SAN ANTONIO — A new documentary about the life and legacy of Selena Quintanilla is set to premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in Utah, 30 years after the iconic Tejano musician was killed.
"Selena y Los Dinos," which promises to showcase "never-before-seen footage from the family's personal archive," will screen for the first time at the end of January as part of Sundance's U.S. Documentary Competition slate. A distribution and release plan for the movie, which was produced by Motto Pictures, has not yet been announced.
Directed by festival alumna Isabel Castro, Sundance programmers are touting the 110-minute movie as a "heartfelt tribute to Selena Quintanilla that deftly captures the singer's exuberance, humility, and the profound bond she shared with her family" while showcasing interviews from loved ones and home video footage from the eponymous band's touring. Selena's siblings Suzette Quintanilla and AB Quintanilla III are credited as executive producers on the project.
Widely regarded as the "Queen of Tejano Music," Selena had won a Grammy, was nominated for others and was beloved for her crossover appeal at the time of her death. Castro has experience telling stories of important contemporary Texas figures; she was one of the producers on the 2022 Netflix documentary "I Am Vanessa Guillen," about the Fort Cavazos soldier killed by another service member and the legislative efforts undertaken to reform how sexual assault complaints are handled in the military. The young, Emmy-nominated filmmaker was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award last year.
There's been no shortage of film and TV projects about Selena, who was just 23 when she was shot and killed by Yolanda Saldivar on March 31, 1995. Just a few years ago, Netflix released a scripted series about the singer, and in 1997 the documentary "Selena Remembered" featured Edward James Olmos narrating her and her band's triumphs.
Still the most famous Selena-centric project remains the eponymous 1997 film which saw a young Jennifer Lopez stepping into the Lake Jackson native's shoes. It was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2021.
Saldivar, meanwhile, is up for parole in March 2025.