VLAFF is pleased to host a live streamed deliberation in Spanish with three Latin American film critics to choose the winner of the Short Film competition prize.

Public deliberation, Sunday, Sept 6th at 2pm. VLAFF Facebook Live

For a long time the method of how prizes are awarded in the arts has been a much debated topic. We hope that this exercise will contribute to a greater transparency in how prizes are awarded, as well as for the public to learn more about the work of film critics and to view the films in discussion from new perspectives.

Arantxa Luna (Mexico). She is a graduate of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of National University of Mexico (UNAM). Her professional career is focused on the analysis of cinema and television. Arantxa has participated in various seminars on film criticism such as the First National Film Critic Competition organized by the Cineteca Nacional in Mexico. She has been a member of the jury of film festivals such as Distrital and MicGénero and is a contributor to the magazines CinePremiere, Nexos and Sector Cine, as well as being a panelist in the Canal Once film program “Mi Cine, Tu Cine”. Arantxa currently works at the cinema distributor company Interior XIII and studies Screenwriting at the prestigious film school Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica , in Mexico City. 

Ariadna Ruiz (Cuba) She is a journalist and researcher. She currently resides in Mexico and is a full-time professor in the Faculty of Communication and Audiovisual Arts, ITESO, in Guadalajara. In Mexico she also completed her Master’s studies in the field of Communication, at the University of Guadalajara. Her lines of research include Cuban documentary film, participatory documentary, and collaborative and transmedia Latin American webdocumentary. She is the author and co-author of several chapters in the books incluiding “50 years of Cuban cinema”, Editorial Letras Cubanas, 2019. She has collaborated with the magazines Cine Cubano, from ICAIC, and Enfoco, from EICTV, Cuba; the magazine Encartes Antropológicos, from CIESAS, Guadalajara; and the official publications of the Gibara Poor Film Festival. Ariadna belongs to the Cuban Association of Cinematographic Press (ACPC) and  has given conferences and participated in different panels in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, USA, Cuba, on documentary ethics, participatory representation strategies in non-fiction cinema, Cuban film criticism, and the collaborative Latin American webdocumentary. 

Marcela Gamberini (Argentina) Marcela studied Letters in the University of Buenos Aires. She has worked at this University since 1986. She was a teacher in various institutions, including  the National School of Buenos Aires. Marcela collaborated for over 15 years in the film magazine El Amante. She currently collaborates in the film site Con los ojos abiertos . She has been a jury member at various national and international film festivals.