Youth Jury 2024
The Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is thrilled to announce our 2024 Youth Jury. This group of 21 young filmmakers and artistic creators based in BC and Latin America will receive mentorship, watch and debate the seven films in the New Directors competition, attend a deliberation session, and present the Youth Choice Award for Best New Director at the Closing Ceremony on September 15th.
Please make sure to watch the dialogues with the Youth Jury and the filmmakers in the New Directors Competition throughout the festival via the VLAFF Facebook Video Library and VLAFFTV on YouTube.
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Read on to learn more about the Youth Jury members!
Adriana Gessell García Benites (she/her) / PERU
Cultural manager from Trujillo who promotes film and other arts projects together with women, dissidents, children and adolescents for social transformation. Also audiovisual filmmaker with interests in archives and memory. Her latest short film Cosas de Hombres has been exhibited in territories such as Peru, Chile, Italy, USA, Rotterdam.
Alma García (she/ella) / PERU ~ local
My name is Alma and I am a Peruvian filmmaker studying at UBC. I love cinema as I believe it has the power to enrich human life, by confronting people to feelings, ideas, and perspectives. I am interested in both the technical and practical side of film and the theoretical dimensions and I discuss the implications of both when analysing a film. In the past my appreciation for the cinematic has inspired me to work as a film critic for the Vancouver podcast Three Angry Nerds, and serve as a jury for the Young David di Donatello award in Italy.
Azul Widnicky (she/her) / ARGENTINA~ local
Im Azul Widnicky, born in Buenos Aires Argentina in 1997. Passionate about arts, i love cinema, paintings, architecture. Since I was a little dreamy girl. I been working on set as a director and as part of art teams, I love to help stories come to life & watch the characters develop.
Caterina Niello (she/they) / ARGENTINA
Caterina Niello is an researcher and film critic with a degree from the National University of the Arts (UNA-Argentina), with studies in an exchange program at UNIACC University (Chile). Her research topic is Latin American animation and its intersections with gender perspectives and anti-colonial theories.
Diego Minor (they/él) / MEXICO ~ local
Diego Minor Martínez is a director, screenwriter, and photographer from Tlaxcala, México who passionately pushes storytelling boundaries across film, TV, games, and animation. Immigrated to Canada after receiving the 2019 FIC Monterrey Scholarship at Vancouver Film School. They now study at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, pursuing a BA in fine arts.
Federica Cafferata (she/her) / ARGENTINA
Federica Cafferata graduated in Filmmaking from the Universidad del Cine Buenos Aires. Her professional experience includes various roles such as director, assistant director, producer, and art director. Moreover, she has coordinated film workshops and events. Currently, she is working at Peliplat’s information team, pursuing Film Criticism classes and distributing her short film “Summit Song.”
Francis Rogers (they/she) / MEXICO/BRAZIL ~ local
Francis Rogers Alvarez de la Cadena (they/she) is a mixed queer filmmaker completing their BFA in Film Production with a minor in Sociology from UBC. They are Mexican on their moms side, and are Brazilian, European settler, and Romanian on their fathers side. Free Palestine!!
Frida Guillén (she/ella) / MEXICO
Frida Guillén, born in Mexico but a resident of Abya Yala, specialized in Cinematic Analysis with the thesis “The Representation of Women in Horror Films Directed by Women.” She created the short film ‘El Monstruo Eres Tú’, showcased at international festivals. In 2022, she won 2nd place in the PROCINE CDMX competition with ‘ENCUENTRO’. She participated in the documentary series on gender violence in the audiovisual industry, ‘Resistencias Fílmicas’. A speaker and moderator at film and gender conferences, she is currently pursuing a master’s degree, researching horror films, and is involved in a new project with the ‘Felpudas Teatro’ collective.
Guillermo Reynoso / MEXICO ~ local
Hello, I’m Guillermo Reynoso. I studied film in Mexico City and specialized in screenwriting at
Vancouver Film School. Cinema has been my constant passion. Recently, I created an Instagram page called “El Decálogo” to share my love for cinema through art and other media.
