At this year’s Latino Media Fest which took place September 26th, NALIP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, is proud to have hosted Sierra Ornelas and Vanessa Ramos, who are two Latina writers from the hit show Superstore starring and directed by America Ferrera. NALIP’s mission is to discover, promote and inspire Latino content creators and serve the needs of diverse content creators including, producers, performers, writers, directors, and industry professionals. If you would like to know more about our membership opportunities visit: http://www.nalip.org/become_a_member

 Below are some exciting Film Festivals coming up in the next few weeks!

On behalf of NALIP we would like to thank all of our sponsors: Comcast NBCUniversal Telemundo, The Walt Disney Company, FOX Inclusion, MPAA, Labo Digital, El Rey Network and our partners for their support in NALIP's mission of inclusion and diversity. Through our Latino Media Fest we have been able to give a platform for emerging creators as well as recognizing our Latino talent for their work behind the camera. Thank you for bringing our #WeAreInclusion campaign to reality and for a successful Latino Media Fest!

Mitú is excited to premiere their romantic comedy Long Distance , mitu and YouTube Red Partnered to launch the multicultural rom-com for the social media generation. Long Distance is solely produced with Latino leads, writers, producers and a majority of Latino female crew. "If no one else is telling our stories, we will." Mitu feels the responsibility to empower our up and coming creative community to prove to the entertainment industry that Latinos are the present and the future of media! 

NALIP is excited to see studios and networks invest in Latino narratives and talent on and behind the camera. Most recently, Starz in an effort to include diverse stories and program for "underserved audiences" has greenlit the series "Vida".

Latino and Latin American films were well-represented at the Toronto International Film Festival ("TIFF"). Asides from well-established films that already garnered mainstream hype, complex and insightful films like Sergio & Sergei by Ernesto and Marta Daranas and Tigre by Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra Guardiola.

Daranas' film focuses on the real-life rescue of a Russian cosmonaut stranded in space after the collapse of the Soviet Union. You can read more about the film on Deadline. Schnicer and Guardiola's film Tigre touches on such themes as female loneliness and burdens of the past. Both films fit perfectly in the lineup with other quality films like the following: 

Image Credit: DYLAN COULTER FOR VARIETY

Guillermo del Toro just presented his latest film, "Shape of Water," at the Venice Film Fest and Telluride Film Festival this week. Variety praised the film, calling it "a ravishing, eccentric auteur's imagining, spilling artistry, empathy and sensuality from every open pore... this is incontestable del Toro's most rewarding, richly realized film -- or movie, for that matter..." And this shouldn't surprise anyone. Del Toro's work is renowned for its artistry and originality, but on top of that, this was a film year in the making. 

While Sally Hawkins (Elisa) can recall as far back as four years ago that Guillermo wanted her for the lead (before the film was even written), Guillermo actually started planning this as a child. He told Variety that "as a kid, watching 'Frankenstein' ... I was always rooting for the monster." Hawkins wasn't the only one picked right from the beginning for her respective character. Doug Jones, the "gill-man," had met del Toro twenty-years prior and was told from the very beginning his anticipated role. 

Long time NALIP supporter Robert Rodriguez and go90 are partnering up for animated short series and an independent filmmaking event inspired by Rodriguez’s career.

According to Deadline, the animated short series Explosion Jones, starring Michael Madsen, Jaylen Barron, Carl Weathers, James Hong, Danny Trejo and Vivica A. Fox, will debut September 5 on go90. Rebel Without a Crew, an independent filmmaking event to commemorate the 25th anniversary of El Mariachi, Rodriguez’s filmmaking debut, will begin production this fall.

Rebel Without a Crew is designed to mentor and inspire a new wave of independent filmmakers. Rodriguez created his first feature-length film El Mariachi on a budget of just $7,000. To mark the 25th anniversary of the film, Rodriguez will invite five amateur filmmakers to take on the same challenge.

Image by: REX/Shutterstock

Great news for NALIP supporter, Gloria Calderon Kellet who has a pilot production commitment with CBS TV Studios for her semi-autobiographical History Of Them, a multi-camera/hybrid comedy she wrote. Calderon Kellet, is a co-creator/executive producer of One Day At A Time. 

History Of Them is a multi-cultural (Latinx & white) romantic comedy about how two friends fell in love, narrated by their future daughter, using the couple’s social media from present-day (Instagram/Twitter/Facebook) as a guide. According to Deadline, this marks the first sale for Kellett under the overall deal she inked in June with Sony TV where she serves as executive producer/co-showrunner alongside Mike Royce on the studio’s praised Netflix comedy series One Day At A Time. The reimagining of the classic Normal Lear 1970s sitcom is in production on its second season. Kellett pulled from her own life experience in shaping the show about a Cuban-American family — her parents immigrated to America from Cuba during Operation Peter Pan.

The Latino Media Fest will take place on Sept. 26th and 27th at the AMC Century City 15, where director, Jorge R. Gutiérrez will be taking part of NALIP’s Animation Master Class. He received the TECH ARTS Innovator Award at the NALIP Media Summit last June for his comprehensive work in animation.

In 2009, Gutiérrez created and produced, with his wife and muse Sandra Equihua, the multiple Emmy Award-winning animated television series, "El Tigre, The Adventures of Manny Rivera" for Nickelodeon. In 2014, he wrote and directed "The Book of Life" for Reel FX and 20th Century Fox, nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. He's currently working on "Son of Jaguar" a Virtual Reality short film for Google Spotlight Stories and has begun developing "The Book of Life 2" and his Mexico/US border martial arts epic "Kung Fu Space Punch!".

Don't miss the Latino Media Fest! Blind Sale tickets will end on Monday, August 28, so be sure to purchase your tickets HERE.

Visit www.latinomediafest.com

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