PROGRAMS
2025-2026 LFI INCLUSION FELLOWSHIP
Alejandro Marquez Vela
Alejandro Marquez Vela is a writer/director from Guadalajara, Mexico. A Fulbright Scholar and John Huston Scholarship for Directing recipient, he earned his MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Since graduating, he has shadowed DGA Award-winner Dan Attias (Chance), Emmy-winner Guy Ferland (Mayans M.C.), and showrunner Elgin James (Mayans M.C.). As a lifelong fan of sci-fi and magical realism, Alejandro uses genre to explore identity, social issues, and the human condition in unconventional ways. His films often embrace non-linear narratives, metaphors, and allegories to create layered, nuanced stories. Some of his award-winning short films have addressed social issues such as domestic violence, water scarcity, and immigration, earning recognition at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF), USC’s First Look Awards, and the G.I. Film Festival San Diego. Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife Sofia, a private chef, and their half-pug, half-chihuahua pup, Gin.
Title of Project: Methuselah
Anna Victoria Salinas
Anna Salinas is a Cuban-Swedish writer/director whose work focuses on offbeat latina-driven stories. As a filmmaker, Anna has written and directed over a dozen short films. She is currently a WIF directing fellow, sponsored by Netflix. Her short, Ines Unfortunately, was a NALIP Latino Lens incubator selection and won her a Best Director award at LALIFF in 2023. Her most recent film — a surreal comedy called Mal Culo — premiered at the Austin Film Festival last year. On the TV side, Anna has written for various shows including Loot (AppleTV), Mo (Netflix), and Human Resources (Netflix). Her half-hour pilot, Inside C*nt, was named to the Blacklist Latinx List and earned her a blind script deal with Hulu. She has also developed projects for Sony, Columbia, and Disney.
Title of Project: I Don’t Hate Her
Anthony Rojas
Anthony Rojas is an Emmy-nominated Dominican-American filmmaker from Washington Heights, New York City. He earned his B.A. in Cinema Studies from SUNY Purchase College, with double minors in Film Production and Screenwriting. His work explores the complexities of Latinx identity, tracing the evolving narratives of first- and second-generation immigrants through intimate, character-driven stories that interrogate, represent, and reimagine the Latinx experience on screen. His latest short film, Papi Chulo, has screened at festivals including the New York Latino Film Festival, Bushwick Film Festival, Nou Akoma Nou Sinèji Haitian Dominican Transnational Film Festival, International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival, New York Lift-Off Film Festival, Urban Film Festival, XL Fest, and the Katra Film Series, where it received the Audience Choice Award. Most notably, he directed You’ve Been Ready, a 60-second spot for Warner Bros. Discovery’s New York Latino Film Festival, which earned both Imagen and Emmy nominations.
Title of Project: Sweet Plantains
Elizabeth Taide Vazquez
E.T. Vazquez, a.k.a Elizabeth Taide Vazquez or Liz Vazquez, is a first generation, Mexican-American artist, writer, filmmaker, and astrologer from the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. After studying anthropology, photography, and philosophy at Moorpark College, they obtained a Film Production BA in Cinematography at the Arts University Bournemouth in the UK. Their undergraduate thesis film Happy Birthday Cindy Wei received notable attention in the festival circuit, including a nomination for best student short at the Royal Television Society Southern Centre Regionals. From 2021 to 2022, Liz was an artist-in-residence at The Philosophical Research Society. There, they had their first solo show, “mano de dios: the nonsense continues” in the Hansell Gallery. In 2022, they also graduated from the American Film Institute Conservatory with an MFA in Screenwriting. Their thesis film Gorditx premiered at the GuadaLAjara Film Festival and was shown at various festivals including AFI Fest, Outfest Fusion, and the New York Latino Film Festival. Their newest short film, Encuentro Americano, was recently awarded Best Short Fiction Film at The Americas Film Festival of New York 2025.
Title of Project: Ruedas
Fiorella Vescovi
Fiorella Vescovi is a Los Angeles–based Latinx multi-hyphenate writer, director, and actor, born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay. Her latest film, Mal de Amores—a semi-autobiographical short and proof of concept for an LGBTQ+ TV series—has screened at over 24 festivals worldwide, including the Academy Award–qualifying HollyShorts and Outfest Fusion, and was nominated for Best Comedy Short by NewFilmmakers LA in 2024. The film received the Peregrine Collective Cycle III Grant and the Inside Out RE:Focus Fund, supported by the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival. Fiorella was also selected as a fellow of the 2022 Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today program, sponsored by Warner Bros. Discovery & HFPA. She was recently chosen to be a participant of the AWD #MentorLatinaDirectors Initiative 2023-2024 Cycle and in 2020, was selected to join the Women in Film mentee program as a writer/director. She is currently developing Stunted, a dark comedy television series based on Mal de Amores, and in 2025, she served as a staff writer on six episodes of the heartfelt LGBTQ+ sitcom And Also With You. Fiorella has attended UCLA Screenwriting Extension program. Her writing and directing work embraces deeply personal LGBTQ+, Latine, and women empowerment themes, while crafting heartfelt and unapologetic stories.
