Every year The Black List spotlights Hollywood’s top unproduced scripts — and now it will be doing the same with screenplays telling Latinx stories. Per IndieWire, The Black List has introduced The Latinx List, “a curated list of promising screenplays written by Latinx writers that explore the Latinx experience.”
The Black List created The Latinx List with The Latin Tracking Board, Mijente, NALIP, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Remezcla, and UnidosUS. The inaugural list is comprised of 10 scripts penned by at least one Latinx scribe and featuring a Latinx or Latin American character in a prominent role. The titles were sourced from The Black List’s website or were nominated by the partner organizations.
“The last two years have cast many of the consequences of a movie industry that doesn’t look like the country or the world into sharp relief,” said Black List founder Franklin Leonard. “The scripts on the Latinx List are remarkable opportunities to tell great stories and do good business in the process. I look forward to seeing them on-screen.”
“As Latinx people, we know there are many ways where some of us and parts of all of us are overlooked, excluded and pushed out of our country’s historical, cultural, and artistic narratives,” explained Marisa Franco of Mijente. “We were eager and honored to participate in building the Latinx List as a way to advocate for our communities’ stories.”
Four of the first Latinx List’s scripts were written by women. Barbara Cigarroa’s “The Other Side” explores the child migration crisis from the perspective of a Mexican American girl whose father sponsors undocumented minors for money. Written by Francesca Sloane, the 90s-set “Headbangers” sees a racist teen moving to an all Black and Chicano neighborhood. Maria Victoria Ponce’s “Washing Elena” follows a woman trying to solve the mystery of her best friend’s death, while contending with that friend’s unexpected conversion to Islam. In “Luna Likes,” by Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan, a dramatic Mexicana teen decides to become a famous chef/travel documentarian like Anthony Bourdain, which is complicated by the fact that she and her family are undocumented.
Head over to IndieWire to check out all the scripts that made the inaugural Latinx List.