By the time Juan Zuloaga Eslait was a teenager, he knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. It’s not surprising considering that his love for storytelling began as a small boy, when he gave his Marvel and Star Wars action figures new identities and original storylines to play out.

“I believe it had a huge impact on the way I craft and tell stories today,” Zuloaga Eslait says. Of his film education, he adds: “I’ve [also] learned a lot from movies, and from reading, but it wasn’t until I came to Chapman that I understood what a director was really supposed to do.”

You could say that understanding, has been rewarded.

In December, Zuloaga Eslait, a film production graduate student from Barranquilla, Colombia, was named the Best Latino Student Filmmaker (West Region) Grand Prize recipient at the 30th Annual Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards, which also honors students African American, Asian, Women and Documentary categories. This year, the winners hailed from the American Film Institute, Columbia University, Boston University and USC, among others.

Zuloaga Eslait’s film, Before the Winter, tells the story of May, a middle school student who chronicles the secrets of her home life in her diary until it falls into the hands of a concerned professor, who discovers her secrets. The director connected to the story, written by Jiang Flora Wengu (MFA ’24), because it explores the realm of the human condition, an approach he champions in all his filmmaking.

“I have come to understand that the world is actually very gray and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that,” he says. “That is the beauty of the world, that it is gray and that everything we do, no matter what, usually always comes from a place of love.”

Zuloaga Eslait credits the supportive and collaborative environment at Dodge as being instrumental in the film’s success — and every film he has made as an MFA student for that matter.

“I’ve been very lucky because I’ve had very good teams and very good members in every film I’ve done here,” he says.

Zuloaga Eslait is grateful for his DGA honor, which included a $2,500 prize, and sees it not only as a recognition of his work and that of his fellow honorees, but as a valuable calling card that can help launch them into the Hollywood filmmaking scene.

“[The award] is giving us a chance in this very competitive industry,” he says.

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