Monica Villamizar is a Colombian-American filmmaker and TV correspondent. She directed and produced the documentary "Transition" about an Australian trans journalist who embeds with the Taliban after the collapse of Afghanistan. The film Premiered at Tribeca 2023 and was selected for the Sheffield Documentary Festival where it was nominated for the Tim Hetherington Award. She was a producer on the Nat Geo documentary "The First Wave" directed by Matthew Heineman, about New York's biggest Covid-19 Hospital, which won the 2022 EMMY for Best Documentary. Monica also produced the SHOWTIME series The Trade (Season Two) on Human Trafficking and Immigration, which premiered at The Sundance 2020 Film Festival, and was recently nominated for 4 EMMY's including best documentary. As a journalist she has won 2 EMMYS and was nominated for the prestigious One World Media "Journalist of the Year 2015 Award", which honors the best journalists in the world in all forms of media, print, radio and TV. Monica has traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Mali, Congo DRC, Mexico, El Salvador and Haiti and other countries, at times filming directly on the front lines. She has covered the drug wars in Colombia and Mexico, gaining exclusive access to cartels and smugglers. She covered the Arab spring, the war against ISIS in Iraq and the advance of jihadism in West Africa. In September 2019 she reported on an experimental Ebola vaccine and was a subject of the trial led by Dr Anthony Fauci. She covered the Ebola outbreak of Eastern Congo DRC until her team and WHO doctors came under attack by rebel militias. In her attempts to tell truthful, hard-hitting stories, Monica has been targeted by the Egyptian military which raided her office in Cairo and arrested her colleagues, and more recently by the Venezuelan Government who falsely accused her of being a spy, and issued an arrest warrant for her - her work as a journalist was backed by The New York Times editorial board which denounced the Maduro Government. This ignited her interest and active involvement in "Freedom of the Press" campaigns. Monica is an active member of the Frontline Freelance Register which protects and promotes the integrity of freelance conflict reporters all over the world.
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Biography from IMDb.
- Producer and director
- 5 on MovieCove
What are Monica Villamizar's films like?
Across their 5 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Society and Self.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 4
Light 0 · Serious 0 · Dark 4
Grounded 4 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 0
Gentle 0 · Charged 2 · Intense 2
A split, not a type: Steady 2 · Shifting 1 · Whiplash 1
Straight-faced 4 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 0
Slow burn 2 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 0
Casual 0 · Engaged 3 · Full focus 1
Easy watch 0 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 3
Resolved 2 · Open-ended 2 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet1
- Ambiguous4
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Monica Villamizar's films?
As of October 24, 2026, all 5 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.
Subscription and free streaming for Monica Villamizar's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
5 credits, 5 with a MovieCove page.
Midcredits score: 55th percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
Transition(2023)
Midcredits score: 85th percentile of all films
Endangered(2022)
Midcredits score: 61st percentile of all films
The First Wave(2021)
Midcredits score: 82nd percentile of all films
The Trade(2018)
Midcredits score: 64th percentile of all shows
Career shape
Across their 5 MovieCove titles from 2018 to 2025.
How do Monica Villamizar's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 72nd percentile, the median of all 4; across a limited sample of 4 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 77th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up2
- 50th to 74th3
Shape of the crowd
2 of their 5 titles are Cult Classics.
- Divisive1
- Cult Classic2
- Crowd Pleaser1
- Mixed1
Reviewers score the atmosphere 74/100 in their films, across 3 reviewed titles; fans 77, detractors 30. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Monica Villamizar work with?
People who share at least 2 of Monica Villamizar's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Matthew Heineman shares the most, 3.
Directors
- Matthew HeinemanShared titles: Transition (2023), The First Wave (2021), The Trade (2018)See all 3 shared titles with Matthew Heineman
Composers and cinematographers
- H. Scott SalinasShared titles: The First Wave (2021), The Trade (2018)See all 2 shared titles with H. Scott Salinas
- Ross McDonnellShared titles: The First Wave (2021), The Trade (2018)See all 2 shared titles with Ross McDonnell
Producers
- Joedan OkunShared titles: Transition (2023), The First Wave (2021), The Trade (2018)See all 3 shared titles with Joedan Okun
- Pagan Danielle HarlemanShared titles: The First Wave (2021), The Trade (2018)See all 2 shared titles with Pagan Danielle Harleman
- William WheelerShared titles: The First Wave (2021), The Trade (2018)See all 2 shared titles with William Wheeler