The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is getting ready to roll out a seriously ambitious love letter to Mexican and Mexican American film. Cinelandia: Celebrating Mexican American Cinema, a major exhibition slated for late September 2027 through summer 2028, will trace more than a century of filmmaking history, from silent-era Spanish-language features and Chicano-era stories to contemporary animation and genre fare. Curators are planning a wide-ranging, community-focused survey that looks at both Hollywood and Mexico's movie traditions, pairing rarely seen artifacts with screenings and public programs.
Exhibition Dates And Gallery
Cinelandia is scheduled to open September 25, 2027, and run through July 23, 2028, in the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery. According to the Academy Museum, the exhibition will be one of the museum's large-scale installations, taking over the fourth-floor gallery. The museum's online calendar will serve as the main hub for ticketing details and program announcements as the opening approaches.
Curatorship And Origins
Cinelandia is organized by Academy Museum associate curator Sophia Serrano, with assistant curator Emily Rauber Rodriguez and curatorial assistant Josue Lopez. Serrano told the L.A. Times that the concept first surfaced in conversations in 2019, with formal work on the show beginning in late 2022. She said the exhibition grows out of earlier Getty Foundation Pacific Standard Time research and programming, a lineage the museum hopes will help deepen ties with local audiences.
What Will Be On View
La Opinión reports that the exhibition will bring together hundreds of original and rarely seen items, including costumes, props, posters and photographs, alongside films that have shaped Mexican and Mexican American cinematic life. Titles expected to be featured include Coco, The Book of Life, the 1931 Spanish-language Dracula, La Bamba, Zoot Suit, and Gregory Nava’s El Norte, My Family/Mi Familia and Selena. Curators say the range of work is meant to highlight how cinema has operated as cultural expression, resistance and community-building across multiple generations.
Advisory Panel And Community Focus
The project has been shaped with input from a 12-person advisory panel that includes Lalo Alcaraz, Gregory Nava, Rita Gonzalez, Jorge R. Gutiérrez and Cristina Ibarra, among others, as noted by the L.A. Times. Serrano told the paper that a key part of the mission is to connect with Los Angeles' large Latino population while also confronting difficult histories of stereotyping and underrepresentation on screen. Museum leaders add that Cinelandia is being designed to offer entry points for visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
Support And Programs
The museum's announcement notes that Cinelandia is receiving major support from Bank of America, with additional backing from the Eva Longoria Foundation, Regal and AltaMed, among others. The Academy Museum's social media announcement also points to a slate of related public programs, screenings and educational initiatives, with full programming and ticket information to be released closer to the opening date. For updates, the museum is directing followers to its Academy Museum channels. Community partners are expected to help shape the events that will orbit the exhibition.
A Big Showing For Mexican American Film
Cinelandia is being billed as one of the largest institutional surveys of Mexican and Mexican American cinema on Los Angeles soil in recent years, and museum staff say they hope it will spark citywide conversations about creativity, identity and representation. The show is slated to open in late September 2027 and run through July 2028, with partners and program dates to be announced in the months ahead, according to the Academy Museum. For now, the announcement signals that local film history and contemporary Mexican American storytelling are getting a prominent slot on the mainstream museum calendar, right in Hollywood's own backyard.
