Andrea Valenzuela will head to France in May as a participant in the Creative Minds Filmmaker Institute held in conjunction with the Cannes Film Festival.

The festival is home to the largest film market in the world. More than half a million people – celebrities, filmmakers, journalists, industry professionals and fans – descend on the French Riviera town for two weeks every May.

“I’ll have to miss the premiere of my capstone film,” Valenzuela said, “and graduation, but that’s a small price to pay for such a great opportunity.”

The Creative Minds Filmmaker Institute is designed to provide young filmmakers a platform to showcase their product while also educating them on how to capitalize on an international marketplace where films are bought, sold, distributed and financed.

She has to be in France by the festival’s opening on May 11 and will stay through its close on May 25. She’ll attend master classes, workshops and question-and-answer sessions with industry professionals. In past years, icons such as Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Sydney Pollack hosted workshops.

Andrea Valenzuela

Andrea Valenzuela landed an internship at the Cannes Film Festival

In addition, participants will be put into groups and given seven days to complete a five-minute film as part of a competition judged by industry pros. Those films will be shown at the festival.

Valenzuela is hoping to make some connections in the film industry while she is there. “But I also hope to expand my knowledge, better my skills and be a part of the movement that is cinema,” she said.

She always loved movies,but filmmaking wasn’t her first love, acting was. It wasn’t until she came to CSUMB and began her studies in Cinematic Arts and Technology that she realized how much film appealed to her. “Now, writing is my hobby and directing is my passion,” she said. “I want to work with talent, mold them, inspire them.”

When she returns from France, she’ll head home to Southern California to work at the L.A. Film Festival. “After that, I have no idea,” she said.

“But I can’t wait for the weeks ahead.”

"Writing is my hobby and directing is my passion. I want to work with talent, mold them, inspire them."
— Andrea Valenzuela