Biography

Adrian Ortega is an award-winning narrative and documentary filmmaker based in Melbourne. A first-generation Australian, from an Italian/Spanish migrant family, Adrian was raised in the inner-western suburbs by his single mother.

His first 2 documentaries Bodycrash and Modus Operandi were met with critical acclaim and media coverage from publications such as Junkee, VICE, The Daily Mail U.K., as well as Channel 10 News. His third documentary short They Call Me Spiderman was accepted in the Official Selection for The St. Kilda Film Festival in 2016.

His debut feature film Cerulean Blue, which he wrote, directed, and produced, had its World Premiere to sold out audiences at the 68th Melbourne International Film Festival in 2019. It then went on to win the El Rey Award for Excellence in Film Directing at the Barcelona International Film Festival. It is currently streaming exclusively on Stan in Australia, and on Amazon Prime in the US and UK.

In 2016, Adrian founded Proud Wing Films, a production company focussed on bringing new stories and new voices to Australian cinema. The second film produced under Proud Wing Films after Cerulean Blue was Senie Priti’s debut short film Alba, which received a Special Mention in the Rebel8 Award for Outstanding Emerging Female Director at Flickerfest in 2021.

Recently, Adrian produced Aarushi Chowdhury’s debut short film Clown which had it’s World Premiere at SXSW Sydney, and then went on to screen at the 72nd Melbourne International Film Festival, the Darwin International Film Festival, the Byron Bay Film Festival, and the Australian Women's Film Festival where Aarushi went on to win the “One To Watch” award, presented by Leah Purcell.

Adrian has a deep passion for telling stories about flawed individuals, especially ones from his life. Characters who have questionable motives and make even more questions decisions in their search for salvation. He is inspired by European art cinema, especially those by Andrea Arnold, in how they portray these realistic three-dimensional characters that audiences can either connect to on a personal level or are fascinated by.

Adrian is currently in post-production on his second feature film Westgate.