Norma, a touching 32-minute documentary about a Juárez street vendor, took the $1,500 first prize in this year’s seventh annual Local Flavor Showcase and Awards in the Plaza Theatre on July 28, the last day of the Plaza Classic Film Festival.
It was one of four local film projects that shared in $3,600 in prizes in the seventh annual Local Flavor Showcase and Awards, held for the third consecutive year in the Plaza Theatre.
Nearly $1,000 was awarded in this year’s third annual Plaza Classic Film Festival Screenwriting Competition.
Norma was filmed largely on the streets of Juárez in 2015, but the project encountered various delays, including the COVID-19 pandemic, before filmmakers Edmund A. Lozano and Romina Alexendra completed it earlier this year.
Second prize went to El Paso native and Harvard University filmmaker Bryant Valenzuela for his narrative short The Cost of Opportunity. Valenzuela receives $1,000 for his efforts, plus an additional $100 for film’s selection as the best college student effort, a new award this year.
The $750 third prize went to director Ulises Córdova for his humorous dystopian short Three Months in Star City (Ay Ay), which also was voted the $250 audience favorite in a live text-to-vote during the Local Flavor program.
In all, eight short films were screened as part of this year’s program. Also shown were the documentary Echoes of the Rio by Jackie Barragan, a Papayas con Chile music video by Ryan Michael Robson, the documentary Babette + Fontaine by Zak Zeh, a modern music video of the Romancers’ I Did the Wrong Thing by Diego Munoz Holguin, and UTEP student Lia Gonzalez’s narrative short Haunted Places.
The awards were hosted and handed out by Drew Mayer-Oakes, director of the El Paso Film and Creative Industries Commission, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Mayer-Oakes received our Plaza Classic Award for contributions to the community. The showcase and awards were sponsored by the commission and the Texas Film Commission.
This year’s showcase and awards were followed by a free, public reception in the Foundation Room that drew nearly 200 attendees.
Returning as judges this year were filmmakers Javier Gonzalez and Ilana Lapid, plus El Paso Community Foundation staff member and longtime PCFF operative Asia Saucedo.
Candace Cano took first prize in this year’s third annual screenwriting competition with her screenplay Wounds. In addition to $500, she receives a copy of Coverfly’s Final Draft 13 screenwriting software, a consultation with writer-director Lucky McKee (May, Woman, The Old Man, Poker Face), and an abridged table read of her screenplay, which was held July 28 in the Foundation Room as this year’s Filmmakers Brunch.
The $250 second prize went to Sheryl Levine Guterman of Los Angeles for her screenplay Memory Road. She also receives a copy of Coverfly’s Final Draft 13.
In a related event, writer Michael Forte took the $100 first prize in our second annual PCFF Screenwriting Competition Pitch Fest, which was held July 25 at Aaron & George’s Film Cafe. Our runner-up by applause was Hannah Hollandbyrd, who pitched the screenplay she wrote with Daniella Balarezo called La Chingada. We “passed the bucket,” taking up a collection for her totaling $65 — and a canned cake!
The 18th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will be July 17-27, 2025 in and around the Plaza Theatre. Expect announcements regarding Local Flavor and screenwriting submissions in the late winter/early spring.
Among the Local Flavor Awards winners pictured (from left) are: Bryant Valenzuela, *The Cost of Opportunity; Christopher Saldaña and Ulises Córdova, Three Months in Star City (Ay Ay); and Edmund A. Lozano, Norma.*
