Tercera edición de “CineConexión”, el Foro de Co-Producción en línea Europa-Caribe
CineConexión es una iniciativa del espacio industria (Foro Industria) del Festival de Cine Europeo de Puerto Rico (FCEPR), evento anual organizado por la Alliance Française de Puerto Rico. Este foro tiene como objetivo estimular las relaciones cinematográficas entre el sector cinematográfico de Europa, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana y el Caribe.
A continuación se presentan los 7 proyectos de películas puertorriqueñas y dominicanas en desarrollo que han sido seleccionados para participar en esta tercera edición de CineConexión, que se celebrará entre las 10:00AM y 11:30AM (AST - Hora de Puerto Rico) del 10 de noviembre de 2025. Cada proyecto tendrá 10 minutos para hacer su “pitch” e intercambiar ante el panel de productores y profesionales del cine invitados.
El FCEPR invita a productores, distribuidores y profesionales del cine europeo e internacional, interesados en descubrir estos proyectos únicos, que brindan una ventana a las historias y dinamismo del cine del Caribe.
Todos los profesionales del cine interesados en asistir a los pitching virtuales y en conectar con estos proyectos tienen que registrarse de forma gratuita al link siguiente :
PROYECTOS SELECCIONADOS
El FCEPR se enorgullece de presentar tanto a productores y profesionales del cine europeo, como a los seguidores del FCEPR, los siguientes siete proyectos cinematográficos puertorriqueños y dominicanos en fase de desarrollo.
Cada una de estas propuestas, seleccionadas en la convocatoria abierta de CineConexión en septiembre de 2025, refleja la diversidad y la originalidad de las voces caribeñas.
NOTA: La información que aquí se publica de los proyectos seleccionados se presenta sólo en lengua inglesa. En esta actividad, el inglés será el idioma usado para la comunicación con los profesionales internacionales, como en los pitchings y encuentros online programados.
CAFE ESPERANZA
de Jorge Reyes Reyes
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Sofía stumbles into Café Esperanza on a rainy night. At dawn, Alma feeds her and quietly reveals the café’s purpose: a coded ritual—chalk marks, a bell, a back door—that means protection when institutions fail. That same day, a mother orders the “Special,” code for help. The team flips from shelter to action: gather minimal intel, move discreetly, and attempt a contained rescue at a mountain safe house. The town’s unspoken power pushes back—cars idling with lights off, uniforms looking away, forms that never get signed. As Sofía learns the rhythm and stakes of the ritual, trust is tested and the café absorbs hits but refuses to close. In a final, focused operation, the women free the girls and force accountability. Afterward, the community rebuilds a stronger Café Esperanza, proving that where hope begins, fear loses ground.
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Género: Neo Western
Duración: 90 min
Nacionalidad(es): Puerto Rico
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Jorge N. Reyes Reyes (Bayamón, Puerto Rico) is a filmmaker and cinema professional with 20+ years in the industry. He has worked across short-form and independent projects and spent many years as a film projectionist in local theaters, gaining a practical understanding of audiences and exhibition. He currently serves on the board of the Puerto Rico Film Festival, helping open distribution pathways for Puerto Rican films in local and international markets. Influences include Ridley Scott, Antoine Fuqua, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and Benicio del Toro. Café Esperanza will be his first feature project.
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Stephanie M. Blondet Baco
CRISTALES ROTOS
de Fernanda G. Estrada
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After three years living in another country, Sofía returns to Puerto Rico convinced that she will be able to reconnect with her family and reclaim the life she left behind. But the island that welcomes her is no longer the same: the streets of her childhood have changed and her ties feel distant. Upon her return, her recollections, fragmented like broken glass, no longer reflect reality. The country she knew no longer exists, and with it, her certainty of who she is and where she belongs crumbles.
Between the familiar and the strange, Sofía wanders through a space where time has continued without waiting for her. Caught between nostalgia and strangeness, she discovers that it is not only Puerto Rico that has changed. In this rupture, she begins a painful search to find if there is still a place she can call her own.
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Género: Drama
Duración: 90min
Nacionalidad(es): Puerto Rico, Spain, México
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Mexican director, screenwriter, and producer, she holds a master's degree in Film Directing from the Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC), where in her second year she received a 100% scholarship to pursue a second master's degree in Film Editing.
She is currently in post-production on her next project, Los días que no se hablan (The Days We Don’t Talk About), whose screenplay won IMCINE's 2024 Nárralo en Primera Persona national screenplay competition and received support from FOCINE Production 2025 from IMCINE .
