GalaAwards

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The Gala Awards will be held on Saturday, March 10, 2007.

This year’s Gala Award for Lifetime Achievement goes to feature film Director George A. Romero (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD. The NALIP Lifetime Achievement Award for Advocacy goes to Actor, Director and Activist, Edward James Olmos, the Outstanding Achievement Award goes to the visionary team of the hit ABC show, UGLY BETTY, and the ESTELA Award to recognize two rising and brilliant talents in the Latino media landscape in the areas of Narrative and Documentary filmmaking, will also be awarded. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s Gala Awards!

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GEORGE A./ROMERO - Lifetime Achievement Award

Given to a Latino filmmaker who has pioneered the industry and whose achievements act as an inspiration for other Latino filmmakers.

EDWARD JAMES/OLMOS - Lifetime Achievement Award for Advocacy

Awarded to an individual who has advocated, supported and addressed media, arts and education related issues that affect the Hispanic-American community across the nation.

UGLY BETTY/VISIONARIES - Outstanding Achievement Award

This award is given only when the NALIP Board of Directors votes to recognize the outstanding milestone of an individual(s) achievement in the prior year. Hayek is one of six executive producers on "Ugly Betty," which debuted Sept. 22 on ABC.

to preview UGLY BETTY.

The Trail of a Star as it Shoots Through the Sky

The ESTELA award honors a talented Latino filmmaker who either through a stunning debut or a steady rise in a relatively short period of time has distinguished himself/herself through their work to date. This award is for a filmmaker whose achievements reveal leadership, creativity, and tenacity, as well as vision and passion for his/her craft.

Through their commitment to excellence and Latino media, McDonald’s provides a Filmmaker Grant to each of the Estela winners. McDonald’s financial contribution, together with NALIP’s recognition, will support each artist’s next project, and their progress.

Last year’s ESTELA for narrative went to Director, Rodrigo Garcia (THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER/ NINE LIVES) - born in Colombia and raised in Mexico City. He is a graduate of the American Film Institute. His credits as a cinematographer include Danzon, Mi Vida Loca and Gia. He has written a screenplay on the life of Frida Kahlo for Miramax Pictures, and has written and directed the films “Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her”, starring Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Kathy Baker, Cameron Diaz and Calista Flockhart and Ten tiny love stories, starring Kathy Baker, Deborah Unger, Rhada Mitchell and Elizabeth Pena. He has also directed several episodes of the HBO series Six Feet Under as well as the pilot “Carnivale”. "Nine Lives" is a small budget movie, which was filmed in just 18 days and is set to release in 2005.

And in the documentary category, the ESTELA went Producer/Director Marilyn Agrelo. Marilyn Agrelo (MAD HOT BALLROOM, 2005) has over 15 years experience producing independent films, most recent (SMATH THE KITTY, 2003) and numerous commercials and fundraising films. She is continuing work on the documentary US and THEM, a chronicle of her divided family, shot in both the U.S. and Cuba. Other documentary works include the ORBIS story, a short about an international humanitarian project. She lives with filmmaker Brian David Cange and their two cats in Park Slope Brooklyn.

NALIP 2006 ESTELA recipients, Marilyn Agrelo & Rodrigo Garcia

Come to NALIP’s Saturday evening Gala and find out who the winners will be!

NALIP 2007 Narrative Finalists

JUDY HECHT/DUMONTET

Judy is the writer / director and a producer of the film Tortilla Heaven, to be released in theaters by Archangel Entertainment in March 2007.

When the filmmaker first arrived in New Mexico to set up the film, she had yet to raise more than one-half of the budget. Undeterred, she found the perfect location, called a town meeting and pitched the script to the people of Embudo, a small town north of Santa Fe. By unanimous vote Embudo welcomed the filmmakers and pitched in to help, donating homes, churches, people and facilities and uniting to help make the film. 10 miles down the road, the Picuris Indian Nation did the same. Armed with this grass-roots support, the Latina filmmaker brought together an outstanding Latino and Native American cast to realize this modern-day latino tale of God, food and the American dream. Tortilla Heaven is her feature film debut.

A past winner of the Directorsí Guild Award for most outstanding new Latino filmmaker, her student-produced short film The Novice (ìLa noviciaî) premiered at Sundance and went on to win awards and accolades throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe, including a Grand Prize at the Worldfest/Houston, the Eastman Kodak Award, Gold Medals at the Fort Lauderdale and Austin International Film Festivals, the Bandeira Paulista at the Mostra internacional de Cinema em S„o Paulo, an Award of Merit at Chicago International and the Bronze Medal at the Charleston International Film Festival.

She won earlier recognition for her documentary HOMEBOYS, also made at the University of Southern California. The film premiered at the Kennedy Center, won a FOCUS Award, a CINE Golden Eagle and audience awards in Europe at London and Oberhausen. Writer/director of Univisionís La visiÛn de una mujer (A Womanís Vision), she co-starred, was second unit director and associate producer on the European mini-series And the Violins Stopped Playing and won Gold Medals at the Worldfest/Houston and the Charleston International Film Festival for her feature script Colorblind and a Premio de Oro in Cuba for her feature script version of La Novicia.

Born in Mexico City, she grew up in the U.S. and studied cinema at the University of Southern California after receiving a joint degree with honors in domestic and international law from Columbia University.

