The 2009 New York International Latino Film Festival has announced the award winners from its 10th anniversary event.

The Cinelatino Audience Choice Award for Best Picture went to El Regalo de la Pachamama by Toshifumi Matsushita. The Bolivian film is about a 13-year-old boy who takes an adventurous trip in the Andes, where he meets indigenous peoples and finally meets a beautiful girl who shares his approach to life.

And the Cinelatino Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary is US production Stages by the Meerkat Media Collective. The film offers an intimate portrait of older Puerto Rican women who are invited by inner city youths in New York’s Lower East Side to tell their stories and create an original play.

The awards are sponsored by Cinelatino, the leading Spanish-language movie channel in the US. Each winner gets $1,000.

“We are honored to participate in this prestigious event that recognizes all of the emerging Latino filmmaking talent from the U.S. and Latin America, and we are excited to present the Audience Choice Awards on behalf of the public, for whom these films are made,” said Jim McNamara, president of Cinelatino.

The festival screened 28 narrative features and 19 documentaries.

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