Gemma Cubero del Barrio

Gemma Cubero del Barrio is a Spanish/American documentary director and producer. For the last 25 years she has gained a breath of experience producing non-fiction documentary films and original programming. In 2006, she founded Talcual Films.  Gemma has produced and directed films in Spain, United States, Mexico, Cuba, Germany, Argentina, Hawai’i, New Zealand, and the Cook Islands from development through distribution. 

Her documentaries include: Ella Es El Matador (She Is The Matador), Ottomaticake, Our Atoll Speaks, and The Island In Me. Her films have been supported by institutions such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS, Pacific Islanders in Communications, Point of View (P.O.V.), Latino Public Broadcasting, Women Make Movies, Kickstarter, The San Francisco Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, the United Nations Global Environment Fund, and The Redford Center. 

Gemma’s film and TV career started as Associate Producer and Researcher on the Sundance Special Jury Prize documentary Señorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo. In Spain, she produced for Julio Medem’s company two feature length documentaries, What’s Under Your Hat? and One Percent: Schizophrenia, both with theatrical, TV, and DVD release in Spain. 

Gemma received the 2008 Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award for Documentary from the Tribeca Film Institute. She has been nominated for the United States Artists Fellowship, the American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Award, and the 2022 Chicken and Egg Award. In 2011, she received the Annenberg Fellowship to obtain her MA in Specialized Journalism in the Arts at the University of Southern California. Her thesis “Give Up Tomorrow: Documentary as a Tool for Change” was published by Lambert Academic Publishing. Her consulting producer clients include Latino Public Broadcasting, A Moment In Time Productions, Ambulante California, and TUTU Company. She is a Board Member of NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacifica Cinema) and for the last 10 years has served as a judge for the Emmy® Awards. Gemma served as the chair of the NETPAC Jury at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The NETPAC Award recognizes films specifically from the Asian and Pacific regions. The jury awards the prize to the best Asian film by a first- or second-time feature director.

Most recently Gemma celebrated the premiere of her new feature length documentary The Island In Me at the 2021 Hawai'i International Film Festival in the Made in Hawai’i Competition and received the Special Jury Prize at the 2022 FIFO - International Documentary Film Festival in Tahiti. At DocEdge Festival, an Academy Award qualifiying festival in New Zealand, where the film had sold-out screening events in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. In 2023 the film premiered at Cinequest and the Roxie Theater at the Green Film Festival of San Francisco.

Stay tune…Gemma is now developing her next documentary Emotions Revealed: The Life and Work or Dr. Paul Ekman check her Talcual Films production website to access her films and learn more about this new project.