Nicole Vanden Broeck is a French-Mexican film director, writer, and producer. She is known for directing the award-winning short films ''Con El Tiempo'' (2017), ''The Little Thief'' (2019) and ''Elle'' (2020). A 2020 BAFTA Newcomer fellow, Vanden Broeck is also a 2019 recipient of the Tomorrow's Filmmakers Today Scholarship presented by

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and the

Hollywood Foreign Press Association The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is a nonprofit organization of journalists and photographers who report on the Cinema of the United States, entertainment industry activity and interests in the United States for media (newspaper, ...

. Vanden Broeck's films have screened at several

Academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

-qualifying festivals, including

AFI Fest The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fun ...

Rhode Island International Film Festival Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. History Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the ...

, and

Out on Film Out on Film, Georgia's gay film festival in Atlanta, was established in 1987 and is one of the oldest gay film festivals in the United States devoted to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. The festival is now held in Midtown Atla ...

Early life and education

Vanden Broeck was born and raised in Cancun, Mexico. At 14, she moved to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, an upheaval she later cited as inspiration for her 2020 short film ''Elle'', recalling that, "I was fourteen and I was afraid. Afraid to leave my friends, afraid to not fit in, afraid of change." Vanden Broeck obtained a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Communications from

Universidad Iberoamericana The Ibero-American University ( es, Universidad Iberoamericana), also referred to by its acronym ''UIA'' but commonly known as ''Ibero'' or ''La Ibero'') is a private, Catholic, Mexican higher education institution, sponsored by the Mexican provi ...

, with a Minor in Film, including a semester of study at

Pompeu Fabra University Pompeu Fabra University ( ca, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, UPF, ; es, link=no, Universidad Pompeu Fabra) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. The university was created by the Autonomous Government of Catalo ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. After graduating, Vanden Broeck co-founded the independent film production company 6pm Films based in

. For six years, she directed commercials and short films through 6pm Films, several of them award-winning. In 2017, Vanden Broeck received the FONCA-CONACYT Scholarship to pursue an MFA in Directing at the

American Film Institute Conservatory The AFI Conservatory is a private not-for-profit graduate film school in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles. Students (called "Fellows") learn from the masters in a collaborative, hands-on production environment with an emphasis on st ...

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. Graduating in 2019, when she began touring multiple short films on the festival circuit, Vanden Broeck says that, "A vision and specificity is all we’ve got if we want to make it as filmmakers. As humans with shared experiences, we do tend to tell the same stories over and over again, but we should tell them from a unique perspective, our own, which will make them personal and universal all at the same time.”

Career

For her work at 6pm Films, Vanden Broeck won a Best Commercial Award, and was nominated for Best Commercial Director, at the 2014 Pantalla de Cristal Film Festival. Her documentary short film ''Con El Tiempo '' (''Within Time'') won the EcoFilm Festival Grand Prize, as well as the Cinelatino Tomorrow's Filmmakers Today Short award in the 2019 Hola Mexico Film Festival, where it also won the most audience votes. Vanden Broeck's AFI thesis film ''Elle'' won the Marlyn Mason Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF). Vanden Broeck is listed in the inaugural LatinXDirectors database, launched in July 2020 by

Aurora Guerrero Aurora Guerrero is a writer-director from California. Early life Guerrero was born in the Mission District of San Francisco, California to Mexican immigrant parents, later growing up on the border of the cities of Richmond and El Cerrito wh ...

, Joel Novoa, Diego Velasco and Alberto Belli as a pipeline for Latinx episodic and film directors.

Filmography

Film

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanden Broeck, Nicole Living people Mexican women film directors AFI Conservatory alumni Mexican people of French descent 1988 births