Red Mesa wins Best Short Film at the 2009 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
The 13th Annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) concluded on Friday, October 16 with its Award Ceremony & Closing Night Gala that took place at the Paramount Theatre on the Paramount Lot in Hollywood. Festival co-founders Edward James Olmos and Marlene Dermer led the award ceremony. Winners were announced in the categories of best feature film, best director, best screenplay, best opera prima, best short, best documentary, and audience awards in the feature and documentary categories. Special mentions from the jury were also announced.
Award-winning director Simon Brand; screenwriter, producer and actor Rick Najera; Benjamin O’Dell, Head of Development and Production Panamax Films, and award winning motion picture editor Dan Fort served as jurors in the official selection and opera prima category. The jury members for the documentary category included Randal Johnson, distinguished film scholar and director of the Latin American Institute in the UCLA International Institute, filmmaker Robert Young, and filmmaker Nancy De Los Santos. Director Patricia Riggen, visual effect artist Charlie Iturriaga; actors William Marquez, and Jeremy Ray Valdez were the jurors in the shorts category.
Best Short Winner: “Red Mesa”
Director: Ilana Lapid
Screenwriter: Ilana Lapid
Country: USA
Synopsis: Unable to share her beloved grandfather’s dreams for her future, Lynn charts her
won path by seeking love beyond familiar borders. Caught in the crossfire of her affection for
her grandfather and her secret love with an undocumented worker, Lynn must decide which
birders she is willing to cross. Set on a cattle ranch on the US/Mexico Border, RED MESA is a
powerful cinematic exploration of love, loyalty and coming of age through a young woman’s
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