Bronx World Film Cycle has been our flagship event since we launched in the winter of 2011 at La Nacional on West 14th Street in Manhattan. Hailed as “a place for young filmmakers” by Univisión, the eclectic, curated bill offers cinema in all genres from all over the globe, including world, US and New York City premieres alongside a programme of visual arts, performance and music.
Bronx World Film Cycle, champion and ally of art house filmmakers everywhere, has to date screened over 450 films by 360 directors from 90 countries, a great majority of them young filmmakers and close to half of them women directors.
Bronx World Film Cycle is the pioneer platform in the United States for Central American art house film and other disciplines, honoring the roots of its founder. Early cycle screenings evoked a Central American coastal village fair, and to this day preserve the camaraderie that keeps audience members long after they have seen the film(s) they came to see. Naturally, it also champions local filmmakers, of which there are many who simply don’t have opportunities to screen in their home borough.
It operates year-round so as to provide the work of these worthy artists the extended life that so often eludes their films once they exhaust the festival circuit.
The Summer version of the Cycle, launched in 2017, brings our unique programming strong on fantasy, sci-fi, animation, dance films, documentaries and lighter genres suitable for all ages and walks of life to parks and community spaces borough-wide, both indoors and outdoors. This programme actually had its earliest glimmers in 2012 when it brought film programming to nursing homes, parks, synagogues and other venues. The Summer Cycle bring films relevant to each community it visits based on local history, demographics and knowledge gathered on the ground as well.
(Bronx World Film Cycle) Testing Inflatable Screen
(Bronx World Film Cycle) CROTONA PARK
(Bronx World Film Cycle) CITY ISLAND/AMBROSINI FIELD
(Bronx World Film Cycle) HUNTS POINT/RIVERSIDE PARK
(Bronx World Film Cycle) LINCOLN MEDICAL CENTER.
Bronx World Film Cycle (LINCOLN MEDICAL CENTER.
(Bronx World Film Cycle) LOVINGER THEATER, LEHMAN COLLEGE
(Bronx World Film Cycle) CROTONA PARK
New York, New York. February 4, 2025. – This February 25th, La Nacional on West 14th Street in Manhattan comes alive with “A Night at La Nacional,” an event drawing on the great tradition of downtown venues with a diverse programme of arthouse film, visual arts, performance, music and more, designed for filmmakers and artists of all disciplines to share their work, forge partnerships for new opportunities, and build community.
“A Night at La Nacional” springs from a partnership begun in 2011 between La Nacional (Spanish Benevolent Society) and Bronx World Film, the borough’s pioneer arthouse film presenter, which has held its flagship Cycle event there every year since. This partnership has provided a strategic platform for over 450 films from all over the world in all genres, many by young directors, women and people of color. It has allowed Bronx World Film to champion Bronx filmmakers and communities and establish itself as pioneeer promoter in the US of Central America’s emerging cinema. Through this event we aim to strengthen the partnership, which makes a unique contribution to the city’s arthouse film landscape.
“A Night at La Nacional” takes place at the stately walkup with the distinctive red door north side of West 14th between 7th and 8th, in the second-floor gallery, which doubles as a second dining area for the contemporary Spanish restaurant on the ground floor and as host for a range of arts events, notably flamenco and tango classes. Founded in 1868, La Nacional is one of the city’s oldest non-profits, a remnant of Manhattan’s “Little Spain” and a lifelong pillar of its community. Latin American performers cherish it for its longstanding open-door policy.
“A Night at La Nacional” is a miniature version of our flagship Bronx World Film Cycle, a rich multidimensional experience that we hope will draw new audiences and patrons to our most worthy host, institution deserving of all our support so that it can continue to serve our communities for another bustling, vital 150 years and more in New York City.
Bronx Premiere of Il Moro a Red-Letter Date for Art House Film in The Bronx [Nov. 2022]
…And Shadows Danced Again on the Riverbank: Bronx World Film Returns to Programming [Sept. 2022]
That Flickering Quicksilver Glow: Bronx World Film Pioneers Summer Art Film Series in The Bronx [Aug. 2018]
The Power of Women Directors in the Year of #Metoo [Feb. 2018]
Art House Film Lovers’ Paradise Grows at One Of Manhattan’s Oldest Community Organizations [Feb. 2016]
Full collection of Flickr galleries documenting past events in both the Winter and the Summer Cycles, including poster images, group photos, visual arts, crafts, performances, gastronomic presentations and more.
Browse our catalogue in all its diversity, with entries and poster images for every film we have screened. To date that numbers 463 films by 360 directors from 100 different countries, a great majority young filmmakers and filmmakers of color, and almost half of them women.