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With Mexico’s “On the Road” (“En el camino”) by David Pablos snagging both the Venice Film Festival’s Queer Lion and Horizons awards last year, Latin American queer cinema has never shown more promise. The Berlinale’s
Teddy Award has also gone to Latino LGBTQ+ films in the past, the most notable being “Retablo” from Peru and “The Heiresses” from Paraguay.
In recognition of their robust potential and need for more support, Sanfic Industria, the industry section of the Santiago Film Festival (Sanfic), launched the Queer Incubator in 2025.
That year, Sanfic Industria forged a bond with the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) and its Premio MagueyLGBTQ+ sidebar during its awards ceremony when Guadalajara festival director Estrella Araiza extended accreditation and accommodations to selected projects at FICG in April.
According to Sanfic Industria director Gabriela Sandoval, this was the first gesture of collaboration, paving the way to deepen the partnership and transform the upcoming second edition into a joint mentorship and support process, with in-person activities taking place in both Santiago and Guadalajara.
After this year’s FICG and Premio Maguey had concluded, they began discussing how to create a lab between both organizations, with two stages: the first at Sanfic Industria this November and the second culminating in an award at FICG and Premios Maguey in 2027, she told Variety.
“This second edition represents a very important step forward for the Queer Incubator. Our partnership with the Guadalajara International Film Festival and Premio Maguey allows us to build a mentorship process that begins in Santiago and continues in Guadalajara, connecting the projects with two key spaces within the Latin American film industry.”
She added: “For us, it is essential to create more spaces for the development, visibility and circulation of queer stories, and for the people who create them to be able to strengthen their projects, expand their networks and access new opportunities within the industry. We need a Latin American cinema in which different identities, experiences and ways of seeing the world can coexist.”
“We are living through uncertain political times, and we, as part of the Guadalajara International Film Festival and Premio Maguey, need to continue defending the most vulnerable communities. Taking part in this initiative is precisely about that: ensuring that more queer films continue to exist,” said Araiza.
Sandoval concurred: “We want the Incubator to be a safe space for developing these new perspectives, but also a concrete platform where these stories and their filmmakers can find partners, markets, festivals and audiences, both in Latin America and around the world.”
The Queer Incubator Santiago–Guadalajara will accept six Latin American fiction projects in the script development phase with their corresponding pitch decks.
Projects must be led by LGBTQ+ directors and screenwriters, or by professionals whose dissident gender identities and expressions inform their creative perspectives. It’s open to projects and professionals from or based in Latin America.
The first in-person stage will be held in Santiago, Chile from November 2–6, 2026 as part of Sanfic Industria. This is followed by the second in-person stage in Guadalajara, Mexico on March 6–13, 2027 as part of Premio Maguey and the Guadalajara International Film Festival.
Group and one-on-one mentorship sessions with international professionals are held in person in Santiago and Guadalajara.
The application deadline is September 16, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. (Santiago de Chile time).
