York Times Company’s Latino Network, the Museum of the Moving Image and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), and are made possible with the support of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York and Full Circle Post.

Full list of nominations:

Best Feature Film

• The Club / El club (Pablo Larraín, Chile, 2015) 
• Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina, 2014) 
• Los Hongos (Óscar Ruiz Navia, Colombia, 2014)
• The Princess of France / La princesa de Francia (Matías Piñeiro, Argentina/USA, 2014)
• White Out, Black In / Branco Sai, Petro Fica (Adirley Queirós, Brazil, 2014)

Best Director, Feature Film
• Nicolás Pereda, The Absent / Los ausentes (Mexico, 2014)
• Gabriel Mascaro, August Winds / Ventos de Agosto (Brazil, 2014)
• Pablo Larraín, The Club / El club (Chile, 2015)
• Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, Sand Dollars / Dólares de arena (Dominican Republic/Mexico/Argentina, 2014)
• Paz Fábrega, Viaje (Costa Rica, 2015)

Best First Film
• 600 Miles (Gabriel Ripstein, Mexico, 2015) 
• The Fire / El incendio (Juan Schnitman, Argentina, 2015)
• Ixcanul (Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala, 2015) 
• She Comes Back on Thursday / Ela Volta Na Quinta (Andrés Novais Oliveira, Brazil, 2014) 
• Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) / Videofilia (y otros síndromes virales) (Juan Daniel F. Molero, Peru, 2015)

Best Documentary Film
• A Committee Chronicle / Crónica de un comité (José Luis Sepúlveda and Carolina Adriazola, Chile, 2014)
• Identification Photos / Retratos de Identificaçao (Anita Leandro, Brazil, 2014)
• Invasion / Invasión (Abner Benaim, Panama, 2014)
• Last Conversations / Últimas Conversas (Eduardo Coutinho, Brazil, 2015) 
• Monte Adentro (Nicolás Macario Alonso, Colombia/Argentina, 2014)

Best Director, Documentary Film
• Maíra Bühler and Matias Mariani, I Touched All Your Stuff / A Vida Privada dos Hipopótamos (Brazil, 2014) 
• Karina García Casanova, Juanicas (Mexico, 2014) 
• Betzabé García, Kings of Nowhere / Los reyes del pueblo que no existe (Mexico, 2015)
• Aldo Garay, The New Man / El hombre nuevo (Uruguay, 2015) 
• Christopher Murray, Propaganda (Chile, 2014)

Best U.S. Latino Film
• The Book of Life (Jorge Gutierrez, USA, 2014) 
• East Side Sushi (Anthony Lucero, USA, 2014)
• Mala Mala (Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles, USA/Puerto Rico, 2014) 
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon USA, 2015) 
• We Like It Like That (Mathew Ramirez Warren, USA, 2015)