[L-R] Actress Daisy Fuentes, who announced the winners;
grant winners Yasmina Cádiz and Carolina Pfister; Steve Tihanyi,
GM's general director, marketing alliances & promotions; and
grant winners Claudia A. Mercado and Carmen C. Avila.
Winner Nicole Valdizān Sacker is not pictured.

The WIF/GM Latina New Filmmaker Grant is awarded annually to five up-and-coming Latina filmmakers.  The 2005 winners are:

• Carmen C. Avila, Glendale, CA. In addition to her position as manager of production payroll in the television department of NBC/Universal, Avila was executive in charge of production for Disney/Touchstone’s Mercenary II: Thick & Thin, a Robert Townsend project filmed in Mexico. Avila’s film English Only, produced for Universal Television’s Hispanic Film Project, was selected from 1,500 entries to complete at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. A second effort, El Artista, was sold into syndication. She is currently developing a feature film based on the novel Albuquerque, by Rudolfo Anaya, who is known as the “Godfather” of Chicano literature.
• Yasmina Cádiz, Chicago, IL. Cádiz is co-founder of XChromosomeFilms, a film production company that promotes, supports and helps create opportunities for women in the entertainment industry. The producer, writer and director of the short film Mama Said, a selection at six film festivals (including the 2005 New York International Latino Film Festival), Cádiz is currently at work on her next project, Twelve Signs, a film about 12 interwoven stories with an astrological theme.
• Claudia A. Mercado, Los Angeles, CA. Founder of Womyn Image Makers, Mercado, a substitute teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, has served as producer, director, cinematographer and editor on a variety of projects. She is currently at work on her first documentary, Women Who Remember, a story about Chicana, Latina and Mexican women living in the U.S. who are embracing “indigenismo,” an urban Native American Latina culture.
• Carolina Pfister, Chicago, IL. Pfister recently earned her masters degree from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she also taught video workshops at inner city schools. She’s now living in Chicago, where she’s editing Viva Viva, a documentary about three generations of punk rockers in São Paulo, Brazil. Born in Europe to Brazilian parents fleeing dictatorship, Pfister – who worked at MTV Brazil while attending undergraduate film school – has interviewed and filmed a variety of subjects, from Latino gang members in Milwaukee to female inmates in Brazilian prisons.
• Nicole Valdizān Sacker, Los Angeles, CA. A writer and filmmaker who has produced and/or directed 14 films, Sacker’s work has been chosen as an official selection at 17 film festivals, with The Duel winning the “Best Director” award at the 2004 Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza. Currently serving as production coordinator on the horror film 7eventy-5ive, Sacker is also producing/directing a pilot for a TV sitcom, Living Together.