Maite Alberdi Soto

Maite Alberdi Soto is a Chilean film producer, director, documentarian, screenwriter, and film critic known for her contributions to Latin American documentary cinema. Alberdi graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile with degrees in aesthetics and social communication and is the founder of Micromundo Producciones, the production company through which she has developed her body of work. In addition to her filmmaking career, Alberdi teaches documentary directing at several universities and co-authored the book "Teorías del cine documental en Chile: 1957-1973."

Alberdi began her feature filmmaking career with "The Lifeguard" before gaining international attention through Micromundo Producciones. She directed "La Once" ("Tea Time"), which won more than 12 international awards and was nominated for the Goya Award for Best Ibero-American Film. Alberdi also released the short film "I Am Not from Here," nominated for the European Film Awards, and premiered her third feature film "The Grown-Ups," which won 10 international awards. For her documentaries "La Once" and "The Grown-Ups," Alberdi received the Best Female Documentary Director Award at the international documentary festival circuit.

Alberdi's international breakthrough came with "The Mole Agent," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, becoming the first Chilean documentary to receive an Academy Award nomination. Alberdi is the first Chilean woman to be nominated for an Oscar. Her subsequent film, "The Eternal Memory," premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the Grand Jury Prize, and in Spain, it won both the Forqué Award for Best Latin American Film and the Goya Award for Best Ibero-American Film, earning Alberdi her second Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary. "The Mole Agent" has also been developed as a fiction series for Netflix.

Alberdi expanded her work beyond documentaries with "In Her Place" ("El Lugar de la Otra"), a crime film directed for Netflix. The film, written by Inés Bortagaray and Paloma Salas, is based on the true story of Chilean writer María Carolina Geel. "In Her Place" was selected as Chile's entry for the Best International Feature Oscar. In 2026, she is set to release the Netflix documentary "A Child of My Own," which explores the story of a woman in Mexico who faked a pregnancy due to familial pressure. Alberdi has also been recognized as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her career is marked by a commitment to documentary filmmaking, storytelling, and the exploration of human experiences.