In the interview, Calixto Chinchilla reflected on the festival’s long successful history, noting its survival through historically significant events like 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which tested its leadership and adaptability. Despite financial challenges, the festival is showcasing 120 films this year, highlighting its commitment to creativity and storytelling.
Category: 2025
The Year 2025
Interview with New York Latino Film Festival Founder Calixto Chinchilla Whose Major Gorgeous Film Festival Opens September 13
TORN Film Review
For Clarification: The reviewer-writer of this movie that blows his mind is Pro-Palestinian and despises The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist political organization with a military wing for its October 7, 2023 attack and massacre of innocent Israelis.
This reviewer-writer is Pro-Israel but despises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his staunch elected supporters and right wing cabinet for the crimes against humanity and genocide perpetrated against Palestinians, who are dying and being slaughtered as this review is being written.
News from the WORD Ain’t a Whole Lot of Nothing – 1st
CBS News has endured some questionable headlines of late — its old owners’ embarrassing settlement of a lawsuit brought by President Trump; its new owners’ apparent determination to put Bari Weiss, an anti-woke commentator whom Puck’s Dylan Byers recently credited…
Award Winners of the 2025 9th Annual Festival of Cinema NYC
Festival of Cinema NYC Founder and Executive Director Jayson Simba: “As we near the end of our first decade of bringing films to Forest Hills/Queens, we have established a well-earned reputation for celebrating truly independent films and filmmakers from Europe, the West Coast, and New York City as well.” The Festival of Cinema NYC is an independent film festival designed to support and expose emerging filmmakers by screening a diverse range of films, including features, shorts, animation, and music videos.
New York Latino Film Festival September 13-21: The nation’s leading Latino film festival marks its milestone year with record submissions, a dynamic film lineup, engaging conversations, and a free outdoor event
This year, NYLFF will once again present an exciting line-up of feature films in various forms, including feature, documentary, and shorts from the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Highlights include Aguadilla (2025, 107 min., Puerto Rico/USA), a tale of desire, deception, and survival, as a wheelchair-bound ex-surfer (Lou Diamond Phillips) becomes entangled in a dangerous triangle with a Dominican migrant couple on the shores of Puerto Rico.
TORN: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on New York City Streets
Opening September 5 in NYC
Told through the voices of 10 New Yorkers — including hostage family members, artists, students, activists, a free speech expert, and a rabbi — the film explores grief, identity, and the limits of empathy in today’s fractured public discourse. – By Gregg W. Morris, the WORD
The Buzz About THE EBONY CANAL (2025): Best Documentary for Social Impact at the 2025 ESSENCE Film Festival
THE EBONY CANAL aims not only to highlight inequities, but to humanize and inspire action. It tells the stories of Black and Brown mothers navigating birth, loss, and survival in a healthcare system that often fails them. – Article by Gregg W. Morris, the WORD
A Hollyshorts Film Fest Spectacular
HALFWAY HAUNTED Film Review
A financially impoverished tenant teams up Twilight Zone Style with the ghost that’s been haunting the bejesus out of her in her apartment. They collaborate to deal with a ruthless developer from hell, figuratively speaking, who wants to evict…
JU DOU – Director Yimou’s Meticulously Restored Oscar-Nominee Arrives in Theaters October 3, 2050 from Film Movement Classics
Said to Be One of the Greatest Chinese Films Every Made
August 28 Update: JU DOU Part 2 in the Works
The film that put director Zhang Yimou and star Gong Li on the international cinema map follows beautiful young Ju Dou as she is married off to an egregiously cruel, and also impotent, owner of a dye mill in the…
Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival 2025
Reviewing Director Oanh-Nhi Nguyen’s THE STAND – Part 2
Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of a family-run food stand, young Quinn (Jovie Leigh) and her younger brother Liam (Kailen Jude) stop their petty bickering and settle on a family-oriented détente to keep the family’s food stand operating when mom…