RICARDO MENDEZ/MATTA

A native of Puerto Rico, Ricardo moved to Los Angeles to attend the USC School of Cinema and Television. After working as 1st AD for directors such as Allison Anders, Andy García, Mel Gibson, León Ichaso, Ken Loach and Gregory Nava, Ricardo became a director himself on the television series “Weird Science,” which he soon followed with multiple episodes of “Nash Bridges,” “Touched By An Angel” and “The District.”

In 2006, Ricardo made his feature directing debut with “Thieves and Liars” (Ladrones y Mentirosos), which he co-wrote, produced and directed with his wife, artist Poli Marichal. The film was selected as the official Puerto Rican entry to the 2007 Academy Awards and won a Best Director prize in World Cinema at the Phoenix Film Festival.

Ricardo has also served the DGA for several years as Co-Chair of the Latino Committee, and twice as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Assistant Directors Training Program.

ALEJANDRO/MONTEVERDE

Alejandro Monteverde is a Mexican film director. His first film, Bella took top prize at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival by winning the highly-coveted “Peoples Choice Award”, a distinction which puts it in the company of such Oscar-winning films as Chariots of Fire, American Beauty, Life is Beautiful, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hotel Rwanda.

Bella marks the feature directorial debut For Alejandro Monteverde’ who also co-wrote its original screenplay. Bella features Manuel Perez, Angelica Aragon, Jaime Terelli and Ali Landry.

NATALIA/ALMADA

Natalia Almada's debut feature-length documentary, Al Otro Lado, about immigration, drug trafficking and Corrido music was nationally broadcast on

PBS¹s award winning program P.O.V. in August 2006 and had a special week long engagement at New York¹s Museum of Modern Art in March 2006. Al Otro Lado was nominated for a 2005 Gotham Award and was an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, The Los Angeles Film Festival, Margaret Mead, the New York Latino International Film Festival (Kodak Cultural Award), Cinefestival (best feature film), Morelia Film Festival (honorable mention for Best documentary), Puerto Rico International Film Festival (best documentary) and others. The film received support from the Sundance Documentary Fund, Latino Public Broadcasting, The Tribeca All Access Program, The New York Foundation for the Arts and the Arizona Humanities Council.

Her experimental short, All Water Has A Perfect Memory, about a cross-cultural family remembering the loss of a child, was an official selection of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and was awarded best short documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival and a gold plaque award at the Chicago International Film Festival. Natalia is a 2006 MacDowell Colony Fellow, a 2006 Rockefeller grant nominee and 2005 recipient of a Creative Capital Grant and a New York State Council for the Arts grant for El General. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 and works as a freelance editor.

NALIP 2007 Documentary Finalists

MYLENE/MORENO

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Mylène Moreno makes documentaries that reflect her diverse cultural interests. She is currently following Mexican fútbol fanaticos in Los Angeles during the second season of Chivas USA. Her last project is Recalling Orange County, a personal look at the orchestrated backlash against an immigrant rights leader that reveals fierce conflicts in California's Orange County over what it means to be American. It began airing in October, 2006, during the inaugural season of the Latino Public Broadcasting series VOCES. Mylène's last film, True-Hearted Vixens, featured female jocks pursuing dreams of professional athletic greatness in a startup tackle football league. Produced in association with the Independent Television Service, Vixens aired during the 2001 season of P.O.V. Previously, she worked in Austin on several PBS documentaries, producing the first episode of the landmark PBS series ¡CHICANO! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. She also produced a tongue-in-cheek documentary "search" for the brilliant and reclusive novelist Cormac McCarthy, Cormac's Trash, and directed Maribel , a short about an El Paso teen's experience of motherhood, marriage and a second pregnancy. Mylène is a graduate of Stanford University's documentary film program.

ANAYANSI/PRADO

Born in Panama, Anayansi Prado moved to the United States as a teenager. Her debut documentary Maid in America, about the lives of Latina immigrant women working in Los Angeles, screened nationally on the PBS Independent Lens
series in Fall 2005. She was the co-director and co-producer of a documentary on the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a cross-country trip
designed to bring awareness and change to the working conditions of immigrants in the United States. In 2006, Anayansi received a Rockefeller Media Fellowship and she’s also the recipient of two John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grants and a NALIP Academy Fellow. Ms. Prado is the founder of Impacto Films, a production company dedicated to social issues. She received her BA in Film from Boston University.

RAY/SANTISTEBAN

Ray Santisteban has produced and directed award winning documentaries that have aired in the U.S. and internationally on public television. He has explored subjects as diverse as a one hour documentary on New York Black Panther leader Dhoruba Bin Wahad - PASSIN' IT ON (1993 Student Academy Award winner, documentary category, Co-Producer) and explored the roots of Puerto Rican poetry in, NUYORICAN POETS CAFE (1994, Director, Producer, Editor). In 1994, he worked as an associate producer on the four part PBS series ¡CHICANO!: THE HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

In 2003 he Directed and Produced "VOICES FROM TEXAS" a one hour documentary on poetry and spoken word traditions within the Mexican-American community in Texas and was the Senior Producer of VISIONES: LATINO ART AND CULTURE IN THE U.S. a three hour PBS series nationally broadcast in Oct. 2004. In 2005, he produced two episodes of the nationally broadcast children's program "Postcards From Buster" for WGBH in Boston.

From 1998-2001, Mr. Santisteban was Director of Media Arts at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio TX, where he coordinated the San Antonio CineFestival, the oldest Latino film festival in the United States.

In 1992 He was awarded a NYFA film and video fellowhip. In 2005 he was awarded a Rockefeller film and video fellowship and In 2006 He was awarded a San Antonio Artists Foundation Film and Video individual artist grant.