Anike L. Tourse’s feature debut made a major splash at the 25th annual Dances with Films festival in LA. “America’s Family,” a drama that depicts a family in crisis after their home is raided by ICE on Thanksgiving, landed the fest’s Grand Jury Award for Features and the Audience Award for Competition Features.

Penned by Tourse, “America’s Family” centers on the Diaz family. Following the raid, mother Marisol (Tourse) is put in detention, son Koke (Ricardo Cisneros) is being deported, and father Jorge (Mauricio Mendoza) flees “for protective sanctuary. Marisol and Jorge’s two American-born children—young attorney Emiliano (Emmanuel López Alonso) and his disabled teen sister Valentina (Jailene Arias)—then scramble to reunite the family as their parents and brother fight to get home,” the source summarizes.

Tourse’s first short, 2017’s “America; I Too,” told the story of three arrested and detained undocumented immigrants who are fighting to avoid deportation.