Cine Las Americas

Cine Las Americas is a multi-cultural, 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Austin Texas. The mission of Cine Las Americas is to promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging diverse audiences through film and media arts. CLA began in 1997 as a Cuban film retrospective presented at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas. The success of the first festival proved that there was an audience for these under-represented voices. Over the past 19 years, Cine Las Americas has offered artistic excellence and diversity in film programming and exhibition, presenting more than 1,600 films at the Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, and at year-round screenings in Austin, TX. These programs feature world, national and local premieres, as well as retrospectives and repertoire screenings of films from over 40 different countries and a vast number of indigenous cultures from all over the Americas. In the past two years, Cine Las Americas has screened an average of 150 films a year. Free screenings for the community have always played an important role in our mission. Almost 30% of the year-round and festival screenings are free and open to the public, giving Cine Las Americas a unique educational value and important role in our community. In 2004, Cine Las Americas started the Emergencia Youth Film Competition, a special section of the festival showcasing works by filmmakers 19 years or younger. Members of local youth film organizations and high schools curate and present this section of the festival every year, which has presented 143 films in ten years. Since 2005, Cine Las Americas has hosted Hecho en Tejas, a special programming section dedicated to Latino and indigenous filmmakers working in Texas. To this day, Hecho en Tejas has screened 15 feature films and 36 short films, including 12 world premieres.