Title of Project: Pilotos de Papel
Karina Lomelin Ripper
Karina Lomelin Ripper is a Mexican-American writer and director whose films focus on the rebels, misfits, and rule-breakers, characters who push against institutions, in order to stay true to themselves. She was selected for a coveted spot in the AFI Directing Workshop for Women+ class of 2025. In the program, she directed her coming-of-age short, There’s a Devil Inside Me. The film won Best U.S. Latina Director at its world premiere at LALIFF 2025. Her previous short, a gothic horror film, Chispa, was supported by Fujifilm and won Best Oregon Filmmaker at the McMinnville Film Festival 2025. Karina is a recipient of a Princess Grace Honoraria 2025 and was a participant in the Hola Mexico’s: Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today 2024. Her films have received a Vimeo Staff Pick, premiered on PBS, MTV Tr3s and No Budge and screened at festivals all over the globe. She splits her time between Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon.
Title of Project: Silver Blankets
Karolina Esqueda
Karolina Esqueda is a filmmaker from Tijuana, Mexico, whose work explores the intersections of identity, faith, science, and culture; always with humor, heart, and evocative visual style. A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, her films have screened at festivals and venues all over the world: Oda A Los Frijoles won Best Experimental Short at the 2022 Hispanic Film Festival, and Barbie Boy, a short film she produced, was awarded the 2025 Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant at Frameline49. Most recently, she produced an episode about Chicano theater for a PBS Digital Studios docu-series.
Title of Project: Hooperella
Merced Elizondo
Merced Elizondo is a Mexican-American filmmaker from Texas that launched his career in 2017 after working on multiple television and film productions across his home state. Since then, he has gone on to be nominated for an Imagen Award, selected as a directing fellow for Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative in 2022, and was shortlisted for a Young Director Award at Cannes Lions. In 2021, he was selected as a fellow for HBO’s Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today program and honored as “Person of the Year” by the National Hispanic Institute. His latest film, “The Mourning Of”, is a proof-of-concept short that was awarded a NewNarratives Filmmaker Grant through NewFilmmakers Los Angeles and Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022. It’s currently on the 2024-2025 festival circuit and won the “Best Live Action Short Film” award at the 2024 St. Louis International Film Festival, officially making it Oscar® Qualifying. His previous film, “MANOS DE ORO”, is a black-and-white short that stars Julio César Cedillo, who can be seen in works such as Netflix’s “Narcos: Mexico”, “Sicario”, and the Cannes-winning drama “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”. A writer at heart, Merced’s creative sensibilities lean towards dramatic narratives and is committed to telling character-driven stories that are cinematic, personal, and most of all– original.
Title of Project: And Then Everything Turned Itself Inside Out
Ricardo A. Martinez
Ricardo Martinez is a multi-hyphenate Writer, Director, and Dad from Oakland. An NYU Film grad and “art school nerd”, he dove into documentary production after living abroad in Paris. His award-winning documentary, The Wall, launched his career as an editor and producer and won the Audience Award at the SF Latino Film Festival. The film played at several festivals and aired on PBS. After directing and producing the edgy documentary series, Seed to Strain, for Snoop Dogg‘s Cashmere Agency and the horror nature short, Creatures of Earth for Nat Geo and All 3 Media, he was inspired by current events to return to narrative writing. Ricardo’s comic, The BloodStone, is currently in development with Edward James Olmos Productions and Aaron Semmel at Chicoastal. Ricardo is a founding member of the Latine horror writer’s group, The LatinXorcists. He is a cohost on their podcast, Shared Nightmares, and recently launched their publishing arm with the comic, The Halloween Club, by Gerardo Maravilla and Anastasia Longoria. Ricardo is repped by John Pollak at Allied Management Group.
Title of Project: The Drop Off
Sofia Rovaletti
Sofia Rovaletti is a director and producer, currently serving as Director of Development at MoJo Global Arts. Her latest feature, Tender, starring Jesse Garcia (Flamin’ Hot, The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan), David Koechner (Anchorman), Jess Weixler (The Good Wife), and Shakira Barrera (IronHeart), is in post-production. She recently produced I F*cking Hate You!, short film for the Latino Film Institute and Netflix fellowship. Her short film The Interpreter, which she produced and directed, premiered at LALIFF in 2024. In 2025, and has been selected in multiple festivals including the San Diego Latino Film Festival, Festival de Cine de Alicante (Spain), Ciudad Real Film Festival (Spain), Femme Frontera (Texas), and Festival Tucuman Cine, Gerardo Vallejo (Argentina), among others. He is also currently producing a short film selected by the Russo Brothers Italian American Filmmakers Forum fellowship. In Argentina, Sofia participated in the production of notable films like “Operation Finale,” directed by Chris Weitz, and the Argentine masterpiece “Zama,” directed by Lucrecia Martel. There, she worked with production companies like Rei Pictures, Landia, Brava Cine, and Marlon, and was part of the production team for the Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Buenos Aires 2018.
Title of Project: Game of Chance
