Claudia Cifuentes is an American filmmaker of Guatemalan descent.

She began her career in film as an assistant to Hollywood heavyweights such as film director Michael Mann and legendary producer Lynda Obst.

Inspired by Mann’s auteur-style of filmmaking, she eventually returned to her hometown of New York to pursue her own filmmaking career as a writer/director, making her directorial debut with the micro-budget film After the Wedding, which she made by raising $45k on Kickstarter.

After the Wedding went on to screen at various high-profile film festivals including the Bahamas International Film Festival, the Big Apple Film Festival and the Bushwick Film Festival. The film is now available on streaming platforms.

Her sophomore feature film, BARILOCHE, is one of the highest-rated scripts on The Black List. The script has also won various accolades including ‘Best Comedy’ by Outstanding Screenplays. The theatrical film will be the first of its kind — a Latinx-led Hollywood romantic comedy with a Latina director, all-Latina leads, and Latinx storyline.

She credits her unique bicultural point of view to her upbringing in New York and later in Miami: “Growing up in Bay Terrace, Queens, I’d watch Sábado Gigante with my grandmother, but with my parents, we’d watch Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Amy Heckerling movies. Later, when we moved to Miami, I discovered just how many different cultures exist within ‘the Latino experience.’ It’s given me a love and appreciation for a mix of things that is reflected in my work.”

She is a graduate of NYU's Film School, and a member of the Film Fatales. She lives in New York City with her husband and two young sons.