The coming-of-age, feminist drama Women is Losers will close the Los Angeles International Film Festival today.

Set in working-class San Francisco of the ’60s, the indie film marks the directorial debut of Lissette Feliciano, who also wrote the screenplay. Starring Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s Lorenza Izzo, it tells the story of a once-promising catholic schoolgirl who rises above the oppression of poverty and invests in a future for herself setting new precedents for the time. Simu Liu, who will make history this fall with his lead role in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, also stars in the film. Women is Losers is said to be spired by real women and the Janis Joplin song of the same title.

“What an honor to be the final curtain call on this amazing line up [sic] on this truly special 20th anniversary that a fearless team has been fighting for through the most incredible of circumstances,” posted Feliciano on Instagram. 

The film screened at this year’s SXSW Film Festival and won the Cleveland International Film Festival’s American Independent Competition and the Oxford Film Festival’s award for Best Narrative Feature.

Women is Loser is the first major feature film by Feliciano, who produced it under her company Look at the Moon Pictures. The company’s portfolio features 

The film seems to fit the philosophy of the director on issues of gender and race. It features a diverse cast that also includes Bryan Craig (General Hospital), Chrissie Fit (Pitch Perfect 2), Liza Weil (Gilmore Girls), Steven Bauer (Scarface), Alejandra Miranda (A Mano Limpia), Cranston Johnson Calvin (Hap and Leonard), Alessandra Torresani (The Big Bang Theory), Lincoln Bonilla (Station 19) and Shalim Ortiz (Grand Hotel). 

Look at the Moon Pictures prides itself on developing original content that “shines a lens on underrepresented groups” and seems to bet on a “new young, multicultural audience,” as stated on the company’s website. “Started in 2017, Look at the Moon was among the first production companies to mandate 50 percent BIPOC [black, Indigenous and people of color] representation across leadership positions on and off-camera.”

A supporter of young women’s education, Feliciano reportedly sits on several committees for an all-girls high school serving low-income students in her Bay Area hometown.

Women Is Losers is among the more than 40 films in English, Spanish and Portuguese featured at LALIFF, including 18 features, six episodic series and 24 shorts from about a dozen countries, June 2 through 6. The fest lineup has included film likes 7th & Union, Rita Moreno: A Girl Who Decided to Go for It, Bridges, American Exile Landfall, Fruits of Labor, My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It to, Between Fire and Water, Executive Order,  La Botera,  Nudo Mixteco, Papi, Something Blue, and The Best Families, Green Ghost, Landfall and Blursday.

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