Cristina Kotz Cornejo

Cristina Kotz Cornejo is a descendant of the Indigenous Huarpe people of the Cuyo region of Argentina and an enrolled member of the Comunidad LOF Vicente Catrunao. 3 Américas (2007) was Kotz Cornejo’s feature film debut loosely based on her own adolescent years. The film has screened around the world, from Mexico City to Montevideo, Uruguay to New York City, and she was invited to attend the Sundance Institute’s 2004 Independent Producer’s Conference as part of her work. Kotz Cornejo’s short film, La Guerra Que No Fue/The War That Never Was (2004) was also screened at over 25 national and international festivals in over 10 countries.

In 2000 Kotz Cornejo was commissioned by the Partnership for a Drug Free America to direct, Ernesto (2000), which premiered at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. Her short film, The Appointment (1999), developed under the advisement of Spike Lee, Nancy Savoca and Pascal Aubier while a student at NYU, was awarded a Warner Brothers Pictures Production Award, a Dean’s Post Production Award, and 3 NYU Craft Awards and was picked up for distribution by Urban Entertainment in Los Angeles. Kotz Cornejo also has a Virtual Reality/Mixed Reality experience, with her 360º film, “the root is more important than the flower/”la raíz es más importante que la flor” (2021) winning Best VR Documentary at the Cinequest Film and Creativity Festival and was an official selection at the Indigenous 2021 Asinabka Film and Media Festival in Canada, the 2021 Aesthetica Film and Media Festival in York, England, and the 2021 Virginia Dares Cinematic Arts Award for Decolonizing and Re-Indigenizing Media at Virginia Tech University, among others.

Kotz Cornejo is the recipient of the 2004 and 2007 Moving Image Fund Grants from the LEF Foundation and is a recipient of a 2020 Journalism360 Challenge Grant from the Online News Association and the Knight Foundation. She is also a 2010 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, a 2012 MacDowell Colony Fellow, a 2013 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow, and 2014 Cine Qua Non Screenwriter Fellow. Kotz Cornejo is the recipient of the Mann Stearns Distinguished Faculty Award, the 2019 American Spirit Award for Special Achievement in Educating New Filmmakers from the Caucus for Producers, Writers, Directors and VARIETY’s 2021 Educator of the Year. She received a M.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, a M.A. in Organizational Arts Management from Antioch University and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California.