Image of Kristina  Hernandez
Jury

Kristina Hernandez
SVP, Creative Advertising
Walt Disney Studios

LOS ANGELES, USA // In her nine years with the company, she has worked on such successful campaigns as The Proposal, Alice in Wonderland, The Help, OZ the Great & Powerful, Maleficent, and Cinderella. She has personally overseen the record-breaking creative advertising campaigns for The Jungle Book and Beauty & the Beast, and is now at the creative helm of the upcoming Aladdin directed by Guy Ritchie and the much anticipated Lion King directed by Jon Favearu.

In 2016, she was named one of Variety’s New Leaders in Hollywood, and in the same year, her Jungle Book campaign won multiple awards at the Golden Trailers and Clio Key Art Awards and helped open what was thought to be a children’s franchise to a general audience phenomenon. The opening week projections were set at $70 million, but the film instead opened to a whopping $103 million. The Hollywood Reporter called out the campaign as one of the 10 best marketing campaigns for 2016.

In 2017, her Beauty & the Beast campaign helped the film open to over $174 million domestically and earn a total of over $1.2 billion in the global box office. This was yet another record-breaking campaign that started with the teaser trailer with the most views, followed by a trailer with even more audience views. The film became the biggest box office opening of all time for Disney Live Action, the #1 March opening of all time, the #1 PG opening of all time, the #1 musical of all time, and the #1 spring opening of all time. The film had unprecedented movie ticket sales and is currently the #9 biggest movie opening of all time.

Kristina has been a leader in her field for over 12 years and feels it is important to reach out to others and give back to the community. She is an active mentor in the Walt Disney Mentoring Program and has supported many mentees in and outside of the company. She has a philosophy that all are welcome in her office and makes time to meet with those drawn to the film industry seeking advice and guidance. Many times, these up-and-comers find her through her Alumni Association at Loyola Marymount University where she studied film and was one of the founding members of LMU TV and an active member in LMU’s Mexican American Association. She was highlighted this past year for Hispanic Heritage Month at the Walt Disney Company and appreciates the opportunity that Pixar’s Coco provided for her to create new enthusiasm for her Mexican heritage with her 5-year-old daughter, Audrey (named after Ms. Hepburn).

Prior to her years at Disney, she worked as a producer at the trailer house, Seismic Productions. While at Seismic, she worked on the trailers, TV and radio commercials for The Proposal, Bride Wars, Sex and the City, Step Brothers, Juno, many Tyler Perry films, and various Lionsgate’s horror films. She was also the resident producer for the Hispanic campaigns.