Peru Quechua Lion King Film Wins Boston Vote in October
PERU · CULTURE
Key Facts
- —The country Peru is an Andean nation on South America’s Pacific coast, home to Cusco, the old Inca capital, and the ruins of Machu Picchu.
- —What happened Peru’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday, 9 October, that Runa Simi won the best-feature audience award at CineFest Latino in Boston.
- —The story on screen Fernando Valencia, a radio host from Cusco, sets out to dub Disney’s animated The Lion King into Quechua with help from his young son.
- —The US link The film had its world premiere at New York’s Tribeca Festival in 2025, and its Boston screening was on Saturday, 3 October.
- —The language Quechua, which became the shared language of the Andes in the Inca period, is the mother tongue of about 3.8 million people in Peru.
- —Still open The ministry gave no vote count and did not say when or where the film will next screen in the United States.
A Peruvian documentary about a Cusco father’s bid to make a Quechua Lion King has won over a US audience. Runa Simi took the audience award for best feature at CineFest Latino in Boston, Peru’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday, 9 October.
Quechua became the shared language of the Andes under the Incas, and the project began as a hobby in Cusco, their old capital. For US viewers, the prize puts an Indigenous language from Peru’s tourist heartland on an American festival stage.
What Peru’s Foreign Ministry Announced
Director Augusto Zegarra’s film won the audience prize for best feature, the Foreign Ministry said in an information note. The festival ran in Boston from Wednesday, 30 September, to Sunday, 4 October.
Runa Simi was shown on Saturday, 3 October, at the Emerson Paramount Center, an arts venue in central Boston. More than 150 people attended, including members of the Peruvian community, the ministry said.
CineFest Latino presents films each year about Latin America, Spain and the Latino community in the United States. Its founder and executive director, Sabrina Avilés, introduced the screening.
She stressed the importance of giving visibility to the language, identity and culture of “our countries” and preserving them, the ministry said. After the film, Zegarra and its lead, Fernando Valencia, joined a virtual talk with the audience.
A Cusco Father, His Son and The Lion King
Valencia is a single father and radio host in his native Cusco who makes content in Quechua, the Tribeca Festival’s film page says. He records voices with his young son, Dylan, turning Spanish dialogue into Quechua.
His online clips of animated films dubbed into Quechua went viral. That pushed him toward his biggest goal yet: a full Quechua version of Disney’s animated The Lion King.
“Our language Quechua,” Valencia says, “is like life itself,” according to Tribeca’s synopsis. He tackles the Quechua Lion King project from a home studio, Peru’s Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry said the film puts Andean language, identity and culture in the spotlight. Tribeca lists the documentary at 81 minutes, in Quechua, Spanish and English, with English subtitles.
From Tribeca in New York to Boston
Runa Simi had its world premiere in the documentary competition of the 2025 Tribeca Festival in New York, the festival’s page shows. It is Zegarra’s first feature film.
In January, it won the Ibero-American award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in California, the Lima daily El Comercio reported. Sabrina Avilés, the founder of CineFest Latino Boston, sat on that three-member jury.
El Comercio reported in August that the film had collected 27 awards at more than 60 festivals in over 30 countries. The paper said it was booked for a one-week run at the Firehouse Cinema in Manhattan from 28 August.
Its executive producers include the actor Benjamin Bratt and Peter Bratt, according to the Tribeca credits. Zegarra filmed Valencia’s Quechua Lion King effort over nine years, El Comercio reported.
The Boston prize was an audience award, decided by festival-goers rather than by a jury of critics. It gives the Quechua Lion King story, rooted in the southern Andes, a fresh hearing in the United States.
Why Quechua Matters in Peru
In all, 3,805,531 people in Peru learned to speak in Quechua as their first language, according to Peru’s Ministry of Culture. The ministry says Quechua took hold across the Andes in the Inca period, as a language of government and trade.
About 60% of Peruvians spoke Quechua at the start of the 20th century, the ministry says. By the start of the 21st, the share had fallen to about 15%, though Peru had more Quechua speakers in 2014 than in 1876.
Quechua has had an official alphabet since a 1985 resolution of the Education Ministry. An Education Ministry table cited by the Culture Ministry rates the Quechua of Cusco and Puno as a vital language.
What It Means for You
For US travelers, Cusco is the gateway to Machu Picchu, and Quechua is part of daily life there. See What to Do in Cusco in October 2026 for this month’s events.
For US film fans, Runa Simi, the Quechua Lion King documentary, has already screened in New York, Palm Springs and Boston. In Boston, members of the Peruvian community were in the audience, the ministry said.
What Is Not Known
Peru’s Foreign Ministry did not say how many votes the film received or which other films competed. It also did not say whether the award carries prize money.
The ministry did not say when Runa Simi will be shown again in the United States, or where. Its note also does not say whether Valencia has finished the full Quechua Lion King dub.
Neither the ministry’s note nor Tribeca’s synopsis says whether Disney has authorized a Quechua Lion King.
More: Peru news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Runa Simi about?
It follows Fernando Valencia, a radio host and single father from Cusco, who dubs films into Quechua with his young son. His big goal is a full Quechua Lion King, a dub of the Disney animated film.
What award did Runa Simi win in Boston?
It won the audience award for best feature at CineFest Latino, which ran in Boston from 30 September to 4 October. Peru’s Foreign Ministry announced the prize on 9 October.
What is Quechua?
Quechua is a family of Andean languages that spread widely in the Inca period and is still spoken in seven South American countries. About 3.8 million people in Peru learned it as their first language, the Culture Ministry says.
Where has Runa Simi been shown in the United States?
It premiered at New York’s Tribeca Festival in 2025 and won the Ibero-American award at Palm Springs, California, in January. On 3 October it screened at CineFest Latino in Boston, where it won the audience award.
Sources: Peru Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Nota Informativa 1124-26), 9 October 2026; Tribeca Festival, Runa Simi film page, 2025; Peru Ministry of Culture, Base de Datos de Pueblos Indígenas: Quechua, accessed 10 October 2026; El Comercio, “Película peruana ‘Runa Simi’ gana premio en el Festival Palm Springs en Estados Unidos”, 15 January 2026; El Comercio, “‘Runa Simi’ llevará la reivindicación del quechua a los cines de Nueva York”, 14 August 2026.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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