DIRECTORS

Samantha Aldana is an award-winning Belizean-American director/writer. Her perspective is influenced by the magical realism and folklore storytelling traditions of her multicultural upbringing in Mississippi and the Caribbean. She is inspired by stories that use genre elements to explore the human condition and is most drawn to characters and stories that have often gone unseen. 

Samantha is the recipient of the Belize Film Commissioner’s Emerging Storyteller Feature Film Award for her feature in development, LITTLE LYING WILD. This film won the WomeninFan Pitch at the Sitges Film Festival and was selected as a Breaking Through the Lens finalist. LITTLE LYING WILD has also participated in the Berlinale Talents, Tribeca Film Institute Network, Tribeca Writing in Unreal, and the Emerging Voices Program.

Samantha is an alum of the 2023-2024 Warner Brothers All Access Directors Program and the NBC Female Forward TV Directing Program. Samantha was selected to direct an original short film titled ANGELS for Disney/HULU’s Season 3 Bite-Size Huluween. The film is currently streaming on HULU and SHUTTER. ANGELS was invited to screen at over a dozen film festivals worldwide and was awarded the Best Supernatural Horror Film at Fear Fest and the Audience Award at Dark Bridges Film Festival. 

Her previous short films have won numerous honors and have screened at festivals worldwide. Samantha holds a BA in Film Directing from Columbia College Chicago and is a Film Fatales and NALIP member. She is currently based in LA.