Mars Verrone is an award-winning filmmaker, musician, and educator from Los Angeles, CA, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. As a first-time producer, Mars produced the Oscar-shortlisted feature documentary UNION (dir. Stephen Maing, Brett Story), which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Competition and won a Special Jury Prize for “The Art of Change.” The film was distributed by PBS POV and the Criterion Channel. Mars received a Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Achievement in Production.
In 2022, Mars directed and produced the award-winning short documentary GOLDEN VOICE, which continues to screen at LGBTQ+ festivals and events worldwide. Mars is a Sundance Documentary Producers Fellow, NBC Original Voices Artist Mentor and Fellow, PGA Create Fellow, Firelight Media Impact Fellow, Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist Fellow, Dear Producer Mentee, and was selected for DOC NYC’s 2024 “40 Under 40” cohort. Their work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, and the International Documentary Association, among others.