Valerie Contreras

Biography

Valeria Contreras is an award-winning filmmaker from El Paso, Texas. She is a Producers Guild of America Create Fellow, Film Independent Producing Fellow, Cine Qua Non Storylines Lab Fellow, and El Paso Community Foundation Border Art Resident. Valeria’s work focuses on amplifying narratives from the U.S.-Mexico border region. Her short film Homesick screened at festivals globally including the Oscar-qualifying Atlanta Film Festival. In addition to a feature screenplay called Oranges, based on the short film of the same name, Valeria is in development on the Untitled Texas Latina Project, an anthology feature film exploring Latine identity in Texas through the lens of five award-winning Latina directors and writers. The Texas project has received support from the Austin Film Society, SFFilm, WarnerMedia, and The Gotham. Valeria holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia University, where she earned an MFA and received the Michael Hausman Foundation Award and 3Pas Studios Award. She has served on the Young Mezcal Jury at the Guadalajara International Film Festival.