María Laura Ruggiero is an argentine Filmmaker, and narrative designer specialized in experiential storytelling. Her work has been featured in several international programs regarding emerging media such as Power to the Pixel, TransmediaNext, Forward Storytelling, FIPA and MIT´s Worlding.

She’s a Professor an international speaker regarding topics of narrative innovation and virtual reality  (MUTEK, SXSW, MIT,  ONA, Berlinale, TEDx, VR Fest, Fundación Telefónica, Congreso Quirino de Animación, America’s Cultural Summit and more ).

She’s a Berlinale Alumni and storytelling mentor for Berlinale Talent Campus Short Form station, Member of Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School, NATPE Diversity Fellow, Jihlava Emerging Producer and Winner of the National Endowment of the Arts.

She was recently awarded the Alice down the Rabbit Hole award from Digital Jove Spain.

Since 2020 she works a Creative Specialist for the World Bank Virtual Reality Division.

In 2023, she became a Storytelling Mentor and Jury of the MIT Reality Hack event, the renowned Virtual Reality Hackathon of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her project Wave 201: The Unwanted Atlantis is part of the MIT’s Cocreation Studio project: Worlding.

She’s currently working towards her PhD on Immersive Design (UBA-FADU) , she has completed the MITx´s Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality course with Fox Harrell Ph.D, and is part of the XR Design Virtual Reality Fellowship.

María Laura guides the StoryHackers Lab, a Pop Up Lab supported by OEI and the Board of Culture of Argentina, where she guides audiences into the exploration of new narrative languages and the impact of positive worldbuilding techniques. She runs SeirenFilms, a lab devoted to the exploration of new narrative frontiers in emerging media.

She’s part of Amplify DAI, an international initiative that supports women and non binaries in digital media, sponsored by Mutek, Fundación Williams and British Council.

2024 updates: She developed and premiered a prototype of Aplysia, an immersive experience on the nature of dreams.

“The library of all possible things”, the film and immersive experience she’s producing and co-writing has won Industry Award at Raw Science Film Festival NYC and has been selected for Silbersalz, IDFA and Ji.Hlava.

She was invited to serve as a jury member for IbermediaNext where 70 co-development animation projects were submitted, covering a variety of formats including short films, prototypes, pilots, and teasers. In October 2024, she will be traveling to Czech republict as a jury for the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, First Lights Program.