NewFilmmakers Los Angeles Teams Up With Argentina's Mar del Plata Film Festival
Eight short films by alumni of NewFilmmakers Los Angeles will screen at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina this November. The two organisations announced the partnership as their first, according to Deadline.
The films will appear in a special showcase on 8 November. It sits outside the festival's competition, so the films are not in the running for prizes. Each screening is paired with a question-and-answer session with the filmmakers, giving audiences a chance to talk to the people behind the work.
The lineup spans several countries. Brazilian director Rafaella Buzzi's The Almost Adults runs 23 minutes, according to the festival's official programme. Mexican writer, director and producer Alan Maldonado brings Lobo: Christmas Special. Venezuelan screenwriter and filmmaker Bettina López Mendoza's Más Allá follows a young girl crossing the Darién Gap, the jungle stretch between Colombia and Panama. Jahmil Eady's Haint is a folk horror film.
Others on the programme include Musings by Rodrigo Carvalhedo, Earboy by Yohahn Ko and Is It Like, A Date?!? by Eliana Pipes. Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz's When Big People Lie premiered at the Telluride festival in the United States. It also won Best Short Film Drama at NFMLA's Annual Awards.
The agreement was signed by Larry Laboe, NFMLA's executive director, and Carlos Luis Pirovano, president of the Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales, known as INCAA, Argentina's national film agency. INCAA's international affairs and film commission manager, Diego Marambio Avaria, supported the deal. Laboe had already visited the festival, serving as a jury member at its 2025 edition.
The creative and curatorial framework was developed by the festival's co-artistic directors, Gabriel Lerman and Jorge Stamariano. The programme is part of the festival's 41st edition.
NFMLA will also take part in an industry panel on how festivals, markets and creative organisations can help emerging storytellers build lasting careers. Short films often reach their first buyers, sales agents and collaborators at events like these. The panel gives that idea a public place to be discussed.
For filmmakers on the alumni list, the November screenings mean a South American audience and a direct line to a major festival in a different country. For the festival, the partnership adds a new route for work from Los Angeles to reach its audience.
