The 8th annual South Texas International Film Festival held an award ceremony for the submitted films last Saturday at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance.
The award ceremony was part of the festival which ran Thursday through Saturday starting at the Cinemark Bistro then moving to the conference center.
The ceremony began at 7 p.m. and was hosted by Brenda Patricia Garza and American actor Valente Rodriguez best known for his role as Ernie Cardenas in the show “George Lopez”.
It became apparent that many of the award winners were not in attendance after the first few were announced; leading Rodriguez to joke that he was going to keep the awards for himself.
Things picked up when the hosts announced the winner of the Best Documentary Feature.
“And the winner is…Pepe Serna Life is Art!”
Serna, who is known for playing Paul Del Moral in “Man from Reno” was also awarded the Legacy Award for his contributions as a Latino actor in the industry.
Serna explained how he felt winning both awards that night.
“Getting those two awards tonight…was very heartwarming. A lot of time and effort has gone into it as you can tell, 78 years of my life going into it…I was blown away by it.”
He also shared some words of wisdom.
“Seeing Latinos on film and TV has been my life quest…I was already a movie actor at 6 cause I saw myself, I believed it…If you think it, you are it, and do it and own it and be proud of it and do it with a certain amount of not arrogance but confidence.”
Serna’s acceptance speech got a standing ovation from the audience.
To watch the award ceremony online, visit the South Texas International Film Festival’s Facebook page.
This is Rodolfo Alvarado for Vaquero Radio.
