Myra Aquino is a writer-director who grew up in Guam and the Philippines, and she’s a recent graduate of the UCLA MFA Directing program. Most recently, she was selected to participate in the 2022 Humanitas New Voices Fellowship and the 2021 Women in Film x Black List Feature Residency for her feature screenplay LAMB, and she workshopped her TV pilot PUBLIC HEALTH as a 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Athena Writers Lab Fellow. She was also selected to participate in the inaugural 2023 Women In Film Directing Fellowship and her thesis film BEAUTY QUEEN won the 2022 Jack Larson Southern California Filmmaker Award from KCET Fine Cut and Best Short Film from the 2021 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. Her award-winning short films have gone on to screen at multiple Academy-qualifying film festivals worldwide, and secured distribution deals from Shudder and Dust. Myra has also received an MD and Masters in Public Health from the University of Miami.
With her eclectic background, Myra is passionate about exploring the impacts of multiculturalism and globalization on Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, and other underrepresented communities.
She’s currently developing a mother-daughter feature dramedy set in Louisiana, a high school feature set in post-9/11 Philippines, and a sci-fi medical procedural TV pilot.
PRESS
– Women In Film Launches Inaugural Fellowship Program | THE WRAP
– Humanitas Prizes: ‘Black-ish’, ‘Encanto’, ‘Pachinko’, ‘Don’t Look Up’ Among Winners | DEADLINE
– WIF & Black List Unveil Participants For 2021 Feature Residency | DEADLINE
– Scripts About Riot Grrrls, LGBTQ+ Divorce, & Women Filmmakers Selected for 2022 Athena Writers Lab | WOMEN & HOLLYWOOD
– Screenplay set in Guam earns Myra Aquino prestigious residency | PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
– Grad Student Redirects Passion Toward Film After Finishing Medical School | UCLA DAILY BRUIN
OTHER MEDIA
– Reflections on 4th Annual Black List / Women In Film Feature Writers Lab | SCOTT MYERS’ GO INTO THE STORY
– Conversation with Myra Aquino | ROOTED OCEANIA
– Creative Conversations with Myra Aquino and Carlos Anderson | UNIVERSITY OF GUAM
– Locked in a Small Room, Twice, with Myra Aquino | THE SLUSH PILE
– On Using Films To Strengthen Solitude | THE INDIEPENDENT COLLECTIVE
– Neil Tinkham & Myra Aquino Talk Screenwriting Part 1, Part 2 | BUENAS TALK, PBS GUAM
– Blissful Blooming: Discovery through Self-Awareness | THE INDIEPENDENT COLLECTIVE
WRITING
– LAMB | 2022 Humanitas New Voices Fellowship, 2021 The Black List x WIF Feature Residency
– PUBLIC HEALTH | 2022 Alfred T. Sloan Athena Writers Lab Fellow, 2022 Screencraft Screenwriting Competition – Semifinalist, 2022 Launch Pad Pilot Competition – Second Rounder