The Good Boy
About the Film
After learning that an innocent dog will be entered into a dog fighting ring to win prize money for his ailing mother, 8-year-old Isaac realizes he doesn’t want to hurt the animal but will betray his family if he sets it free.
Director: Esmeralda Hernandez
Producers: Lizette Barrera, Vanessa Lerma, Priscilla Gutierrez
United States // 2025 // Drama // Los Shorts
10 minutes
About the Filmmaker
Esmeralda Hernandez is a Tejana filmmaker from San Antonio, Texas. Her work explores the American experience and other worlds through the lens of Latina protagonists and underrepresented voices. She graduated from the film program at UT Austin in 2019. Her previous film Dream Carriers premiered at the 2022 San Francisco International Film Festival, won the Texas Archive Moving Image jury prize for Best Hecho en Tejas Film at Cine Las Americas International Film Festival and was a 2023 PBS short film selection. She was a 2022 recipient of the inaugural Eddie Bauer Film Grant, a 2024 fellow of Hola Mexico’s Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today and a 2025 awardee of the San Antonio Artist Grant. Her current short film, The Good Boy premiered in May, taking home the audience award for Best Hecho en Tejas short film at Cine Las Americas and received the Premio Mesquite Award at the nation’s longest running Latino film festival, Cine Festival.
