Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Helping Champion Afro Latino and Indigenous Latino Filmmakers

14/09/2021

Back to All News

Helping Champion Afro Latino and Indigenous Latino Filmmakers

Pete Corona

Director of Drama Series

Social Impact

14 September 2021

United States

"Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic erasure." - George Gerbner and Larry Gross

We know that in order to showcase more Latinx stories in front of the camera, we need to find fresh Latinx voices behind the scenes to bring these narratives to life.

That's why last year we partnered with the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) for their inaugural Inclusion Fellowship. Focused on championing historically underrepresented groups within the Latinx community, the Fellowship supported five filmmakers that identify as Afro Latino through mentorship, Netflix executive panels, networking opportunities, and helping finance the production of their short films.

We were blown away by the talent of these fellows (pictured above) and the shorts they premiered at LALIFF 2021, several of which have since been accepted into other film festivals.

We're excited to announce that we're teaming up with LALIFF again and doubling the number of fellows for the program's second year. This year's Fellowship will be awarded to five directors that identify as Afro Latino and five directors that identify as Indigenous Latino.

Once again, the Fellowship will award each filmmaker a $20,000 grant to produce a short film. The fellows will also receive support from our team at Netflix throughout the development of their films, as well as one-on-one mentorship from industry leaders from production to distribution and various networking opportunities.

The films will then premiere during LALIFF 2022. The fellows will also be invited to the festival's Industry Days, to further develop their careers and gain important industry access.

The expansion of the Inclusion Fellowship is part of the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity that we announced earlier this year, an initiative created to help create more behind-the-camera opportunities for underrepresented communities within the TV and film industries.

We're thrilled to build on our partnership with LALIFF to amplify new voices behind the camera and grow the next generation of Latinx filmmakers. Representation matters.

To find out more information about the Fellowship and how to apply, visit https://laliff.org/fellowship.

Learn more about our first-year fellows and their shorts below:

Lorena Dur n ( Loma de Lil )

When an electrical job goes wrong, an unfriendly electrician must accept help from a caring spirit to bury the evidence of a fatal accident

Lorena Dur n is an award-winning filmmaker born in New York and raised in the Dominican Republic. She received an MFA from the NYU Graduate Film Program and was selected for the 2019 Film Independent Project Involve Fellowship for emerging filmmakers. Her latest short film, The Fisherwoman, featured at Palm Springs ShortFest and Atlanta Film Festival. Her work as a cinematographer has been screened in many international events and platforms, from Tribeca Film Festival to Vimeo Staff Pick, and has received the 2019 ARRI Volker Bahnemann Award for Outstanding Cinematography.

Justin Floyd ( Quincea ero )

A whimsical musical about a Catholic boys dream of having a Quincea era.

Justin Floyd is an Afro-Latin writer & director from Compton, CA. The Inner-City Filmmakers' alumnus landed on stage at the Academy Awards in 2015 as part of Team Oscar for his short, The Center. Floyd is a 2016 Sundance Ignite Fellow and was named a Warner Bros. 2017 Emerging Film Director. His short, Resurrect, was acquired by HBO. Floyd's most recent short, Fotos de Blancas, was filmed in Valle De Chalco, Mexico, and is expected to premiere in 2021.

Kesa Pe a ( Period )

Vergara, a trans Latinx woman, gets a part-time job looking after a shy 12-year-old girl upon being released from jail. In order to make ends meet, Vergara continues doing sex work on the side even though this is what landed her in jail in the first place.

Kase is an award-winning New York City-born filmmaker. She's a trans woman of color, the offspring of working class parents from the Dominican Republic. Kase is currently developing a project with legendary trans icon Carmen Carrera and Stephanie Beatriz of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and In The Heights fame. Her feature screenplay I Love Hate, the recipient of the Sundance Institute Launch Grant, is being produced by Angel Lopez. HBO has picked up distribution rights for two of Kase's short films: Full Beat and Trabajo .

Tamara Shogaolu ( The Braid of Time )

After the tragic loss of her grandmother, Estela finds the key to her future in her grandmothers past.

Tamara Shogaolu is the founder and creative director of Ado Ato Pictures. Her work has been featured at film festivals, galleries, and museums worldwide, such as the Tribeca Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Gallery of Indonesia. She was a 2018 Sundance Institute New Frontier Lab Programs Fellow, a 2019 Gouden Kalf Nominee, a 2020 Creative Capital Award Recipient, and a 2020 Sundance New Frontier John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grantee and much more.

Monica Suriyage ( La Ciguapa )

When shy Milagros boyfriend Davis takes her on a camping trip, tensions rise as she realizes he's been cheating on her. Davis adamantly denies it, but a deep rage builds inside Milagro, transforming her into what shes always been meant to be: a ciguapa.

