Marcella Ochoa: Interview
For filmmaker Marcella Ochoa, storytelling is both personal and purposeful. From her early fascination with movies like Jurassic Park to founding her production company, 8A Entertainment, Ochoa has carved out a space to tell stories that center on Latino voices, explore social themes, and push the boundaries of genre. Her work spans short films like Hour of Blood and My Name is Maria de Jesus, co-writing the Blumhouse feature Madres, and mentoring the next generation of storytellers through programs like the Youth Cinema Project Alumni Fellowship and LALIFF. In this conversation, she reflects on her journey in the industry, the power of horror and genre storytelling, and the importance of giving back.
What first sparked your interest in filmmaking, and when did you realize it was something you wanted to pursue professionally?
I have always loved movies ever since I was a child. The movie that changed my life was Jurassic Park. After I saw that film, I knew I wanted to work in the industry in some capacity I just didn’t know how. I didn’t see anyone who looked like me in front of or behind the camera so at that young age I didn’t know being a filmmaker was even an option for me. I had a few different careers in fashion, marketing, and production before I finally felt I could pursue my love for writing and directing.
You began your career working in international publicity at Sony Pictures. How did that experience shape the way you think about storytelling and the industry overall?
I didn’t go to film school, but I had a background in marketing. So, I moved to LA and worked at Sony which became an invaluable experience. I learned an incredible amount about marketing and publicity and was able to travel around the world for our international premieres. Everything I learned at Sony has been so helpful as a filmmaker. I have a great understanding of the politics at studios. Why they buy certain projects, why projects get greenlit, and what are the best strategies to market that film not only in the U.S. but around the world. I often think about who my audience is and what are the trailer moments before I even start writing anything. Especially if it’s a theatrical feature I’m thinking about the marketing and how are we going to get people to come see it in a theater and make sure those moments are in the script.
After working in publicity, you moved into development and worked closely with producer Harald Kloser and director Roland Emmerich. What were some of the most valuable lessons you took from that period?
I met Roland and Harald when I was at Sony working on the publicity campaign for the film, 2012. At that time, I had wanted to make the jump into production but didn’t know how. I became friends with them and eventually left Sony to work in development at Harald’s production company. Working with both of them was basically my film school. I learned how to create a director deck, how to take studio notes on your script, and everything about the production process through post. I also learned so much about directing and watching Roland. Especially action and VFX sequences. Harald was also a composer, and I learned a lot from him about how he scored films, which has been really helpful when I work with composers for my projects. I even lived in Montreal for six months for one of our blockbuster films. It was invaluable to experience set life living in another country. I take everything I learned working on those big budget films and apply it to when I’m doing my own projects.
At what point did you decide to launch your own production company, 8A Entertainment, and what kind of stories or voices were you hoping to champion through it?
After working at the studio and then in production I really wanted to focus on writing and directing my own projects. When I made the decision to leave and just focus on filmmaking, I started my production company to produce my short films. I’ll be producing my fourth short film that I have written and directed out of my company this summer. My next step will be to produce my features, and my goal is to grow my company to be able to produce other projects that I’m not writing or directing. I’m inspired by what Monkeypaw and Proximity Media have done with building their companies. I would love to be able to give back and help bring up the next generation of storytellers and champion underrepresented voices out of my community especially in the genre space.
Many of your projects explore social themes through genre storytelling, particularly horror and thrillers. What draws you to those genres as a way to explore deeper issues?
When I was young, my grandpa told me all these scary stories and legends from Mexico and I became obsessed with all things horror. I gravitate towards social justice horror like Rosemary’s Baby, The Purge, and Get Out and those films have impacted me as storyteller. I think horror is such an effective medium for social justice stories because it turns all the fears we’re going through as a society – women losing autonomy over our bodies, racism, inequality and trauma – into tangible terrifying metaphors. When you see a social justice horror in a theater, the audience can collectively be scared together in a safe space and can process societal trauma as a group. Horror is the only genre that is able to do that.
Your short film Hour of Blood recently received nominations from the Humanitas Prize and the Imagen Foundation. What inspired the story behind that film?
I’m from Texas and have always wanted to tell a story about the massacre of innocent Mexicans from 1910-1920. The Texas Rangers were responsible for many of these unjust deaths. It’s a history that is not taught in schools and I wanted to highlight this important story from my community that many people are unaware of. As artists and storytellers, we’re able to tell these tragic stories so that our history is not forgotten or repeated. My dear friend, Jesse Garcia, was so supportive of me telling this story and he starred in my short along with Isabella Leon, and I’ll forever be grateful for all his help in me bringing this still incredibly relevant story to life. I was so thrilled to premiere the film in my hometown of San Antonio and also at LALIFF and thankful for all the awards recognition as well.
My Name is Maria de Jesus is rooted in your childhood growing up in Texas and touches on themes of Americanization. What was the process of bringing such a personal story to the screen like for you?
