Mexican filmmaker Natalia Almada has been selected as the 2011 recipient of the Alpert Award in the Film/Video category, as it was announced by The Herb Alpert Foundation. The Alpert Award in the Arts provides unrestricted, annual prizes of $75,000 to "five engaged, independent artists working in the fields of dance, film/video, music, theatre and the visual arts." The award is by California Institute of the Arts, and it "rewards experimenters who are challenging and transforming art, their respective disciplines, and society." Natalia Almada has made three feature films to date: Al Otro Lado, El General (winner of the US Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010) and more recently El Velador, which had its world premiere at New Directors/New Films Festival in New York and was featured out of competition at Cannes' Directors Fortnight just last week. "Exploring experimental and documentary cinema, Almada combines artistic expression with social inquiry to make films that are both personal reflections and critical social commentaries," says the Alpert Foundation.
