Filmmaker/photographer named winner of 2026 Jorge M. Pérez Award

YoungerArts has introduced internationally acclaimed filmmaker and photographer María Alvarez as winner of the 2026 YoungerArts Jorge M. Pérez Award. Alvarez, a 2014 YoungerArts award winner in movie, will obtain an unrestricted money prize of $25,000 to advance her inventive endeavors.

“YoungArts is honored to be partnering again with The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation to bestow this esteemed award upon our esteemed alumna María Alvarez,” stated Clive Chang, president and CEO of YoungerArts.

“This award is a prime example of how YoungArts’ deep network of partnerships enables us to provide unparalleled opportunities for advancement to artists throughout their careers and across disciplines. Together, we are proud to extend this award to Alvarez, whose deeply personal cinematic practice explores timely themes of memory, identity, and belonging,” Chang added.

“María centers the raw humanity of our shared experience through her work, using her practice to encourage introspection and dialogue while challenging the narratives we inherit about the world around us,” stated Jorge M. Pérez, internationally famend philanthropist and founding father of the Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation.

“Her creative vision and the insight she brings strongly align with the mission of our foundation. Darlene and I are honored to champion María in partnership with YoungArts as we continue nurturing courageous, innovative artists who are influencing the cultural conversations of our time,” Perez added.

Through filmmaking and images, Alvarez’s storytelling-based apply explores the intersection of reminiscence and id and questions how individuals protect love, grief, and time.

Rooted in collaboration and instinct, the Cuban-Dutch artist makes use of her image-making course of as a way of translating emotional reality into tangible visuals, usually working along with her topics in tender environments and capturing intimate bodily gestures, comparable to hand actions, glances between individuals, or the sunshine on a topic’s face. Her perspective is guided by her long-term fascination in what people select to recollect and overlook, finally stemming from her personal private and familial tensions with belonging and reminiscence.

Alvarez’s movies have been screened at dozens of festivals and establishments, together with the Tribeca Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Cannes Court Métrage, San Francisco International Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, NALIP Latino Media Fest, and the Museum of Modern Art, amongst others.

She was a 2021 Horizon Award Finalist, 2023 Rising Voices Fellow, 2023 Sundance Institute Latine Collab Scholar, and has earned an award from Google, nomination for Best Documentary on the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, and created an Oscar-Qualifying movie for Best Live Action Short on the 2024 Academy Awards, along with quite a few different awards and distinctions.

Beyond her narrative images, Alvarez has created business work for purchasers comparable to Nike, Netflix, Coldplay, Selena Gomez, and extra.

“I am humbled beyond belief to receive this award, building on a decade of life-changing support that YoungArts has empowered me with,” Alvarez stated. “As artists, we carry a deep desire to create, yet real world limitations often shape when and how we’re able to pursue our dreams. At a time when funding for the arts has become increasingly at risk, this award arrives at such a meaningful moment, granting me the freedom, encouragement, and ability to pursue a project I’d previously had to put on hold. I aim to honor this recognition by pouring it back into my work — telling stories that honor memory, connection, and the communities that shape who I am.”

Established in 2018 and one among YoungerArts’ largest monetary awards, the Jorge M. Pérez Award honors a earlier YoungerArts award winner who has strengthened their neighborhood by means of their inventive endeavors. Winners ages 25 and older are invited to use, and choices are made by the Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation.

 

 

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