BIOGRAPHY

 

Violeta Ayala is a filmmaker, technologist, writer, and artist. In 2020, she became the first Quechua member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars). Her most recent project is the interactive VR animation Prison X (2021), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and Cannes XR to critical acclaim. She wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning documentaries Cocaine Prison (2017), The Fight (2017), The Bolivian Case (2015), and Stolen (2009). Her films have premiered at major film festivals, including Sundance and Toronto, and have been broadcast on PBS, Channel 8, Señal Colombia, Ibermedia, World, and online platforms such as Amazon Prime and The Guardian. She has won over 50 awards and nominations, including a Walkley (Australia's Pulitzer) and nominations for the IDA (Los Angeles), Rory Peck (London), Platino (Panama), and Fenix (Mexico). Ayala's artworks include Flower Queans (a book of 3D-printed flowers and poems), koa.xyz (an ever-changing interactive website), a metaverse gallery in voxels (winner of the overall honorable mention at the Indigenous Futurism Model-Making Competition of Yale's center for architecture), and Ephemera (an online zine where she writes about futurism). She also used AI to create Las Awichas (grandmothers in Aymara), a series of large-format prints in honor of her female Quechua ancestors. The exhibition opened on 9/21/2022 at the Martadero, one of the most prestigious art galleries in Bolivia. She is the co-founder of unitednotions.film and koa.xyz.                      SEE FULL CV