Harold Daniel Angel Montana (he/él) / COLOMBIA
Senior year film student at the National University of Colombia. Artistic director of the Equinoxio University Film and Audiovisual Festival since 2023. He has worked in the production field for several audiovisual projects and is currently launching his own production house TUGA FILMS.
Katia Ruiz (she/her) / MEXICO ~ local
Katia Ruiz is a passionate filmmaker born in Mexico in 2002. She’s been producing films since she was 19-years-old and worked in Guadalajara’s International Film Festival in the production area and directed the emerging film festival “No Somos de Cristal: Festival de Cine Joven de Guadalajara”. She’s currently studying Film Production in Vancouver Film School.
María Haia Genes (she/ella) / PARAGUAY
Haia is a Paraguayan living in Buenos Aires (Argentina), pursuing a career as a scriptwriter. She believes that making a film is being able to show an authentic perspective, considering that every history has been already told, always wondering “what’s different this time?”.
Miguelángel Sabhueso Arrascaena (he/él) / COLOMBIA
Usually alternating between deserter and survivor. In conviction against power through his photographic brecha “la pupila escafandra”. infunding member of “DESINSTITUTO TRANS DRAMATICO” underground school of Latin American theater. Contra coronel of the cinematographically movement “Cinefusíl”, fruit of his parents love. in definitive a human entrusted to the quest for peace paths.
Nicolás Vega (he/él) / ECUADOR ~ local
Nicolas is a young Ecuadorian filmmaker who mainly works as a screenwriter, director and cinematographer. He has written and directed several short films and has experience in feature films working as a making-of artist, production assistant, 3rd assistant director, and production coordinator in various Ecuadorian movies.
Nicolás Llantén (he/él) / CHILE
Nicolás Llantén is a young filmmaker based in Chile. During the lockdown, he found in movies a comfort place, making them now his life. He has directed two short films and produced another two, one making a festival route and two others in post-production, waiting for their premiere soon.
Nuria González (she/ella) / MEXICO
Nuria González Pimentel is a filmmaker, film programmer, and curator working in Querétaro, México. Her films have been exhibited in festivals, museums, and galleries in several countries. She has worked with festivals such as Ambulante, Cinema Queer México, and DOQUMENTA. She co-founded Destruir dice ellx, a platform dedicated to showcasing experimental cinema.
Ricardo García (he/they/ele)/ BRAZIL ~ local
Ricardo, a Brazilian filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor graduated from the top university in Latin America (USP). He has studied and worked in Brazil, China, and now resides in Vancouver after being the one in Latin America selected for the Ficmonterrei full scholarship at Vancouver Film
School. Recently, personally invited to an MFA in New York by a two-time Academy Award-nominated producer, who praised his work. With a repertoire that includes directing and acting in numerous short films, features, music videos, plays, and musicals, the film ‘What If’, directed alongside Karla Bonfá won the Emmy 2022 JCSI Young Creative Awards. His short film Amei Te Ver (I Loved To See You) has received acclaim from juries, critics, and audiences, winning production grants, several screenwriting contests, and over 15 Best Film awards in 7 countries so far, being selected in BAFTA, Canadian Screen Awards and Academy Awards qualifying festivals. With a passion for social impact, his journey is characterized by social and humanitarian work, with plays performed in orphanages in South Africa. Additionally, he leads a relevant project in Brazil, teaching free filmmaking classes to deaf students and
producing their work.
Sarah Mota (she/ela) / BRAZIL
Sarah, 23, a young film student at Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, passionate about
discovering new cinematographic aesthetics and new ways of producing, especially in Latin America, what leads me to explore and appreciate the diversity of cinema at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.
Victor L. Cezar / BRAZIL ~ local
Victor L. Cezar is a Brazilian screenwriter and director, from São Paulo, Brazil. Recently graduated as a filmmaker and currently residing in Vancouver attending the writing program at Vancouver Film School. He always wanted to entertain people with his stories and is now pursuing his career as a
screenwriter.
Ximena Jimenez / MEXICO ~ local
I’m Ximena, a Mexican filmmaker based in Vancouver. My passion lies in giving voice to stories that deserve to be told. I have worked as an executive producer with my production company in different projects, including narrative films, commercials, and music videos in both Mexico and Canada.