Lisa CortésPRODUCER | WRITER | DIRECTOR

Award-winning director and producer Lisa Cortés generates bold, explosive art that shines light on important stories hidden from view. Her film productions have received over 80 international awards and nominations, and in 2023, the Black Film Critics Circle selected her for its Pioneer Award. Little Richard: I Am Everything (CNN Films), which she directed and produced, had its world premiere in January 2023 as the opening night selection in the US documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Nominated for 23 awards, it won The Guardian’s 2023 Best Films award, and was named in Variety’s Best Documentaries of 2023. Also premiering at Sundance
was Invisible Beauty, the documentary about Black fashion industry pioneer Bethann Hardison, which she produced. In June 2023, The Space Race (National Geographic Documentary Films), premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Cortés directed and produced this gripping saga of African American astronauts at NASA and in space.

Earlier, Cortés co-produced The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick (2004); and produced Shadowboxer, starring Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr., (2005) and Tennessee, starring Mariah Carey (2008). In 2009, Cortés executive-produced Precious, which won two Academy Awards®, the Sundance Audience Award, and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for best drama.

In 2012, Cortés produced and directed The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion. That same year, she produced HBO’s The Apollo, exploring African American cultural and political history through the story of the legendary Apollo Theater, for which she earned the 2020 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. In 2020, she produced and directed All In: The Fight for Democracy (Amazon Studios), tracing the violent history of the voting rights struggle.
Cortés is the founder of Cortés Filmworks, a NYC-based multimedia production company that develops and produces scripted and unscripted properties spanning music, social justice/crime,
and other topics. Cortés Filmworks is committed to telling complex, powerful stories from new perspectives, and elevating talent often overlooked by the mainstream.