Founder / Executive Director, New York Latino Film Festival

Calixto Chinchilla is one of the most influential voices in the Latino film and entertainment industry. A thought leader and champion of diversity, he has a long trajectory of leading successful multicultural marketing campaigns, and executing strategies to construct culturally diverse programming, solid content partnerships, strong community programs and persuasive acquisition teams.

In 1999, he founded, in partnership with HBO, the New York Latino Film Festival (NYLFF), the nation’s largest and most important annual gathering of Latino creatives attracting more than 200,000 participants since its inception. The Festival has served as an essential pipeline for Latino and Multicultural artists, in front of and behind the camera, and has premiered the work and supported the careers of John Leguizamo, 50 Cent, Marc Anthony, Gina Rodriguez, Vin Diesel, Kerry Washington and more. In 2017, Calixto founded FUTURO, in partnership with Google, an initiative that connects digital thought leaders, social influencers, and brands through a series of programs. Previous participants include Snow Tha Product, Kai Greene, TravQue, AJ “El Kallejero” Ramos, and Coco and Breezy..to name a few.

Calixto has been recognized as the ‘One to Watch’ by Entrepreneur Magazine, and has spoken  at Columbia University and The City College of New York’s Graduate Center, just to name a few. Born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, Calixto earned a certificate in Marketing from the City University of New York-Hunter College.