Chicken & Egg Pictures, the New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to the support of women nonfiction filmmakers has announced the six international winners of their Chicken & Egg Award, which includes three U.S. Latinx and Latin American filmmakers: Mexican-Salvadoran director Tatiana Huezo, Mexican-American director Cristina Ibarra, and Afro-Latinx director Loira Limbal. Each winner will receive a $50,000 grant plus a year-long mentorship program for their documentary filmmaking.
Huezo gained an international reputation with her debut feature The Tiniest Place (2011), which screened at more than 80 festivals. Her work has been acknowledged by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences with four Ariel Awards, among them Best Documentary and Best Director for Tempestad (2016), which also represented Mexico at the Academy Awards and the Goya Awards.
Ibarra is a Chicana border crosser and award-winning independent filmmaker with roots along the Texas-Mexico border. Her credits include The Infiltrators (2019), a hybrid docu-thriller which received the NEXT Audience and Innovator Awards at Sundance; and Las Marthas (2014), called “a striking alternative portrait of border life” by the The New York Times and awarded Best US Latinx Film by Cinema Tropical.
Born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents, Limbal is an Afro-Latina filmmaker interested in telling nuanced and revelatory stories about working class women of color. In addition to being the Senior Vice President of Programs at Firelight Media, Limbal is a Sundance Institute Momentum Fellow, DOC NYC Documentary New Leader, and a former Rockwood JustFilms Fellow. Limbal’s credits include Estilo Hip Hop (2009) and Through the Night (2020), a New York Times Critics’ Pick and selection for POV’s 2021 season.
“At a time when women are being pushed out of the workforce in record numbers, sustaining their careers in our documentary film community is vitally important,” said Jenni Wolfson, Chicken & Egg’s Executive Director quoted by news site Women and Hollywood. “Because of our holistic approach at Chicken & Egg Pictures, the Award grant is unrestricted — not tied to their film projects but to their professional growth and wellbeing. We are so honored to welcome six new, talented filmmakers into the program and to be their unwavering advocates in the industry.”
