Adrian Cardenas

Adrian Cardenas is a Cuban-American writer and director, and former Major League Baseball player for the Chicago Cubs who was born and raised in Miami, Florida. After balancing the world of sports and academia, he quit the game he loved to pursue an even greater love for storytelling. In 2015, he graduated Summa Cum Laude from New York University with degrees in creative writing and philosophy. He has written articles for the New Yorker and CNN, and, in 2019, received his M.F.A. in film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He has written, directed, edited, and shot films that have screened in top festivals and online platforms, such as SXSW, Atlanta, Miami, Palm Springs, Cinequest, HollyShorts, and Vimeo Staff Pick. Adrian's thesis short, The Artisan, was the first Cuban film featured on the Short of The Week platform. He was selected as a Marcie Bloom Fellow-a Sony Pictures Classics mentoring program designed to introduce up-and-coming filmmakers to the film industry. He's in development for his debut feature, El Cuento de la Ballena / The Story of the Whale.