Next month Gina Rodriguez will be heading to the Sundance Film Festival for the world premiere of her latest film Filly Brown… And she could return from Park City, Utah as the festival’s breakout star.

In the film, the Latina actress plays Maria Jose ‘Majo’ Tonorio, a tough Mexican girl in Los Angeles aspiring to become a hip-hop artist. The film, which co-stars Edward James Olmos, Jenni Rivera and Lou Diamond Phillips, follows her rise to fame and consciousness as she copes with the incarceration of her mother through her poetry and music.

Rodriguez, who received an Imagen Award nomination earlier this year for her work in the film Go For It!, is already receiving major pre-festival attention, with many predicting her show-stopping performance in the film will garner some serious recognition.

Meanwhile, Rivera—the Banda queen who recently signed a new production deal with mun2—will make her acting debut in the film as Rogriguez’s jailed mother.  

“I had to dig deep for the role,” explained Rivera to Billboard. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. If I can make Edward James Olmos cry, to me that means it was a success.”

Olmos, who serves as one of the film’s executive producers, says Rivera and Rodriguez will leave you in tears.

“Jenni and Gina eat up the screen, and when they’re together—Oh my God, it’s amazing,” he recently told Billboard.

The Sundance Film Festival will take place from January 19-29, 2012.