Liz Cardenas - Indie Film Producer of NEVER GOIN' BACK

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Liz Cardenas is a 2019 Independent Spirit Award nominee and producer. She is also a writer, director and actor. She was included in the 2019 LATINXT, a highly curated list of emerging Latino creators from an initiative by Zoe Saldana, Robert Rodriguez and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Notable producing credits include Augustine Frizzell’s NEVER GOIN’ BACK (Sundance '18), starring Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone and Kyle Mooney; David Lowery’s A GHOST STORY (Sundance ‘17), starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck (both distributed by A24); and Daniel Laabs' JULES OF LIGHT & DARK, the 2019 Outfest Best US Narrative Feature, distributed by Wolfe Releasing.

Most recently, she produced for Duplass Brothers Productions, the rom-com, 7 DAYS, starring Karan Soni and Geraldine Viswanathan, which she shot in September 2020 and had its World Premiere at Tribeca 2021.

She’s written and directed two award-winning shorts and co-created a series of children’s films sold throughout the world. Under her Ten to the Six Pictures, she has a slate of four features and two shorts in various stages of production and development – filming in the US and abroad. A former reporter for The Dallas Morning News, she was raised by her Hispanic father, who immigrated to the US from Mexico, and Irish-American mother.

This week, we dive deep into:

• Embracing the nomadic lifestyle that allows her to pursue her passions

• Her secret sauce for creating and sustaining relationships with friends who are also collaborators

• Why it takes so long to find your people