Maria S. Gomez is an internationally award-winning filmmaker. Born and raised in NYC, she always had a big place in her heart for Broadway and films. At a very young age, Maria knew that filmmaking was something she wanted to spend the rest of her life doing. At 17 She started her first film internship at EVC and never put down a camera again. Maria worked at a local channel in New York for some time and decided to further her education at The Los Angeles Film School for a bachelor's degree in digital filmmaking, where she graduated class of 2022. Her horror short film "Pushing Up Orchids" had over ten film festival selections, taking home "Best Horror" at The Rome International Film Festival. "Pushing Up Orchids" was also awarded "Outstanding Creativity" at "The Los Angeles Film School". Her short documentary won "Best Short Documentary" at The People's Film Festival 2022. Maria Gomez will be having the pleasure to return back to The Peoples Film Festival 2023 for her senior capstone project "Flowerchild", which will be screening on June 3rd, 2023 at the Maysle Cinema.