PHLAFF 2026 Recap

Written By Kirsten Senske

It’s been over a month since we closed PHLAFF 2026, and we’re so proud of what we accomplished during our Los Quince season. From the diversity of countries showcased to our memorable closing weekend in Puerto Rico, we're grateful to have shared the joy of PHLAFF's Los Quince season with you. Read on to learn more about the highlights of our fifteenth season!

Our Selections at a Glance

Over six weeks, our team was so excited to represent a wide range of films from around the world. Check out some highlights below!

This season, we featured 188 films from 21 countries, including:

  • Argentina

  • Brazil

  • Canada

  • Chile

  • Colombia

  • Costa Rica

  • Dominican Republic

  • Ecuador

  • El Salvador

  • France

  • Guatemala

  • Honduras

  • Mexico

  • Panama

  • Puerto Rico

  • South Korea

  • Spain

  • United Kingdom

  • United States

  • Uruguay

  • Venezuela

Of these selections, 91% were premieres, including:

  • 11 World Premieres

  • 11 International Premieres

  • 24 USA Premieres

  • 46 East Coast USA Premieres

  • 6 Pennsylvania Premieres

  • 74 Philadelphia Premieres.

In our Los Quince, 33% of selected filmmakers were first-time filmmakers. 

We’re so glad that PHLAFF can be a platform for new and existing creatives alike, and we hope the memories from our 2026 season stay with our filmmakers for a lifetime.

2026 LOLA Awards

Each year, PHLAFF’s LOLA Awards recognize cinematic achievements in filmmaking that bring together the elements that make a great film, including direction, acting, cinematography, scriptwriting, and storytelling. Our theme for our 2026 LOLA Awards was “joy”.

But our Los Quince season celebrated more than joy—it honored the stories of our Latine community from around the world. Whether they sparked laughter, reflection, or more somber moments, we hope these stories helped you find a piece of home. See our LOLA Winners and Honorable Mentions below:

LOLA Award Winners — Los Features

  • As You Like It - Like That! (dir. Isabel Custer, United States/Chile, 2025)

  • ESL: More Than a Language (dir. J. William Barlow, United States, 2026)

  • Libertad (dir. Brenda Avila-Hanna, United States/Mexico, 2025)

  • Safari (dir. Juan Antonio Bisonó, Dominican Republic, 2024)

LOLA Award Honorable Mentions — Los Features

  • Don Abel: The Main Rooster from Yerbabuena, Jalisco, Mexico Against the World (dir. Miguel Baltazar, United States, 2025)

  • Kueka, Memoria Ancestral (dir. María de los Ángeles Peña Fonseca, Venezuela, 2025)

  • Una Chica en la Estación (dir. Cristian Bidone, Argentina, 2026)

LOLA Award Winners — Los Shorts

  • #1 BAD DAD (dir. Natalie Camou, United States, 2024)

  • A Forever Kind Of Thing (dir. Saylid Lopez, United States, 2025)

  • CAKE (dir. Erick Juarez, United States, 2025)

  • En La Quietud De La Noche (dir. Aristides Mantilla, Mexico/United States, 2025)

  • Gloria (dir. Santi Castelo, Argentina, 2025)

  • The Soup (dir. Gabe Castro, United States, 2025)

LOLA Award Honorable Mentions — Los Shorts

  • Noche de talentos (dir. Julie Ann Moreno Arroyo, Puerto Rico, 2025)

  • Finding Pá (dir. Enrique Lebrón, United States, 2025)

  • WHAM! (dir. George Carrillo, United States, 2025)

Our Venues for Los Quince

This season, we returned to familiar venue partners and also collaborated with new spaces.

We returned to Ulises during our first two weeks, making it part of the festival’s neighboring venues alongside Icebox Project Space, which served as our hub during the opening weeks. Keeping programming closer together allowed audiences to easily move between venues and explore a diverse range of offerings. We also celebrated the First Friday of June with an evening of music, featuring Carolina Oliveros, and film at the Barnes Foundation. Our team was also grateful to collaborate with Cherry Street Pier, PhillyCAM, and The Rail Park, where we shared free, public programs with the Philly community. We were also happy to present a collection of programs at Vox Populi and Taller Puertorriqueño.

New to the festival this year were Icebox Project Space, where we held our Opening Weekend Celebration; Termite TV, located within Cherry Street Pier; and Puentes de Salud, where we closed out our in-person programming in Philadelphia. We’re grateful to all of our returning and new venue partners for helping us create a connected festival footprint and another successful season.

In our Los Quince, we also took part in a special programming collaboration in Puerto Rico at La Goyco and La Respuesta, where audiences were able to enjoy and speak with some of the creatives of Mataron A Pedro. These programs not only took place during our closing weekend, but were completely sold out!

Our team is also thrilled to share that, for the first time, the outpouring of love and support for our programming allowed us to extend our run with an encore program on July 6th at La Respuesta. Thank you so much for your support across Philadelphia and beyond for our programs this season!

Collaborators and Collaborative Activations

Our 2026 collaborators created an immersive experience throughout our festival season. Festivalgoers heard from and experienced events and screenings by Kinfolk, GRIOT, 9 Millones, PhillyCAM, and so many more.

We also supported two collaborative activations this season—beyond our festival dates. Our special programming with PhillyCAM, GRIOT 2124, ran every Sunday from June 7th to July 19th. GRIOT 2124 is a project of Tiznando El País, funded by La Alianza de Museos de Puerto Rico, and was a US Premiere after a successful run on Puerto Rican television on Telemundo. The television series, featuring Welmo Romero Joseph, explores Afro-Puerto Rican culture and visual arts through the lens of a future where racism has been eliminated. 

Audiences also explored the world of El Colmado del Futuro at Cherry Street Pier from June 5th to July 26th. Rooted in Dominican and Afro-Caribbean traditions, this installation by Eunice Levis blends projection mapping, motion sensors, soundscapes, and scent to examine how automation and artificial intelligence are reshaping everyday spaces. As visitors move through the experience, the space “glitches” between real and virtual worlds, inviting reflection on the future of connection and culture.

Before the installation closed, El Colmado del Futuro was transformed into La Última Tarde, a short film set in the very world people had been walking through all summer. The filming of the work and the installation's duration were part of Levis’ overarching project, Humanos. Stay tuned for more exciting updates on the project!

What’s Next? PHLAFF 2027 Submissions!

Submissions for PHLAFF 2027 are almost one month away! You can submit your films to be considered for our sixteenth season on FilmFreeway from September 15 - December 15, 2026. ⁠See our extended submissions timeline below:

  • Submissions Open — September 15th, 2026

  • Early Deadline — October 15th, 2026

  • Regular Deadline — November 15th, 2026

  • Late Deadline — December 15th, 2026

Save the date for PHLAFF 2027 — May 30 - July 4, 2027! We can’t wait to share what we have in store for you in the coming months.

Want to stay up to date with all things PHLAFF? Be sure to follow us on social to hear the latest!

Kirsten Senske
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PHLAFF 2026 LOLA Winner Announcement