About

CLAUDIA CIFUENTES is an American filmmaker of Guatemalan descent whose work blends sharp comedic instincts with a deeply personal, bicultural perspective.

Cifuentes is in active packaging for her sophomore feature, Bariloche, a Black List favorite and winner of Best Comedy from Outstanding Screenplays. The project exemplifies her ability to translate culturally specific perspectives into stories with universal resonance and has already attracted interest from major production companies and distributors.

Through her production banner, Tropica Films, Cifuentes is developing a slate of film and television projects centered on underrepresented perspectives while remaining globally resonant, aesthetically driven, and commercially minded.

Her creative trajectory began in Hollywood, where she worked alongside industry icons including director Michael Mann and producer Lynda Obst. Shaped by the auteur-driven rigor she observed on those sets, she returned to her hometown of New York to forge her own path as a writer-director-producer. Her work reflects this dual foundation, bridging Hollywood’s discipline with an independent, filmmaker-first sensibility.

Cifuentes credits her distinctive storytelling lens to her upbringing between Queens, New York and Miami:

“Growing up in Bay Terrace, Queens, I watched Sábado Gigante with my grandmother, and classic cinema with my movie-loving parents. When we later moved to Miami, I saw firsthand how many different cultures exist within ‘the Latino experience.’ That mix of influences shows up in everything I create.”

Her directorial debut, After the Wedding, screened at festivals including the Bahamas International Film Festival and is currently available on streaming platforms. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a member of Film Fatales, Cifuentes lives in New York City, where she continues to build her work through Tropica Films.