More than 125 films from nearly 20 countries will screen across New York City from September 15 to September 20 as the New York Latino Film Festival returns for Hispanic Heritage Month, opening with a Tyler Perry-produced movie musical at Regal Union Square and featuring a spotlight premiere inside Washington Heights' historic United Palace on September 19 before culminating with a free community block party on September 20.
The festival opens September 15 with Otra, a movie musical directed by Armani Ortiz and produced by Tyler Perry, according to NBC New York. The film, shot in a single continuous take, follows Javier, who dies in a car crash and, regretting that he never found true love, attempts to win back the girlfriend who once rejected his proposal by revisiting three moments from their past relationship. Its soundtrack features music from Bad Bunny, Ozuna, Rauw Alejandro, Rosalía and Marc Anthony.
Four days later, on September 19, the festival's spotlight screening shifts uptown to the United Palace for the premiere of Milly: Queen of Merengue, a biopic telling the story of Dominican singer Milly Quezada. The choice of venue carries its own weight: the United Palace is Manhattan's fourth-largest theater, seating 3,350 people, and it opened in 1930 as a Loew's Wonder Theatre before becoming an official New York City landmark in 2016, per GlobeNewswire.
A Merengue Queen's Ties to Washington Heights
The setting is fitting given Quezada's own history in the neighborhood. GlobeNewswire's release notes that Washington Heights is the neighborhood where Quezada grew up after moving to New York. Per Wikipedia, the singer emigrated to Washington Heights as a youth, graduated from City College of New York in 1981, and went on to become a four-time Latin Grammy Award winner celebrated as the Queen of Merengue after first rising to fame fronting the group Milly, Jocelyn & Los Vecinos in New York during the 1970s. NBC New York describes her simply as a great Dominican singer and multi-Grammy Award winner.
Beyond the two spotlight films, the 2026 slate also includes a screening of Angelina Jolie's feature drama Without Blood, starring Salma Hayek Pinault and Demián Bichir, an international adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novel exploring war and trauma, according to GlobeNewswire. The lineup underscores how far the festival's ambitions have grown since its founding.
From a Bronx Native's Idea to a Major Media-Backed Festival
The New York Latino Film Festival was founded in 1999 by Bronx native Calixto Chinchilla in collaboration with HBO, according to GlobeNewswire's release. That founding partnership has evolved considerably: Warner Bros. Discovery now serves as presenting sponsor for the 2026 edition, alongside corporate partners Comcast NBCUniversal, Telemundo, Regal Cinemas and Audible, per the same release. NBC New York notes that Comcast NBCUniversal is its own parent company and that Telemundo is its sister company, disclosures tied to the outlet's corporate sponsorship of the festival.
The festival's footprint extends well beyond traditional theater screenings this year. Alongside the film slate, organizers are running the FUTURO Digital Conference for emerging web and digital creators, which wraps with a free community block party at Quisqueya Plaza in Inwood, as reported by TheWrap. Quisqueya Plaza, located at Broadway and Dyckman Street, functions as a cultural gathering hub for Uptown Manhattan, according to the same report.
Why the Festival Still Matters for Representation
The festival's continued growth arrives against a backdrop of persistent underrepresentation in mainstream Hollywood. An investigation of 1,600 top-grossing Hollywood films released between 2007 and 2022 by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that only 4.4% of lead or co-lead roles were filled by Hispanic or Latino actors, according to The Guardian. The same study found that less than 1% of lead roles went to Afro-Latino actors over that 16-year period.
That scarcity stands in contrast to the size of the local audience the festival draws from. U.S. Census Bureau data shows that approximately 2.49 million Hispanic or Latino residents live in New York City, accounting for roughly 28.3% of the city's overall population. A 2026 CUNY Graduate Center analysis of Census Bureau data found that the city's Latino population grew by 12% between 2000 and 2024, while Latino population growth in surrounding suburban counties surged by 42% over the same period, shifting the region's demographic balance even as the city remains the cultural center for events like this one.
The festival's mid-September timing aligns with National Hispanic Heritage Month.
The 2026 opening night at Regal Union Square follows in the footsteps of past NYLFF premieres, including the 2023 festival's opening night screening of Story Ave, held at the same venue on September 19, 2023, and photographed by Theo Wargo, per NBC New York.
