Two Hondurans independent filmmakers, Katia Lara and Servio Tulio Mateo, were chosen and awarded for their film work among 114 other projects submitted from Central America and the Caribbean. The awards were part of a film arts contest that took place on October 19 in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The judges of the fourth annual international Cinergia awards singled out 18 films for the “Fund to Promote Audio-Visual Art of Central America and the Caribbean.” Cinergia will support these projects with USD $152,000.

The contestants also received recognition and support from the Göteborg Film Festival in Sweden. Contest judges included Thomas Krempke of Swiss Effects Production Company; Cynthia Lopez, Vice President of American Documentary/ P.O.V.; Argentine film directors, Darío Nardi and Cristian Pauls; Camila Larsson of the International Göteborg Film Festival; Victor Hugo Acuña, historian and teacher at the University of Costa Rica; and Ecuadorian film producer Tania Hermida, known for her film “How Far Away (Que tan lejos)” (2006).

The two Honduran film directors the jury selected this year were Katia Lara, as director, in the category of “Development of Project” for her fiction film “If God was Black” and Servio Tulio Mateo, as producer, in the same category “Development of Project”, for his documentary “Between Weaves and Patterns,” a coproduction between Honduras and Guatemala. Tulio Mateo, a promising figure in the film industry, is currently producing the ambitious documentary “El Porvenir,” which has been in production since 2004 and is now in postproduction.

Katia Lara is part of Terco Productions, a beneficiary of the Program of Art and Culture of HIVOSK; she is the founder and has been the director of Terco Productions since 2002; she currently is the general manager of the company and is the co-founder of the Association of Film Directors of Honduras (ACH). She contributes to “Space Independent Media” magazine and many other arts publications.

Cinergia has granted incentives to 66 audio-visual proposals in Central America in amounts from USD $2,000 to $35,000, and has contributed to the education and technical training of more than 60 film producers in the region. The Fund was created with the purpose of stimulating audio-visual development of regional producers and to strengthen relations of coproduction between participating countries. The Fund is now considered the only dedicated alternative financing to sponsor cinema and video in the region.