Monica Suriyage is a biracial, blasian, first generation, afro latina whose directing work features bold color, strong women, and sometimes blood. Her first short film Black In Red Out screened at over 20 film festivals across the US, and she was featured in the documentary Horror Noire about the
LINK: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/helping-champion-afro-latino-and-ind...
See more stories from netflix

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

12/06/2026

YES Network and Gotham Sports App to Air Seven Athletes Unlimited Softball League Games

YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...

12/06/2026

UFL to Feature FAST Innovation Suite at 2026 United Bowl

The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...

12/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: PTZOptics and LayerJot to Demo AI-Driven Camera Control

PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...

12/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: MultiDyne to Debut VF-9100 Fiber Transport Platform and Crescendo Audio Monitor

MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...

12/06/2026

Eurovision Services Deploys Ateme Software-Based Frame-Rate Conversion

Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...

12/06/2026

Bitmovin, Simplestream, and Xperi Partner to Support OTT Services on TiVo OS

Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...

12/06/2026

Net Insight Deploys Nimbra 520 and Nimbra Edge for Multinational Corporate Live Production Workflow

Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...

12/06/2026

MLB Players Inc., Athletes First Announce Content Partnership

MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...

12/06/2026

G&D and VuWall Announce CommandKeyboard-Advanced for Network-Independent Control Room Operations

Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...

12/06/2026

Philadelphia Union and Comcast Deploy Smart Technology at Subaru Park and WSFS Bank Sportsplex

Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...

12/06/2026

Elevation Worship Completes First Leg of 2026 Tour Using SSL Live Consoles and New UMD192 Interface

Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...

12/06/2026

AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Transkoder and On-Set Dailies

AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...

12/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Audinate To Exhibit With New AVIO Install Adapters and Iris Camera Control Platform

Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...

12/06/2026

Pac-12 Appoints Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer

Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...

12/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Grass Valley Introduces AMPP Edge Live for Enterprise Production

Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...

12/06/2026

University of Texas's Brandon Rudy on a New Era of Live Sports Production in Austin

At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...

12/06/2026

Ratings Roundup: NBA Finals Game 3 Hits 28-Year High; Stanley Cup Final Is Best Since 2015 Through Four Games

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

12/06/2026

Chyron Releases PAINT 10.4 with Pro Football Data Integration and AI Player Cutout

Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...

12/06/2026

ESPN's MLB Productions Heat Up in June as Core Summer Schedule Gets Rolling

SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...

12/06/2026

Televisas IBC Team Delivers for Opening Mexico Match

For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...

12/06/2026

GearExpo UK: Home Studio Acoustics Talk

Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...

12/06/2026

Meris introduce the Ottobit X

Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...

12/06/2026

Sonora Cinematic release Movimento Strings Inflections

Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...

12/06/2026

Research: Mixed Picture for FIFA World Cup Broadcast Revenues

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

Viant Launches Enhanced Publisher Solutions for CTV, Programmatic

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software

AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software Brie Clayton June 12, 2026 0 Comments Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...

12/06/2026

URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert

URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert Brie Clayton June 12, 2026 0 Comments Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...

12/06/2026

MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services From Set to Screen

MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...

12/06/2026

AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro

AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026 0 Comments The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...

12/06/2026

Bitmovin Partners with Simplestream and Xperi to Support...

Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...

12/06/2026

Jigsaw24 Signs Deal to Resell Leostream Remote Desktop Ac...

Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...

12/06/2026

Study: 2026 Election Cycle to Hit Record $11.6 Billion Ad Spend

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

NAB Elects Leadership at June Board of Directors Meeting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

FCC Believes World Cup Communication Will Score Highly

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

Broadcasters Back NO FAKES Act

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

Scripps Unveils Coverage Plans For America's 250th Anniversary

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP

How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026 Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...

12/06/2026

Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film

Back to All News Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film Entertainment 12 June 2026 GlobalArgentina Link copied to ...

12/06/2026

Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm in The East Palace', Premiering July 17

Back to All News Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...

12/06/2026

The Future of Studio Grading. Tokyo. 23 June 2026

With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm Restar Corporation Tokyo Register here John Daro is the ...

12/06/2026

New animated series The Grumpy Onion available in English and as Gaeilge on RT KIDSjr, RT2 and RT

Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...

12/06/2026

RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast

RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...

12/06/2026

June 11, 2026

A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...

11/06/2026

HBSs Johannes Franken on Digital Innovations, the Role of the Influencer at the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...

11/06/2026

Nielsen: Soccer Fandom in North America Tops 136 Million, Up 10.9% in Five Years

Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...