SAN ANTONIO — The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center will hold the 47th CineFestival San Antonio from July 9 to 12 at the Carver Community Cultural Center, featuring documentaries, feature films and short films that highlight Chicanx, Latinx and Latin American stories.
The festival lineup includes film premieres, competitions and showcases featuring filmmakers from Texas, the United States and Latin America.
Festival passes cost $40 and provide access to all screenings. Organizers will also offer individual tickets and free admission to more than half of the screenings, although attendees must reserve free tickets in advance.
The festival will open on July 9 with the San Antonio premiere of MEXICANAMERICAN. Director Eddie Sanchez explores his family’s immigration story through present-day interviews and home videos exchanged between the United States and Mexico. The documentary received the Audience Award at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.
The festival will close on July 12 with the premiere of American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez. Texas filmmaker David Alvarado examines the life and career of playwright, filmmaker and Chicano arts pioneer Luis Valdez, whose works include Zoot Suit and La Bamba. The documentary received the Audience Award at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
The lineup also includes Let the City Speak, which follows Grammy Award-winning Chicano rock band Quetzal and its decades of music and activism; Los Tejanos: A 500-Year History, which examines the history and contributions of Tejano communities in South Texas; Soul Searchin’, which explores Black and Chicano soul record collectors; and Who’s the Real Spanish Fly?, which focuses on Latin freestyle and hip-hop culture in Texas.
The festival will also spotlight Texas filmmakers through the Mesquite Awards competition, which features five documentaries and 13 short films. Artists created eight of the short films in San Antonio.
The Vistas de San Antonio program will screen 22 locally produced short films and the feature film Back on Road. David Johnathan Pequeno directed the feature.
CineFestival will also present a Texas Showcase featuring short films from across the state, a collection of short films from Latinx and Chicanx filmmakers across the United States, an international shorts program and a Youth Films section featuring works from filmmakers ages 18 and younger in San Antonio and other parts of Texas.
