Filmmaker and NALIP member recently produced the film Fantastic, it is to be premiered at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 11 through Feb. 21.

Producer Iliana Sosa worked with director Offer Egozy on the project. The work will be exhibited with 43 other films, of which 34 will be world premieres and nine international premieres.

The regional focus of this year’s festival is the Arab region, although American independent cinema is represented with a total of three films, one of them being Fantastic. Described as a noir, the storyline surrounds a sheriff, former lover, and two acquaintances brought together by a telegram of a missing painter. 

Congratulations Iliana!

More information on the festival can be found on berlinale.de

Remezcla

By Manuel Betancourt

When we talk of diversity and representation, we tend to focus on who is in front of and behind the camera. We champion projects by America Ferrara and Eva Longoria, we cheer on Iñárritu and Chivo’s Hollywood successes, we bemoan tone-deaf cultural commentary on SNL, and feel inspired when critically acclaimed films from Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile take European festivals by storm. Yet much of that conversation is fueled by those who have little to do with the production of media. Critics and journalists after all, were the ones praising the nuanced performances of Oscar Isaac before he was “Poe Dameron,” singling out Alfonso Cuarón before he journeyed to Hogwarts, and first understood when watching Selena and Out of Sight that this Jennifer Lopez gal was going places. Especially in terms of minority filmmakers, critics can play a crucial role in spotlighting under the radar actors and underseen directors in reviews in mainstream outlets.

And so, 2016 looks to be a year where the discussions of diversity go beyond merely asking what kinds of roles Latinas get to play on screen, or why Latino-aimed shows continue to lack Latino showrunners, and examine as well, who is writing about and promoting the work we see on our screens.

Remezcla

This is not a new conversation, but “Why Are So Few Film Critics Female?” at The Atlantic and “The Curious Case of the Missing Women in Film Criticism” at Variety both pushed the question of diversity in film criticism to its necessary boiling point. The Atlantic piece ends by reminding us that “the absence of women film critics has been in the news recently thanks to Meryl Streep, who questioned in October how having so few women writers might affect the reception of female-centric films,” while noting that “There are no headlines recently about the representation of other races or sexual orientations, though they deserve many of their own.” Let this be an attempt to remedy that.

Then again, a question as simple as “Where are the Latino film critics?” seems to not really get at the heart of the matter. After all, it reeks of the tokenism we’re supposed to deplore. More importantly, it’s perhaps easily answered by offering a smattering of names. If the internet has taught us anything it’s that you can drum up a list of pretty much anything if you know where to look. Thankfully, we need not look too far. There’s Claudia Puig, former Chief Film Critic at USA Today now working with NPR’s KPCC, Ed Gonzalez at Slant Magazine, Rene Rodriguez at the Miami Herald, Jack Rico from Showbizcafe, Nina Terrero at EW, Isaac Guzmán at Time, well-known video essayists Nelson Carvajal and Steven Santos, and many more whose names we hope get added to this necessarily provisional list.

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Netflix is on a tear, but success is uniting its enemies

By Ben Popper

The Verge

Netflix share price is up more than 121 percent in the last year. With its announcement at CES earlier this month that it has expanded to an additional 130 countries around the globe, it solidified its unique status as a broadcaster without borders, able to strip away many of the conventions and constraints of its peers in traditional television. Today it announced its fourth quarter earnings, notching $1.823 billion in revenue and $43 million in profit. The stock immediately jumped ten percent, but it wasn't the raw financials that got investors excited.

Netflix is like TV's incumbents in that it needs content, and it has to bid for the best programming against the likes of HBO, Hulu, Amazon, and many others. Its content costs have risen from under $6 billion in 2012 to more than $10 billion in 2015, with increasingly aggressive expansion planned for the years to come. In the same period its annual revenue has increased from roughly $4.3 billion to around $6 billion. But Investors have so far shrugged off this growing deficit in favor of its strong subscriber growth and international expansion.

While no one will ever be able to fill the void Sonia Manzano, aka Maria, left after retiring from Sesame Street in 2015, a new character will continue to put Latinas at the forefront. When the show returns for its 46th season on its new home on HBO, Cuban-American actress Suki Lopez will make her television debut. Lopez will play Nina, a bilingual Latina who will help the Sesame Streetgang with their problems.

“Nina is a millennial, and she has a bunch of jobs,” she said to NBC. “So I guess she is like me. She is a babysitter for Elmo, and she works at the bike store and the Laundromat.”

Though she has only filmed one season, where she got to work with Gina Rodriguez, Lopez is hoping for a long-term stay on Sesame Street. Meanwhile, she is enrolled at The New School and is enjoying the ride.

Read more at Remezcla.com

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

By Lesley Goldberg @ THR

CBS' new Nancy Drew will look very different should the network move forward with the reboot.

CBS Entertainment president Glenn Geller revealed Tuesday that the network's reimagining of the iconic character will be diverse.

"She is diverse, that is the way she is written," the executive told THR immediately following his time in front of the press at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour Tuesday. While Geller said it was too early in the process to explain just what he meant by diverse — whether Nancy is African-American, Asian-American or Latino, he said it would hinge on finding the right actress for the part. "[She will] not [be] Caucasian," he stressed. "I'd be open to any ethnicity."

Read more at THR.com