My parents grew up in Texas and were punished for speaking Spanish in school and their “Mexican” names were changed to “American” names by the teachers on their first day of school to Americanize them. Due to their trauma, my parents raised me speaking English only and then I learned Spanish later in school. It was a difficult story to tell as my parents still both carry around guilt over what they experienced growing up and didn’t want their story told. I wanted to tell this story to explore generational trauma and why so many second or third or fourth generation Latinos are not raised speaking Spanish because of what their parents or grandparents went through. In the end, after it did so well on HBO Latino, my parents were so thrilled how impactful my short was across the country in our community. So many people reached out to me that their family had never seen their stories told before and went through a healing process over their shared experiences of Americanization as well.
You co-wrote the film Madres as part of the Welcome to the Blumhouse series. What was the experience of blending horror with social commentary on a project like that?
I watched a documentary about the forced sterilization of Mexican migrant women in California in the 1970’s. I immediately knew I wanted to write it as a horror film as so often what happens to our community is a horror. I’m not scared of ghosts or creatures but the horrors of what we do to each other as a society is what really terrifies me. I wanted to honor these women and give a voice to the voiceless over the injustices they suffered. I brought on my friend who is a brilliant genre writer, Mario Miscione, to co-write it with me as we both knew this was such an incredibly important story that needed to be told. We wanted it to reach a wider audience and always knew horror was the way to go for this particular story. We wanted an audience to not only be scared for the women in this film, but in the end learn something that tragically happened in history. I love being able to educate an audience through a genre film. I’ll always be so grateful to Blumhouse and Amazon for understanding the importance of this story and how much they supported it as well. When we were in post on the film in 2020, a story broke of migrant women being forced to be sterilized in detention centers in Georgia and it was devastating to see how relevant this story was to this day.
Having written projects for major studios as well as your own films, how does your creative approach change when you’re developing a story for a studio versus directing something independently?
My creative approach is definitely different when I write a studio film. The studio films I write have to be very commercial and I have to write within the parameters set by the studios. I have less control as the studio has final control over the story and casting. It’s often IP the studio owns or a rewrite of a script they already have I’m coming on board. I have producers, a director, and studio executives to answer to so it’s far more of a collaborative process to make sure everyone is happy. For my own projects, I focus on telling stories from my community and I can write as freely as I want and have Latinos as my leads. I can also write stories that wouldn’t necessarily be studio films and go the indie route. It’s completely my vision as I’m writing and directing it and finding the financing.
Is there something you’d like to share about yourself that wasn’t asked yet?
I have worked in the industry for a very long time and never had anyone who looked like me as a mentor until recently. I was picked by the Alliance of Women Directors to be in their 2026 Rising Director Fellowship and it’s the first time I have had a Latina director as my mentor, and it’s been such an incredible experience. I’m also grateful to AWD for choosing me to be in their inaugural Mentor Latina Directors Fellowship in 2024. I love giving back to my community by mentoring the next generation of Latino storytellers. I’ve been a guest speaker at The University of Texas in Austin to the Latino Film Studies class and I have spoken at many universities in San Antonio as well.
You served as the writing mentor for the 2026 Youth Cinema Project Alumni Fellowship film. How did this opportunity come about, and what was it like working with the students?
I was beyond thrilled when they asked me to be the writing mentor. I have been a writing mentor the last few years for YCP at LALIFF. I love supporting LALIFF as when I first moved to LA many years ago, I volunteered at LALIFF and had such a great experience. Throughout the years, LALIFF has been so supportive of my career and premiering my projects at the festival and I’m so grateful I can give back to them as well. So, this year I was asked to be the writing mentor for the YCP Alumni Fellowship, and I jumped at the chance. I really enjoyed working with all of these exceptional students and am so proud of each one of them. I got to know the students well and was so impressed by their creativity and personal stories they wanted to tell. It was great to see how they all blossomed throughout the writing program. I’m really excited for the unique story they came up with and am so happy I was able to help guide them. I was honored to be a part of it and can’t wait to see each one of them grow and happy to support them and the program in any way I can.
Looking ahead, what kinds of stories are you most excited to continue telling, and what advice would you offer to emerging Latino filmmakers navigating the industry today?
I love sci-fi and I’m obsessed with aliens and I haven’t had a chance to write a film like that yet. So, I just wrote a sci-fi alien script that I’m attached to direct and that project really excites me. I just want to write and direct fun commercial films and cast people from our community to normalize us in genre films. For emerging Latino filmmakers, I would suggest to really focus on having a strong body of work. This is an extremely competitive industry, and your work has to be exceptional. If you’re a writer, write as many great spec scripts as you can so you’re ready for when you have a rep and they’re sending your work out. For directors, make your own projects any way you can to have a strong director reel. Get your industry friends together, make shorts, and show how your voice is unique. It’s a tough time in our industry and it’s hard for anyone to get a movie made, let alone a project about our community. Many people are going the indie route, and I think that’s a great idea if you can secure the financing to be able to tell your stories. I always suggest finding a way to have a day job while you still work on your art when you can. Don’t give up as each one of us has a different POV and we each have incredible stories to tell. We hear way more no’s than we hear a yes and it can be really disheartening but you have to keep going. If this is the craft that you love and want to pursue then absolutely pursue it. I have wanted to give up at times, but I know all of our voices and stories are far too important and that’s what keeps me going.
