Maria Abraham

Maria is originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, from a Lebanese-Portuguese family. In the hot desert summers, Maria spent her time at the movie theaters, which had the best air conditioning in town, and in the process she fell in love with film. She has an MFA in Film & Video Writing-Directing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in European Studies from UCLA.

Maria received a Fulbright Grant to live in Ecuador and complete research for her feature script Girl with Child, about a teenage girl searching for a new home with her toddler. Maria’s short film of the same name won Best Short Short at Aspen Shortsfest and the Chicago Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. Maria was a 2021 mentee in Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative Director Shadowing Program and a 2020 mentee in WIF’s Directors Circle with Amanda Marsalis and Jennifer Arnold. Before that, Maria was a 2019 WIF Financing & Strategy Intensive Fellow, 2018 Tribeca TFI Network Fellow, 2018 Film Independent Directing Lab Fellow, and 2016 Film Independent Screenwriting Lab fellow.

Maria has worked as a director and producer on documentaries, commercials, music and fashion videos, audio projects, artist development labs, and the Webby-winning NBC/Snapchat digital series Face Forward. 

Maria has taught production and directing at Loyola Marymount University, Pasadena City College, Columbia College Chicago, Upward Bound, the Columbia College Chicago Summer Arts Camp, the Taller de Cine in Mitad del Mundo, Ecuador, and as a teaching artist in Chicago and Evanston public schools through Project AIM/the Center for Community Arts Partnerships. 

Contact: classmaria@gmail.com