Violeta Ayala stands as an award-winning filmmaker and a trailblazer in creative technology, recognized as the first Quechua member of the Oscars. Her work bridges storytelling with groundbreaking technologies. Her latest project, “Las Awichas,“ an XR film experience developed in collaboration with King’s College London, is currently on display at The Strand, one of London’s most famous streets. This exhibition, part of the esteemed GLoW project, celebrates the pivotal contributions of women to the evolution of technology.
Her prior work, “Prison X” (2021), an interactive VR animation, garnered critical acclaim at Sundance and Cannes XR, marking a significant achievement in the realm of spatial storytelling. Ayala’s documentary credits include “La Lucha” (2023), “Cocaine Prison” (2017), “The Fight” (2017), “The Bolivian Case” (2015), and “Stolen” (2009), which have premiered at major film festivals including Sundance and Toronto, showcasing her prowess in narrative skills. These documentaries have been broadcast on global platforms such as PBS, World, Amazon Prime, and The Guardian, earning Ayala more than 50 awards and nominations, including a Walkley (Australia’s Pulitzer), and nominations for prestigious accolades like the IDA (Los Angeles) and Rory Peck (London).
In 2023, Ayala’s “Woven Worlds” was honored with the XR Innovation Award at the Games for Change festival, a recognition of her excellence in XR medium ideation and execution. Additionally, her creation of a metaverse space in Voxels was acknowledged with an overall honorable mention at Yale University’s Indigenous Futurism Model-Making Competition. Her co-design of Expylab, an XR Lab in Paraguay, was selected for Meta’s community grant, demonstrating her leadership in expanding the XR community’s reach.
Ayala is actively engaged in developing a personal documentary on her journey to build a Feminist AI, alongside working on “Cyberpunk Tinkus,” a Sci-fiction feature, and creating films and experiences in immersive worlds with AR/VR. Her role as one of the leading voices in “Creating Futures: Art and AI for Tomorrow’s Narratives” at the Salzburg Global Seminar underscores her influence and commitment to shaping the future of storytelling. She is a co-founder of unitednotions.film and koa.xyz.
