Twenty-three years and one Broadway musical later, and “Actual Girls Have Curves” is lastly getting its sequel… type of. “20 Kilos to Happiness,” which is billed as being the “companion piece” to the enduring 2002 Sundance characteristic led by breakout star America Ferrera, hails from Josefina López, who wrote each the movie and Broadway variations of “Actual Girls Have Curves.”
López collaborates with actress/director Yelyna De León for “20 Kilos to Happiness,” which facilities on a “full-figured Latina in a Actual Girls Have Curves Assist Group who should resolve between staying loyal to her girlfriends and threat shedding the person of her desires.” Carlo Mendez, Riley Shanahan, Christiana Leucas, Soledad St. Hilaire, Iyari Limon, Rafael Sigler, and Tricia Cruz co-star.
“20 Kilos to Happiness” will display screen on the Cannes market with MultiVisionnaire Footage dealing with worldwide gross sales. The characteristic will debut on the Marché du Movie at Cannes with a market screening on Tuesday, Could 14 in Screening Room Palais C.
Screenwriter López and director De León function producers. That is De León’s directorial debut.
“Actual Girls Have Curves” started as a play previous to its 2002 characteristic adaptation. The musical model was launched in 2025 with Grammy-winning musician Pleasure Huerta of Jesse & Pleasure fame and musical theater songwriter Benjamin Velez penning the songs.
López informed Broadway World that she primarily based the lead character of Ana García on herself, and that the story remains to be well timed greater than three many years later.
“I actually consider the easiest way to combat hatred and prejudice is to past love your self for who you’re,” she mentioned. “Sadly, my play is as related immediately because it was again once I wrote it in 1988 to 1990. Immigrants are nonetheless being ‘scapegoated’ and persecuted and it appears to be getting worse. […] My unique play and screenplay are a microcosm of the Latina immigrant expertise, celebrating actual girls’s our bodies, the facility of girls, and the unbelievable bond that occurs when girls work collectively, all of which I really feel are topical in our world immediately. The ladies I labored with in a small stitching manufacturing unit in Boyle Heights taught me many beneficial life classes, which I nonetheless carry with me to today. I’m so grateful to have my story informed on a Broadway stage bringing optimistic worldwide consideration to my stunning neighborhood of Boyle Heights which I’m so proud to be part of with my CASA 0101 Theater the place we champion girls’s and Latinx voices and storytelling. My motto is: Create, Elevate, Have a good time.”
López can also be creating a brand new musical with composer Jaime Lozano, and dealing on her autobiography, “Actual Girls Have Braveness.”
“20 Kilos to Happiness” can have its U.S. premiere Could 31 on the Los Angeles Latino Worldwide Movie Competition. MultiVisionnaire Footage is dealing with worldwide gross sales. Try the trailer under.