Julia Ponce Díaz is a Spanish director and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. With a degree in Journalism and Audiovisual Communication from the University Carlos III of Madrid, Julia completed her third year at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she worked with Francis Ford Coppola on his experimental project Distant Vision. After receiving the prestigious La Caixa scholarship, Julia completed her M.F.A. in Directing at the American Film Institute. Her thesis short film, Soredia, was selected at festivals such as Flickers’ Rhode Island, AFI Fest and Directed by Women Spain. Julia is currently developing her first feature film, Digital Dolls, a hybrid coming-of-age film that mixes live action and animation and is set in rural Andalusia in the early 2000s. Digital Dolls has been selected for EXTREMLAB at the Barcelona Independent Film Festival l’Alternativa, the Málaga Talent Campus at the Málaga Film Festival, and El Principio del Film at Ventana Sur, and is also receiving mentorship through Film Independent’s Imaginar Producers Residency (supported by Disney and Searchlight and in collaboration with NALIP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers).

Digital Dolls — Trapped in the rural, conservative environment of her hometown and overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for her disabled grandmother, a 13-year-old Andalusian girl seeks refuge and escape in the ethereal worlds of the nascent internet in the early 2000s.