The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) announced the 10 visionary Afro Latino and Indigenous Latino directors that were selected for its Latinx Inclusion Fellowship, sponsored by Netflix. The Fellowship, now in its second year, was created to develop extensive and inclusive opportunities for underrepresented groups within the Latino community.
Award-winning filmmakers William D. Caballero, Evelyn Lorena, Nicole Mejia, Sebastian Rea and Kristi Uribes are the fellows selected for the Indigenous Latino cohort and Elyssa Aquino, Jeanette Dilone, Alexis Garcia, Gabriella A. Moses, and Eli Vazquez are the fellows selected for the Afro Latino cohort.
“We are honored to be able to provide this unique fellowship that, with the support of Netflix, allows us to uplift underrepresented Latino voices in the industry,” said Academy Award®-nominated actor and co-founder of LALIFF and the Latino Film Institute, Edward James Olmos. “These ten selected fellows demonstrate the richness of talent in our community. We are excited to embark on this fellowship with them and are looking forward to the films they’ll be producing in the coming months.”
Pete Corona, director of drama series at Netflix, added, “Expanding this year’s program to include both Indigenous Latinx and Afro Latinx filmmakers helps create even more opportunities for people to see themselves and their experiences reflected on screen. This year’s Fellows are talented storytellers with unique creative visions. We can’t wait to see their films come to life with support from the incredible team at LALIFF.”
Each fellow will be awarded a $20,000 grant to produce a short and will receive individualized mentorship, as well as various networking opportunities. Their completed films will premiere as part of the 2022 version of LALIFF, where the fellows will also participate in the festival’s Industry Week to further develop their careers and gain industry access needed to succeed as working artists.
This year’s mentors include creative producer Alicia Marie Agramonte who has worked on projects such as Creed and HBO’s award-winning series Veep; head of development and producer at Ojalá productions Christine Dávila; writer/director/producer Lissette Feliciano whose first feature film Women Is Losers was LALIFF 2021 Closing Gala, and is available now on HBO Max; writer/director Javier Fuentes-León whose first feature film Undertow represented Peru at the Oscars® in 2011 and his latest feature The Best Families was an official selection of LALIFF 2021; editor Michael N. Knue whose work includes editing The Hidden and Night of the Creeps, as well as Todd McFarland’s comic book classic, Spawn; storyteller, media maker and media arts educator Cristina Kotz Cornejo who was recently recognized by Variety as “2021 Educator of the Year”; writer/director Diana Peralta whose debut film De Lo Mio was an official selection at LALIFF 2019 and picked up by HBO for distribution; and writer/producer Oscar Torres whose latest film 7th & Union, starring Omar Chaparro, had its world premiere as LALIFF 2021 opening night gala, and is set to be released worldwide in 2022.