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Arianis Rodríguez Torres
LO QUE NO SE DICE
de Rolando Gil
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Lo que no se dice follows five days in the life of a seemingly functional young man—loved by his family, intelligent, sensitive—who quietly prepares his farewell. We watch him walk his dogs, laugh with his sister, reply to messages, reheat leftovers. Everything looks ordinary, but his voice tells another story. It is not a diary in real time but a posthumous confession, spoken from beyond. For the first time, he shares what he never dared to say: his hidden anxiety, fading faith, disconnection, and need to be seen without explanation. The film is not about dying—it is about what remains unsaid just before. Through silence, minimalism, and natural light, the story invites us to look beyond appearances and confront the gap between what we see and what others carry alone. A fragile, poetic reflection on absence, memory, and the invisible weight of silence.
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Género: Drama
Duración: 90 minutes
Nationaly(ies): Puerto Rico
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Rolando Gil is a Puerto Rican director and screenwriter from Arecibo, Puerto Rico. His passion for cinema was born across from the Santana drive-in theater, where childhood nights filled with films shaped his imagination. Initially pursuing Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, he later moved to North Carolina to study directing and screenwriting.
His early short films gained international recognition: Filius won awards at several festivals worldwide, including screenings in India, while Stop Asking for Permission was produced at Kodak’s invitation to highlight film format. In 2018, he was selected among more than 3,000 applicants for Werner Herzog’s renowned directing workshop in the Peruvian Amazon, an experience that profoundly influenced his artistic vision.
His debut feature, Ma, Despierta, filmed in his hometown of Arecibo, held its market screening at the Venice Production Bridge in 2025, positioning his voice in the international arthouse circuit.
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Javier Perez
RECARGA
de Heixan Robles
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In a post-civil war Puerto Rico, survival depends on the ability to work. The disabled, without access to social services, must pay to operate a robot called “Carcasa” that allows them to work from home.
The protagonist, is a young quadriplegic man who uses his robot to work as a busboy, but suffers the constant fear of being expelled from the system. One day, he meets a robot colleague, a new employee. Their connection deepens and soon they fall in love. They meet in the restaurant sneaking after hours, sacrificing the "recharging" time of their robots to be together.
Tragedy strikes when she gets fired for running out of charge in the middle of work. Unable to pay her robot lease, her robot deactivates and she disappears. Desperate, to finde her, he steals the robot by running away without a care of his left over battery. He now has to find her and see each other for the first time and take her home, before the collection agents catch them or the battery runs out.
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Género: Sci Fi Romantic adventure
Duracion: 96 min
Nationality(ies): Puerto Rico
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Heixan is a cinematographer turned director based un San Juan, Puerto Rico. Began his carrer in theater switching to film while studying for his various filmmaking and cinematography certificates in Puerto Rico’s CCAT, NYU and Academy of Arts University.
Today with twenty years of experience, has shot over thirty movies, and counting. Directed two movies, and counting. Has been awarded several awards including two EMMY’s.
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Gretza Merced Cruz
SMOKING FLOWERS
de Ines Fathima Asmal Vidal
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Dionysus, a bohemian musician with self-destructive tendencies, and Arabella, an eccentric young woman, meet in a city where art and surreal chaos coexist (dreamlike scenes with animated stained glass, puppets, steampunk figures, and 1901 Picasso’s Seated Harlequin who symbolizes Dionysus’s alter ego). Their connection was immediate, with a magnetism that defied reason. The story follows their intense romance. However, when Dionysus’s fame arrives, his addictions worsen, fracturing the relationship.
Fate plays its final hand: On the night of Dionysus biggest concert, Arabella performs as an aerial dancer with a circus she has joined. A missed twist sends her to her death. Dionysus feels it. Her loss shatters but awakens him. The script explores art, serendipity, human fragility, and the dichotomy between chaos and order, all wrapped in a visual style influenced by surrealism with winks at Hesse, Cortázar, Wilde, and a soundtrack blending alternative rock with classic hits.
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Género: Romantic Drama , Surrealism
Duración: 80min
Nationality(ies): Dominican
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Inés Fathima Asmal Vidal was born in South Africa on September 21, 2000. At the age of 9, she emigrated with her mother to the Dominican Republic, where she settled. In 2020, she decided to pursue a degree in film, a passion she had nurtured since childhood, and applied to the prestigious art school Chavón, The School of Design, where she was admitted into the institution’s scholarship program.
Inés Asmal is currently a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the renowned art school.
Filmography: En Mi Vecindario (2020), Inshallah (2020), Carta a Jean Paul Jeunet (2021), Allá en el Fondo (2021), La Carta (2021), Simunye (2021), Danse Pour La Lune (2021), Ancestros (2022).
