STXIFF INDUSTRY JUDGES

Adrian Vina

Adrian Viña was born and raised in Edinburg, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. Viña wanted to be a storyteller from a very young age. He was involved with drama and media tech in high school, while fostering a deep appreciation for film and television and daydreaming about working in Hollywood one day. He eventually studied film at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. While in school he co-wrote and directed a short film that later played at CineSol Film Festival. After graduating from SMU, Viña moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting. He worked numerous positions in the industry. His writing career finally started while working at a literary management company, when he optioned his script SUCKERS to Alcon Entertainment. That same script was later picked up by Nickelodeon and made into their hit Halloween movie, LIAR, LIAR VAMPIRE in 2015. He then worked on numerous television and film projects, including BLURT! For Nickelodeon and COP AND A HALF: NEW RECRUIT starring Lou Diamond Phillips. Adrian also participated in the prestigious Disney Television Writing Program in 2020-2021

Alvaro Rodriguez

ALVARO RODRIGUEZ is the co-creator and executive producer of the Netflix adult-animated series SEIS MANOS (2019). He is also the co-screenwriter of Robert Rodriguez’s MACHETE (2010) and SHORTS (2009), and the writer and co-producer of LAST RAMPAGE (2017). He was a writer on the TV series FROM DUSK TILL DAWN for El Rey Network and Netflix International and story editor on CHICAGO FIRE. Currently, he is supervising producer on the drama series AMERICAN RUST (2022) for Amazon's FreeVee network, and producer on the series FLORIDA MAN (2022) for Netflix, starring Edgar Ramirez. 

His short fiction has appeared in the Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology AFTER DEATH, and several of his Valley-set short stories have appeared in various publications. A frequent panelist at the Austin Film Festival, Rodriguez has been a guest speaker for writing courses and screenwriting conferences across the country from Seattle to New York City. He is currently developing projects with Abot Hameiri/Fremantle Media, OH! Pen Productions and others.

FEATURE CREDITS:
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN’S DAUGHTER (2000), writer
SHORTS (2009), writer
MACHETE (2010), writer
LAST RAMPAGE (2018), writer/co-producer
TU, MIO (2023), co-executive producer

TELEVISION CREDITS:
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: THE SERIES (2013-2015), staff writer
CHICAGO FIRE (2017), story editor
SEIS MANOS (2019), co-creator, executive producer
AMERICAN RUST (2021-), writer/supervising producer
FLORIDA MAN (2022-), writer/producer