ADRIAN CARDENAS is a Cuban-American writer/director and former Major League Baseball player for the Chicago Cubs, born and rasied in Miami, Florida. His articles exploring the intersection of sports and art, and about his Cuban family’s story, have been published by the New Yorker and CNN. His films have screened at top festivals and on online platforms including Palm Springs, New Orleans, Miami, Hollyshorts LALIFF, etc., and have been selected as Vimeo ‘Staff Picks’. In 2019, 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. His feature script, The Story of the Whale was selected for the Torino Next Comedy Lab 2023 and is currently in development, along with In an Orderly Fashion, a feature also in development and based on his award-winning short of the same name. Adrian graduated Summa Cum Laude from NYU with undergraduate degrees in creative writing and philosophy, and then later received his M.F.A in film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He’s currently an adjunct professor in screenwriting at the University of Miami.