Valeria Contreras is an award-winning filmmaker from the U.S.-Mexico border whose work centers stories of love, identity, and the meaning of home. She is a NALIP Director Incubator Fellow, Cine Qua Non Storylines Fellow, Producers Guild of America Create Fellow, and Film Independent Producing and Fast Track Fellow.

Her directorial work includes HOMESICK, which screened at the Oscar-qualifying Atlanta Film Festival. Her upcoming film, ORANGES, follows two sisters whose bond is tested when one leaves her border town home for Mexico City. The short film was supported by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers Director Incubator, Sponsored by Netflix and the feature film version is in development through previous support from the El Paso Community Foundation Border Art Residency and Cine Qua Non Storylines Lab.

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. Other producing credits include WINGS, which was part of the Tyler Perry Studios Dream Collective, SIDE ROADS and WOLF AT THE DOOR, which won Best Film at the Iberoamerican Film Festival in Miami.

Through her company, Apis Mellifera Productions, Contreras has developed a slate of international feature films with emerging directors across the U.S., Colombia, Nigeria, and Canada.

Contreras is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Columbia University’s MFA Film Program.