WATSONVILLE >> Just as it has for the previous 12 years, the Watsonville Film Festival will highlight movies from around the world that celebrate stories from the Latino community.

This will be true of the 13th installment, which kicks off Thursday, but the big difference is it will not be limited to just Watsonville. There will also be events in Santa Cruz, Salinas and at Cabrillo College in Aptos.

“This year, we’re presenting 50 films, 11 programs, a filmmaker summit and four afterparties,” said Consuelo Alba, the festival’s executive director. “We’re really excited to bring our celebration and storytelling and community to Santa Cruz for the first time and Salinas.”

As always, the festival’s programming team puts out an open call for movies, receives submissions, watches the movies they receive and whittles those down to the festival’s selections. This year will showcase 50 different movies, and it all gets underway Thursday at CineLux Green Valley Cinema which the festival expanded to last year after years of screening movies at libraries and art centers.

Thursday’s films include “The Ballad of Tita and the Machines,” the story of an elderly injured strawberry picker who hires an AI humanoid to do her work but then finds the technology is unable to do the back-breaking labor she does; “They Call Me the Cross Man,” a short documentary about artist Alvaro Enciso who places crosses in the Sonoran Desert to honor migrant workers who died; and “The Long Valley” about the insights of Central and South American immigrants living in the Salinas Valley.

“The Long Valley” has already made its way to the festival circuit, having been shown at Sundance and scheduled for this year’s South By Southwest. Alba said the Watsonville Film Festival will mark the California premiere of Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian’s film.Additionally, Reya Grande — a UC Santa Cruz graduate and co-producer of “They Call Me the Cross Man” — will be present for a Q&A.

Thursday’s screening begins at 6 p.m. at CineLux Green Valley, 1125 S. Green Valley Road.

Friday’s screenings will resume at CineLux Green Valley with films under the “Emerging Cinema” banner including “Recuerdos de mi Corazon,” about siblings who raise their grandparents’ spirits through music; and “Mariachi Gringo,” about late harpist William Faulkner who played the instrument in his adopted country of Mexico amid health struggles. The screenings will continue at 7 p.m. with six films under the “Creative Joy” banner, including the anthology “Summer Poetry” and the mixed media documentary “Dear Watsonville,” Sondy Lucille’s film about the first wave of Filipino migrants in America.

Saturday will conclude the screenings in Watsonville with youth films, the documentary “Si Pudiera Quedarme / If I Could Stay” about undocumented mothers who go to churches to avoid deportation and an evening of short films from places ranging from Watsonville and Los Angeles to Costa Rica, Cuba and China.

The evening will also see a screening of Jon Silver’s 1989 documentary “Watsonville on Strike” to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the start of the cannery strike that forever changed Watsonville politics. Silver will also be screening his new short documentary, “Daughters of the Strike,” about Sylvia Baltazar who participated in the strike and instilled a sense of community empowerment in her daughters who have both become local educational administrators.

Starting Sunday, the festival will be brought to venues in other communities, including the 418 Project in Santa Cruz. In addition to encore screenings of “The Long Valley,” “The Ballad of Tita and the Machines” and other films that will be screened in Watsonville, the 418 Project will also host a screening of “Prodigal Daughter,” about Mabel Valdiviezo’s experiences as a painter trying to reunite with her family in Peru, only for old wounds to be reopened.

“It’s a really wonderful film, and the filmmaker will be with us,” said Alba. “We’ll have a community conversation after the film about storytelling and how that is so important to our community more than ever.”

Sunday will also share screenings of the same short films that will be shown Saturday, this time at the 418 Project. Alba said the filmmakers behind these shorts will be on hand to answer questions.

“We want to share this experience that we have here in Watsonville: Presenting powerful films, engaging in conversation, building understanding, empathy and solidarity,” she said. “This is how we program the festival.”

The 418 Project is located at 155 River St., Santa Cruz.

On March 14, several of the Watsonville Film Festival movies will be shown at Maya Cinemas, 153 Main St., Salinas. This event will be followed by an afterparty 7p.m.at XL Public House, down the street at 127 Main St.

In fact, all three Watsonville events will be followed by after parties at Buena Vista Brewing Company, featuring live music, dancing and a limited edition Cine Haze IPA. Buena Vista is located at 65 Hangar Way, Suite D, Watsonville.

The final festival program is screenings of films about pesticide usage, a q&a with local filmmakers and activists, and food prepared by Esperanza Community Farms. This event is a co-presentation with the Cabrillo College Horticulture Department as part of its Food Film Showcase and will begin at 5 p.m. March 25 at Cabrillo’s Aptos campus, 6500 Soquel Drive.

Alba said Latino and Indigenous communities have many complex and inspiring stories, and the Watsonville Film Festival is one way to showcase them. It also allows viewers to further connect with the films by interacting with those who made them.

“This is an opportunity to come together, to have a collective experience that is meaningful and inspiring and meet other people that share this same passion for film,” she said.

For tickets, showtimes and information, go to 2025wff.eventive.org/welcome.