
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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Grass Valley today announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP to transform its newsroom produc...
02/06/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...
02/06/2026
The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...
02/06/2026
More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...
02/06/2026
farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...
02/06/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17 19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
June sees Ireland's cultural calendar in full bloom, as RT Supporting the Arts showcases a vibrant and wide-ranging programme spanning music, theatre, visu...
02/06/2026
After The Traitors Ireland launched in 2025, Irish audiences proved to have a taste for the global hit reality show. This Bank Holiday Monday fans can indulge e...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Luxembourg, June 1, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, launched fast and reliable multi-orbit satelli...
01/06/2026
Agentic AI is getting physical.
At COMPUTEX on Tuesday, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA JetPack 7.2 and NVIDIA NemoClaw support on NVIDIA Jetson.
JetPack 7.2 brings a...
01/06/2026
Financial institutions have spent years building AI: fraud models, credit models...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...