Visual & Media Arts Faculty

Cristina Kotz Cornejo

Associate Professor (2001)
B.A. University of Southern California, M.A. Antioch College, M.F.A. New York University
http://www.wildwimminfilms.com

Raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the US, Cristina Kotz Cornejo is an independent filmmaker whose debut feature film, 3 Américas (2007) premiered at the 2007 Woodstock Film Festival.

3 Américas has since screened at over 15 venues nationally and internationally ranging from Uruguay to San Francisco to New York City and is distributed by Vanguard Cinema and Cinetic Rights Management (Cinetic Media). The screenplay for 3 Américas was twice semi-finalist for the 2004/2005 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, participated in the IFP/NY Director's Lab and was in the script competition at the 2003 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba.

She is the recipient of 2004 and 2007 Moving Image Fund Grants from the LEF Foundation and was invited to attend the Sundance Institute's 2004 Independent Producer's Conference. Her short film, La Guerra Que No Fue/The War That Never Was (2004) has screened at over 25 national and international festivals in over 10 countries and is distributed by Ouat! Media. 

She is a twice recipient of the Award of Merit from the University Film and Video Association for her short films, Ocean Waves (2002) and Ernesto (2000). Her thesis film at NYU, The Appointment (1999), developed under the advisement of Spike Lee and Nancy Savoca was awarded 3 NYU Craft Awards, a Warner Bros. Pictures Production Award, and a Dean's Post Production Award and was distributed by Urban Entertainment.

Her latest short film, Despertar (2011) has so far played festivals in Los Angeles, New York, Montreal and Morelia, Mexico. Her new feature script, Hermanas de Fe, was selected to participate in the script competition of the 33rd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba. In 2010, Cristina was a Directing Fellow with Film Independent in Los Angeles.

Cristina is a contributing author of Filming Difference: Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers on Gender, Race and Sexuality in Film, University of Texas Press, May 2009.