Imagens Honor TV Shows, but No Movies : Awards: Group finds no positive Latino portrayals in motion pictures.

Two TV movies, two TV documentaries and one TV drama series were honored Wednesday with Imagen Awards for their positive depiction of Latinos. But the National Conference of Christians & Jews, which bestows the awards, found no motion pictures deserving of recognition.

It was the sixth time in the nine-year history of the organization’s Latino media image awards that no theatrical movie was honored. A spokesman termed the feature-film results disappointing and called on the film industry to step up efforts to hire Latinos and to create positive images that will help combat prejudice.

The awards, handed out at a Beverly Hills luncheon, covered the period between May, 1992, and February, 1994 (there were no award ceremonies last year). Selections were made by a panel of industry professionals and Latino community leaders.

The winners were NBC’s “For the Love of My Child: The Anissa Ayala Story,” a TV movie about a Latino couple whose daughter is stricken with leukemia; CBS’ “An American Story,” a TV movie about World War II veterans finding that discrimination still exists in their Texas hometown; the PBS documentary “The Hunt for Pancho Villa”; the KCAL-TV Channel 9 documentary “The Emerging Majority: Mexican Americans in Los Angeles” and CBS’ “Second Chances,” a drama series that included a Latino family among its regular cast of characters.

Rita Moreno, winner of Oscar, Emmy and Tony awards, was given an Imagen lifetime achievement award “for her nearly four decades of distinguished contributions to the industry and to positive media images for Latinos.”