Valerie Castillo Martinez is a Filipina American writer and producer. She has an M.B.A. from Wilmington University, an M.F.A. in Film from Columbia University in New York City, and is a US Air Force veteran. She founded her company, IndieFlip, to make films that deal with underrepresented subjects and cross-cultural themes. Her emphasis in innovative storytelling, collaboration and international co-productions has led to some of her films’ successes. Her short films have played in top-tier festivals such as Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Busan and SXSW, and have won numerous awards worldwide. Her first feature film as writer and producer, Death of Nintendo, had its world premiere in the Generation section of the 2020 Berlinale. The project won Faculty Honors at the Columbia University screenplay competition and participated in the 2017 Tribeca Film Institute Network, Film Independent Producers Lab and Venice Gap Financing Market. Valerie received a Special Jury Award in Screenwriting at the 2020 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and a Film Ambassador Award from the Film Development Council of Philippines in 2021. She also taught as an adjunct professor at University of Tampa and worked as an Artist Development Manager for Film Independent. Valerie is a 2020 Berlinale Talent, an IMDb Rising Talent Filmmaker and a participant of the Vilcek Foundation’s New American Perspectives program.

En Route — A lonely flight attendant’s life is up in the air as she contemplates her poor decisions and makes sense of her connections, leading her to rekindle her relationship with her estranged father in Daly City.