Writer/Director, Mosquita y Mari
Nominated for: John Cassavetes Award

Aurora has over 10 years of filmmaking experience. She directed award-winning short narrative films, including Pura Lengua (official selection 2005 Sundance Film Festival) and Viernes Girl (winner of the 2005 HBO/NYLIFF short film competition).

Based on the strength of her first feature length script, Mosquita y Mari, Aurora was awarded the 2005 Sundance/Ford Fellowship, the 2005 Paul Robeson Development Grant, was selected to participate in the 2005 Sundance Native/Indigenous Lab; 2006 Tribeca All Access Filmmaker Program and 2009 Film Independent Producer’s Lab. Most recently, Mosquita y Mari was awarded the 2011 SFFS/KRF grant, LG Cinema 3D Fellowship and the Sundance Institute/Time Warner Foundation Fellowship for post-production.

Her accomplishments as an emerging writer/director earned her a slot in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” She has also had the honor of assisting directors Patricia Cardoso (Real Women Have Curves, 2002) and Peter Bratt (La Mission, 2009). Aurora received her B.A. in Psychology and Chicano Studies from UC Berkeley and her M.F.A in Film Directing from Cal Arts in Los Angeles.