Festivals: Selected for participation in the MACS Film Festival with the short film En Mi Vecindario.
Publications: “Alberto as the Yoruba Deity Oshosi” – Investigative essay on the main character of the film Cocote. (Revista del Instituto Bono, Vol. 43 No. 161, 2020)
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Mia Jazmin Vidal Corominas
YARA: BETWEEN FLOWERS AND FRAGMENTS
de Llaima Sanfiorenzo De Orbeta
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In the final days before leaving for Berlin, Yara, a determined young Puerto Rican woman, navigates her bustling island life with purpose, finishing her last shift as a legal assistant, delivering flower orders, and attending German classes with friends. Every moment pulses with anticipation: she’s heading to Europe on a film student exchange.
But Berlin is not what she imagined. Her financial aid is cancelled due to a bureaucratic error. With no housing and little money, officials tell her to return home. Yara refuses. Alone and resolute, she fights to carve out a space in a city that feels indifferent and unforgiving.
Seven encounters shape her journey: a withdrawn roommate, strict housemates, strangers at parks and chaotic parties. Through conflict, miscommunication, and fleeting kindness, Yara discovers that surviving in a strange world can be wilder, and more illuminating, than any classroom. Yara is a raw, intimate story of resilience, identity, and the courage to keep moving forward.
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Género: Documentary
Duracion: 63 minutes
Nationality(ies): Puerto Rico (USA), Germany
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Llaima Sanfiorenzo, Executive Producer, Writer, and Director, is a Puerto Rican filmmaker trained in Audiovisual Arts and Film Direction. Her work has received international recognition, winning major awards such as Best Documentary Short and Best Short at PRFF 2024, Best Short and Best Documentary Short at the Isla Verde Festival in Cuba, including the Special Jury Prize for Environmental Conservation. As well as Best Short at the Vieques International Human Rights Festival, and official selection in Atlanta Film Festival, 2024 and NATOURALE, Germany 2024. Rome and Sicily, 2024 non competitive film showcase.
Her films are characterized by an intimate and poetic approach, delving into themes of identity, migration, and personal experiences through a documentary and narrative lens. She has directed award-winning shorts and documentaries, noted for their visual sensitivity and self-referential storytelling. Currently, she is developing her first feature film, inspired by her own life and the complexities of contemporary migratory experiences. Alongside her creative work, she engages in teaching and audiovisual research, positioning herself as an emerging voice in contemporary Latin American and Puerto Rican cinema.
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Johannes Peters
UN ALTAR PARA MI AMIGO
de Karen Rossi
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Rodrigo, always curious and with a notebook at hand, was skilled at making us burst out laughing, until during the pandemic he began to express a terrible fear of his inner demons. His drawings, poems, paintings, and self-portraits reveal the depth of his light and shadow sides. He describes in detail the pain of not recognizing himself, of not fulfilling his desired spiritual awakening. The internal battle is unsustainable, and a month before turning 20, Rodrigo takes his life. Now his mother, Camille, siblings and peers find ways to keep Rodrigo’s art alive. His older brother, Sebastian, is in denial. He supports his mom’s efforts as best he can. She finds comfort in producing exhibitions where she displays Rodrigo’s multitude of works. In his texts, where others find answers and solace, Sebastián crashes with guilt. Rodrigo’s friends search for clues to understand his tragic decision. Art is bitter medicine that confronts them with Rodrigo's pain, but can also set them free. They write songs, paint murals, and skateboard in the park by the sea where they used to perform tricks with Rodrigo. As family and friends come together in shared grief, each must find their own way to accept Rodrigo’s heartbraking choice.
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Género: Documentary
Duracion: 88 min
Nationality(ies): Puerto Rico
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Karen Rossi (Puerto Rico, 1974) is a two-time Emmy-winning producer and director. Her credits include feature-length documentaries Ser Grande (When I Grow Up, 2018) and Isla Chatarra (Scrap Island, 2007). The first edition of DocTV Iberoamérica sponsored the latter. She produced the series of shorts "It’s Your Right. Defend it” (2014) to raise awareness for Human Rights. More recent productions include “La Memoria de las Cosas” (The Memory of Things, 2024); “A Houseful of Gratitude” (2023); and “Machuchaleras” (2020). Karen has also produced several public impact campaigns to go with her films, many of which are available, along with film forum guides, on her production company’s website: www.aurora-docs.com. She is a founding member of the Puerto Rico Association of Documentary Filmmakers (AdocPR).
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Krizia Belén Monserrate