Blue Ant Studios Inks Deal with Producer & Director Lisa Cortés

Blue Ant Studios has signed a first-look deal with Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer and director Lisa Cortés (Precious, The Apollo).

Under the deal, Cortés will work with Blue Ant Studios to develop and produce new scripted and unscripted properties spanning documentary, music, history and biography and narrative. They are currently developing a docuseries based on Clover Hope’s book The Motherlode: The 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop.

Other projects in progress include the scripted series No Retreat, an action-packed drama about Black and Indigenous women soldiers during World War II, and Little Apple, a sci-fi/dramedy created by Riley S. Wilson about a little girl in Harlem who happens to be a superhero.

Cortés began her career as a music executive at the Def Jam label and Rush Artist Management. Later, she was VP of artist and repertoire at Mercury Records and founded the Loose Cannon label. As a producer, her recent work includes Amazon Studios’ All In: The Fight for Democracy and the Emmy-winning HBO documentary The Apollo. She was also an executive producer of the 2009 film Precious, which won two Academy aAwards.

“Throughout my career, I have been passionate about telling complex, powerful stories from new perspectives,” said Cortés. “Cortés Filmworks is committed to inclusivity and to elevating talent often overlooked by the mainstream. This collaboration with a company leading in dynamic, impactful genre-spanning content is exciting, and I look forward to developing a diverse slate of scripted and unscripted projects with the Blue Ant team.”

“Lisa is a creative powerhouse who has an incredible eye for vibrant, visionary stories that are of our time,” added Laura Michalchyshyn, chief creative officer and co-president of Blue Ant Studios. “She brings curiosity and a wonderful range of talent to her projects. The impact of her work is inspiring. We are already developing several exciting projects together and are honored to collaborate with her to bring culturally relevant and talent-driven projects to life.”