Latino moments shine on LALIFF opening night red carpet

This year’s opening night of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) was truly unforgettable, as Latino talent lit up the red carpet for the premiere of “ASCO: Without Permission” at Hollywood’s iconic TCL Chinese Theatre.

The festival’s mission is to celebrate and elevate Latino voices by showcasing their creativity, culture, and stories, with more than 90 films screened from May 28 to June 1.

Boyle Heights native artist Robert Vargas, known for his striking portraits and large-scale public murals and most recently, his tributes to Fernando Valenzuela in Boyle Heights and Shohei Ohtani in Koreatown, continues to make a powerful impact through his vibrant and culturally resonant artwork.

During opening night, Vargas captivated the crowd with a live painting that he completed in under two hours. The mural burst with vibrant colors of blue, yellow and pink, creating a striking backdrop. 

At the heart of the canvas were three faces, each gazing in a different direction: one to the left, one to the right and one looking straight ahead, directly toward the red carpet. Every attendee was amazed by his work, which celebrates culture, community and identity. His process for creating the live mural was even showcased inside the theater after the red carpet ended.

Some of the special guests who made their way to the premiere of the first festival film were Julio Macias, Annie Gonzalez, Ben De Jesus, Aida Rodriguez, Harry Gamboa Jr. and Cinthia Carmona, along with several other actors, actresses, producers and directors in the industry.

CALÓ News spoke with Diana Cadavid, the artistic director of LALIFF, who reflected on the festival’s evolution over the past 20 years. Cadavid noted that in its early days, the festival primarily focused on bringing together Latino films and talent, with the core goal of simply creating space for the Latino community. 

As the festival grew, so did the voice and presence of the U.S. Latino filmmakers, shaping LALIFF into a bigger platform that now highlights the depth and diversity of Latino storytelling. Cadavid also shared with us that the festival is currently doing something new.

“We have this very important focus on the talent of U.S. Latino filmmakers, and we've seen how Latino voices focus on growing to be more exciting, more unique, more experimental and more committed every year, so I think that the main difference between the first iteration of the festival and now it's that now we keep on being able to be a platform for the U.S. team, which is something that we need,” she said.

Margo Perez, also known as “Margo Social,” also made his appearance that night, representing the Latino LGBTQ+ community. He told CALÓ News that he was really excited to see his community on the screen.

“The LGBTQ+ community is being represented tonight, so definitely I'm excited about that. Being a gay Latino content creator just gives me hope knowing that we've been represented finally in this industry,” Perez said. He also shared his excitement about celebrating both Pride and his birthday in the same special month, making it a particularly meaningful time for him.

Digital creator Areli Madrigal was another special guest at the red carpet who spoke to us about the importance of Latino support in the film industry. “I think that for so long we have been behind the scenes and kind of tucked away, so I think showing support for one another—I mean, that's the ultimate, ultimate way that we can expand and grow,” Madrigal said.

CALÓ News was also able to get an exclusive interview with “On My Block” actor Julio Macias, who shared an update on his TikTok journey, as he had recently joined the platform and was enjoying the new experience.

“I love comedy and I feel like anytime I post anything funny on Instagram, it sort of just goes. So I thought TikTok would be a good [way] to represent more Latinos. I feel that we're on the right path, but I feel like we can do a little bit better. Definitely having film festivals like this, I feel like we're going in the right path,” Macias said.