The 13th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival Announces Award Winners

The 13th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival announces the winners of the five categories of its jury competition: Best First or Second Narrative Feature, Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, and Hecho en Tejas.

The Festival also recognizes the winners of Audience Awards.

The 2010 Best Narrative Feature Film is Mal dia para pescar (Bad Day to Go Fishing) by Director Alvaro Brechner. La tierra sin mal (The Land of No Evil) directed by Anna Recalde Miranda won the Best Documentary Feature Award.

A complete list of winners and jury members follows.

JURY AWARD WINNERS:

Narrative Feature Competition
Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature

Mal dia para pescar (Bad Day to Go Fishing), Dir. Alvaro Brechner, Uruguay/Spain

Honorable Mention for Narrative Feature

Memorias del desarrollo (Memories of Overdevelopment), Dir. Miguel Coyula,

Cuba/USA

Documentary Feature Competition
Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature La tierra sin mal (The Land of No Evil), Dir. Anna Recalde Miranda, Paraguay

Honorable Mention for Documentary Feature

Which Way Home, Dir. Rebecca Cammisa, USA

Narrative Short Film Competition

Jury Award for Best Narrative Short

El ataque de los robots de Nebulosa-5 (The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5), Dir. Chema García Ibarra, Spain

Honorable Mention for Narrative Short

Mnemosyne Rising, Dir. Miguel Alvarez, USA

Documentary Short Competition
Jury Award for Best Documentary Short

Olhos de Ressaca, (Undertow Eyes), Dir. Petra Costa, Brazil 

Honorable Mention for Documentary Short

Point of Entry, Dir. Zeus Quijano, Jr., USA

HECHO EN TEJAS COMPETITION: 

Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) Award

When I Grow Up, Dir. Sharon Arteaga, USA

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
Mal dia para pescar (Bad Day to Go Fishing), Dir. Alvaro Brechner

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
Which Way Home Dir. Rebecca Cammisa

NARRATIVE FEATURE AND SHORT FILM JURY

Emilia Arau

Emilia Arau started her career very young working in the production, location, casting, direction, and publicity departments in Hollywood movies shot in Mexico. By the early 90's, she began producing with her peers, Luis Estrada, Alfonso Cuarón and Emmanuel Lubezki, among others, and was the Line Producer of the world hit Like Water for Chocolate, teaming up with her father, Alfonso Arau. She also served as VP of Production at the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), and produced several cultural TV series for the Mexican giant, Televisa. During the 2000's, she moved to Los Angeles to join the advertising world as Executive Producer of TV commercials for the US Hispanic Market, and later became the US partner of a Mexican company providing production services in Mexico for US producers and the world's market. Additionally, in 2008 she produced the award-winning short film, "Use as Directed," written and directed by Katherine Griffin, and gave production advice to the Mexican feature films Under the Same Moon and Los Bastardos. Emilia also records Spanish voice-over radio commercials, and in late 2009, created and self-published a read-along, bilingual children's book series, Aventuras de Colores, from her new hometown, Austin, TX.

Daniel de la Vega

Daniel de la Vega, born in Valparaíso, Chile, graduated in 1985 from the French Institute IDHEC (Paris). He developed a career as director and producer, having worked on such critically acclaimed films as El Leyton, hasta que la muerte nos separe (Leyton, Until Death Separates Us), B-Happy, and Lokas, all of which were directed by Gonzalo Justiniano, another alum of the IDHEC. Amongst his other credits, Daniel served as the Executive Producer in Chile for Flor de canela, a film by the French director Frédérique Laffont, and produced and directed Este mar sabe demasiado and País de octubre. He also worked on the internationally regarded Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries).

Kelly Williams

Kelly Williams is currently the Film Program Director at the Austin Film Festival where he programs features and shorts as well as oversees the full scope of the festival's year-round programming. While at AFF, he helped to expand the film competition to include animation and documentary categories as well as create the Funniest Filmmaker in Austin contest for local comedy filmmakers. In 2007, he was awarded the International Film Festival Summit's Excellence Award for his "significant contribution to the success of the festival." He has produced numerous award-winning short films, including the Student Academy Award nominee Perils in Nude Modeling, and also wrote and directed the short film Richard and the documentary short Sid Smith for Congress. Kelly attended the writing program at the Second City in Chicago and is a graduate of the film program at the University of Texas at Austin.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AND SHORT FILM JURY

Lien H. Nguyen

Lien Nguyen is currently a Media Producer at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. At the Getty, Lien works in the Museum's Collection Information and Access department, producing interpretive media for the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. Her media projects include in-gallery and online video, audio tours and interactives. Many of these award-winning projects have been featured in and shared with cultural and non-profit institutions worldwide. With a background in multimedia journalism, Lien is most interested in cross-cultural media and communication. She has had the great fortune of producing several collaborative documentary projects abroad, in countries like Chile, India, Spain, Rwanda, Vietnam and Tanzania. Her interests in documentary video and film led her to non-fiction television where she worked in Program Development at the Smithsonian Networks in Washington, D.C. There, she focused on developing and acquiring engaging programs for the network's programming slate. In 2006, Lien was awarded the J. William Fulbright for research in the Tibetan Buddhist refugee community in northern India. Lien spent nearly a year living among and capturing the oral history of these political and spiritual refugees. Upon completion of the Fulbright, Lien returned to Los Angeles where she originates, and now resides.

Karen Kocher

Karen Kocher is an Austin-based media producer who works in film, video and new media. For the past 13 years, she has been creating media work for digital platforms and studying the ways that the digital technology is expanding the documentary genre. Currently Karen is developing Living Springs a "webumentary" about the culture, history and science of Barton Springs pool. Portions of the web site will be developed into interactive exhibits at the Beverly Sheffield Education Center. In 2006, she completed Austin Past and Present, a multimedia documentary about the history of Austin, Texas, that was installed in kiosks in public buildings, broadcast on PBS, installed on computers in Austin libraries, and integrated into the social studies curriculum throughout the Austin Independent School District. Karen has also worked on nationally broadcast PBS documentaries including the award-winning series Chicano!: History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and Songs of the Homeland, a documentary about the history of Tex-Mex music. Karen has been teaching documentary production and digital post-production for the Department of Radio, Television and Film at UT Austin since 1998.

Jake H. Gonzales

Jake H. Gonzales graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where ze studied film, business, and public relations. Ze also has a long history in queer and progressive filmmaking, organizations, and campaigns. Jake joined the Austin Gay & Lesbian nternational Film Festival (aGLIFF) in May 2008 as the volunteer Assistant Program Director and was the recipient of aGLIFF's Tim Jones Volunteer Award for 2008. Ze was hired in October 2008 as Programs Director and has since tackled many projects, including the expansion of aGLIFF's entertainment and education programs, including the Queer Youth Media Project. Jake is also the founder and principal consultant at Jake H. Gonzales and Associates, which provides production, public relations, design, and systems development services to nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and independent artists. Ze also recently started TheLonestarDiva.com, a blog featuring original content and lots of commentary on life, love, politics, culture, sex, gender, feminism, pets, tech, faith, film, TV, media, queer sh*t and etc. When not stirring up trouble, Jake enjoys an active Yoga practice, deepening hir spiritual awareness at the Center for Spiritual Living, Central Texas, and relaxing with hir husband and five animal companions.