SHORTS IN COMPETITION JURY
& LIVE DELIBERATION

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

Public deliberation, Sunday, Sept 5 at 11:15am (Vancouver time) via
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.

Hipatia Argüero Mendoza (Mexico) studied screenwriting at Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). She has written scripts for short films that have been selected in national and international festivals. Her feature scripts and projects have been selected to participate in programs and development platforms such as the Coproduction Forum of the San Sebastián Film Festival, the screenwriting workshop Cine Qua Non Lab, Bolivia Lab, Berlinale Talents Guadalajara, and Nuevas Miradas at the EICTV in Cuba, among others. In 2016 she founded Malamadre A.C., an organization dedicated to supporting production and exhibition in different cultural regions of Mexico. In 2020 the short film Crescendo, written by her and directed by her brother Percival Argüero Mendoza and produced by her sister, Larisa Argüero Mendoza, was awarded the silver medal at the Student Academy Awards for Best International Short. Hipatia has participated as a film critic in TV programs and has written about cinema in different film magazines.

Laslo Rojas (Peru) is the co-founder and content editor of Cinencuentro.com one of the leading film websites in Peru and Latin America. Laslo also works in the digital distribution platform of Peruvian cinema Cineaparte.com. He has also been a jury member of the International Critics Jury at the Lima Festival, and member of the Jury at the National Contest of Experimental Works, in Peru. Laslo was part of  the Talents Buenos Aires held within the framework of the BAFICI festival; and for the Nisimazine workshop, organized by NisiMasa, a European network of young film critics, within the framework of the Rio de Janeiro Festival. He has also done coverage in the film festivals of Lima, BAFICI, Valdivia, Rio de Janeiro, and others.

Pablo Roldán (Colombia) is a film critic and the editor-in-chief of the magazine Cero en conducta, a magazine dedicated to film criticism with special emphasis on Colombian cinema. Pablo is a member of the Bogotá Film Critics Circle (CBCINE) and Artistic Director of the Cinemancia Metropolitan Film Festival. He has written for different media, including Arcadia Magazine, The End Film Magazine and many others. He has collaborated with the Cuadernos de Cine Colombiano, a publication of the Bogotá Cinematheque. He studied Film and Television at the Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano. He has programmed and managed film clubs, research projects, cultural events and film critic workshops.