Parity Pipeline

Maria Millan is a Venezuelan Filmmaker based in London. She recently directed *Hands on Clay*, a film commissioned by Sheffield DocFest and sponsored by Prime. 

Millan was also an alumna of the Hessen Lab within the B3 Biennale in Frankfurt, Germany, in October 2022, with her screenplay, The Hollow Women, which was a semi-finalist for the Stowe Lab Screenwriting Fellowship in the US in 2024

Before that, she was part of 'Talent Led: Next Gen' by the Independent Film Trust (now Story Compound) in London for the 2022/2023 term. 

Her academic foundation includes a BA Honours in Communications and Media, specialising in Audio-Visual Arts, from the Catholic University Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela. To further her skills, she did a 4-month course in Directing Actors and Video Editing Skills at the renowned International Film School in San Antonio de Los Baños, Cuba (EICTV). 

Her directorial prowess shone in the film The Refuge (2018), which features actresses Lujza Richter Hugo (Phantom Thread, Dracula) and Demi Hannah Scott (Showstudio). The film earned a place in the official selection of The Women’s Film Festival in Seattle and L’Etrange Film Festival in Paris. Maria received an exclusive screening and Q&A at David Lynch's Private Members Club: Silencio. The Refuge is now on Amazon. 

In October 2023, Maria premiered her 23-minute documentary ‘Trans_CCS' at the 33rd Tampa Bay International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The documentary found recognition in various international film festivals, including GRRL HAUS cinema, BANGIFF, Philadelphia Latino, The Lonely Seal Film Festival in Boston, Seattle Latino, Tokyo Shorts, and it was part of ’Cine Social, La Imagen del Sur' in Spain the past November 2024. 

Adding another milestone to her career, Maria directed her first feature-length documentary ‘Family Pride, Queer Aside’, which premiered in September 2024 at the 9th annual Feminist Border Arts Film Festival in the US, where it won both the Jury and Audience Awards simultaneously.

‘Family Pride, Queer Aside’ also screened at the Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival. In Europe, the documentary premiered at the Queer Film Festival Utrecht in the Netherlands in September 2024.