The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival kicks off May 29, featuring five days of programming that will pay tribute to women filmmakers and below-the-line talent.

New ventures this year include a film market — a curated set of movies that are available to be bought for distribution — and a venue expansion into downtown’s Regal L.A. Live to accompany programming at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Erika Sabel Flores, vice president of programs and innovation at the Latino Film Institute, the nonprofit organization that hosts LALIFF, said a continual goal for the festival is to represent all the contours of what it means to be Latinx.

“You can come to our festival and see yourself no matter who you are,” she said.

This year’s opener is “In the Summers,” a semi-autobiographical drama directed by Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio — her feature debut — that was awarded the U.S. grand jury prize in the dramatic competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The movie follows two sisters throughout various stages of their lives as they navigate summer trips to visit their father in Las Cruces, N. M. The film also marks the feature acting debut of rap musician René Pérez Joglar, better known as Residente.

LALIFF will also host screenings of documentaries “Prodigal Daughter” and “Paper Butterfly,” comedy “Sisters” and popcorn flick “The Unexpecteds.”

The closing film, “Grassland,” is a tense drama that follows a single Latina mother at risk of losing her illegal marijuana business when her son befriends new neighbors. It is set to explore the “failures of the criminal justice system.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. What was the vision for this year’s programming at the festival? What feelings did you want your viewers to come away with?

A. One of the things that was important for us was to really put women at the front. There are just a lot of women that we have been working with through all of our different programs to empower. The other thing that we try to do is highlight the whole breadth of the Latino experience. We understand that better than anyone — that being Latino doesn’t mean that we all have the same thing to say or that we have the same perspective.

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