Valeria Contreras is an award-winning filmmaker from El Paso, Texas, whose work explores the impact of borders on love, identity, and the meaning of home. She is a National Association of Latino Independent Producers Director Incubator Fellow, Cine Qua Non Storylines Fellow, Producers Guild of America Create Fellow, Film Independent Producing Lab Fellow, and Film Independent Fast Track Fellow.
Her directorial work includes Homesick, a short film about two lovers separated by the pandemic and the border, which screened at the Oscar-qualifying Atlanta Film Festival. Her upcoming short film, Oranges, was selected for the NALIP Director Incubator, sponsored by Netflix, and serves as a proof-of-concept for her feature screenplay of the same name, further developed through the El Paso Community Foundation Border Art Residency and Cine Qua Non.
As a producer, Contreras has championed numerous short films that have gone on to screen at festivals internationally, including Not My Name, an acclaimed Colombian Spanish-language film that won the Focus Features Award for Social and Cultural Impact.
Contreras is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Columbia University’s MFA Film Program.
Valerie Contreras will screen and discuss Oranges, her work-in-progress film, at 7:30 pm Saturday, July 18 in the Philanthropy Theatre.
