The Toronto International Film Festival, better known as TIFF, is coming in hot for its 50th year. As expected, this international festival is strong in Latin talent and Latin stories – including the Philippines’ Academy Award contender this year. In all, this year features 291 films, represented by approximately 730 people who’ll attend in person. Among the Latino delegation? Guillermo del Toro, America Ferrera, Tessa Thompson, and J. Balvin, to name a few. I screened as many of the Latino films as possible at TIFF 2025 and have six that I just can’t stop thinking about. Here they are, organized lightest to heaviest for you:
Olmo
Olmo comes from director Fernando Eimbcke (Berlin, I Love You) via old Mexico (the country) and takes place in New Mexico (the state). Aivan Uttapa (Night Swim) is Olmo and exactly what you would expect from a disco-loving 14-year-old living in 1979. He has a BFF who he loves in Miguel, a roller-skate-lovin’ older sister Ana (Rosa Armendariz) who he could not be more annoyed with, and a mom (Andrea Suarez Paz – Since Got the Wrong Lover) who works more than she’s home.
But wait, Olmo also has a bedridden father (Gustavo Sánchez Parra – Midnight Family) suffering from MS. The trouble begins when, on the same day he is charged with caring for his dad, the hot and blossoming chica next door Nina (Melanie Frometa) invites him to a party.
Seriously, what is a boy with as many hormones in his body as strands of hair on his head to do?
What follows in the course of one night is a coming-of-age story that straddles the final days of boyhood with the first days of manhood. The film so perfectly dials into the frequency of teen angst, age-appropriate awkwardness, and the Latino sense of family duty. Eimbcke and cast deliver one of the warmest, most heart-tugging, and hilarious coming-of-age films I’ve seen in some time.
The Captive / El Captivo
You may not have a 16th-century story about a captive prisoner in Algiers at the top of your film interests. It’s not exactly a popular niche. But when that particular film serves as a plausible origin story for Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most prolific storytellers of all time – you change your tune.
Chilean and Spanish director/writer Alejandro Amenábar (Oscar winner for The Sea Inside) is the captain of The Captive, a rare gem of a film having its world premiere at TIFF.
Julio Peña (Berlin) is Miguel de Cervantes, aka the guy who wrote Don Quixote. Waiting for his ransom to be paid, Cervantes is one of many prisoners held by an Ottoman corsair. Over the course of years, some captives are rescued, others die, and more are brought in. But, what sets Cervantes apart is his discovery of his storytelling ability. Though The Captive is mostly confined to the cells of a luxury residence, the stories that de Cervantes weaves are otherworldly. They even help him gain his captor Hasan’s (Alessandro Borghi) attention and affinity – and the perks that go with it.
While the story of the man from La Mancha is regarded as a founding work of Western literature, The Captive makes the case that the better story belongs to Cervantes himself.
Little Lorraine
Little Lorraine and its turn of events surprised even this veteran film critic – it should absolutely be on your list of films to see at TIFF 2025 in part because of its Latino representation.
In this film based on a true story, J. Balvin makes his feature film debut and refreshingly isn’t the stereotypical Latin drug cartel member or narco. Instead, he co-stars as Interpol Agent Lozano and is tasked with shutting down a drug smuggling ring from South America to parts all over. As it turns out, the tiny fishing/mining town of Cape Breton is a major stopping point for over 100 tons of cocaine and hash.
Little Lorraine also stars Sean Astin ( The Lord of the Rings), Stephen Amell (Suits LA), Matt Walsh (VEEP), and Stephen McHattie (The Madness).
Under the Same Sun / Bajo el Mismo Sol
From 1500s Algeria to 1800s Hispaniola we go for writer/director Ulises Porra’s Under The Same Sun. Well before the island was split into the Dominican Republic and Haiti, in a time when the Spanish and the French were fighting for control, we meet Lazaro (David Castillo – Something Is About To Happen). He’s returning home to fulfill a wish of his deceased father that may just provide riches (in silk no less!) beyond anything he’s ever seen.
The region’s political upheaval serves as the backdrop for Lazaro, master silk maker Mei (Valentina Shen Wu), and Haitian army deserter Baptiste (Jean Jean) on this quest. There are power shifts and betrayals, acts of love and service. Under the Same Sun shows how changing political realities affect three unrelated individuals who are just trying to survive. Though this story is centuries old, it absolutely resonates with today’s political realities, inequality, racism, and power shift.
It Would Be Night in Caracas
Colombian actress Natalia Reyes has TWO projects at TIFF, and both are among my festival favorites, dealing as they do with Latino realities. Up first, writing/directing partners Mariana Rondón (Venezuela) and Marité Ugas (Peru) – who together brought us Bad Hair in 2013 – partner on It Would Be Night in Caracas.
Set in the considerably chaotic time of 2017 Venezuela, Adelaida (Reyes) is burying her mother. Before Adelaida can begin to process her new life, a woman-led armed militia takes over her home and forces her to leave the only place she has ever known. Alone, frightened, and with only the clothes on her back, she takes refuge in an apartment across the hall and watches as her home is torn apart and the streets underneath her turn into a war zone.
She is soon joined by friend and former student Santiago (Moisés Angola) who has himself been forced to join the paramilitary against his will and is on the run. In a few days, they learn more about one another, how to survive, if they can survive, and how to work through the city’s collapse around them.
Also starring Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramírez (Emilia Pérez), who also serves as a producer, It Would Be Night in Caracas comes to the festival with a lot of buzz. But, because the film is embargoed at the time of this posting, all I can say for the moment is that It Would Be Night in Caracas is a Latino film that should not be overlooked at TIFF 2025.
Noviembre
More real-life conflict is the setting for Natalia Reyes’s other film, Noviembre. Based on the 1985 Colombian siege of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, Noviembre is the retelling of one of the most tragic and talked-about times in the country’s history. Actual archival footage intercuts this film, which otherwise takes place in a single crowded space of a bathroom inside the Palace.
Reyes is Clara Helena, a member of the M-19 guerrilla group that holds palace staff, court officials, and magistrates hostage in an attempt to bring President Belisario Betancur to trial.
Over the course of two days, the Colombian government and guerrilla fighters remain in a stand-off that would result in the deaths of nearly 100 people.
Colombian director Tomás Corredor balances this real-life story with questions that still linger today. This is a film that explores the differences between democracy and dictatorship and the role of media in relaying information.
Bonus Recommendations
I couldn’t get my hands on a few high-profile Latino films premiering at TIFF 2025, but you should still know about them. I’m talking about Magellan, led by Mexican actor Gael García Bernal (La Máquina), who plays the titular character in the Philippines’ official selection for Best International Picture at the Oscars. Tessa Thompson is getting a lot of awards season buzz already for Hedda as is Wagner Moura (Civil War) after his Cannes win for The Secret Agent. Also on our radar is America Ferrera in Apple TV+’s The Lost Bus. And then there’s the highly anticipated Frankenstein from Guillermo del Toro, starring Oscar Isaac and coming to Netflix later this fall.
The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, takes place September 4-14, 2025. All the Latino films mentioned here will screen at TIFF 2025.
