Directory Profile

Valerie Castillo Martinez is a Filipina American filmmaker who founded her company IndieFlip, to make films that deal with underrepresented subjects, cross-cultural themes and flipping the usual narratives. Her emphasis in innovative storytelling, collaboration and international co-productions has led to some of her films' successes. Her shorts have played in top-tier festivals such as Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Busan and SXSW and won numerous awards worldwide.

Her first feature film as writer and producer Death of Nintendo world premiered in Berlinale Generation in 2020. It participated in the Tribeca Film Institute Network, Film Independent Producers Lab, and Venice Gap Financing Market. It won a Special Jury Award in Screenwriting at the 2020 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and a YCC Critics Award for Best Film.

She is a Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, a Berlinale Talent in 2020, an IMdb Rising Talent Filmmaker, an FDCP Film Ambassador and Harvest of Honors Awardee. She is a US Air Force veteran who recently completed the Mission Continues Women Veterans Leadership Program. She has an MBA from Wilmington University and an MFA from Columbia University. She is currently teaching Graduate Feature Introduction to the Screenplay in the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen and Television at USC.