🌈 Pride Month Spotlight: Tina Romero Is Breathing Queer Life Into Horror

anushka
Jun 10
3 min read

Updated: 10 minutes ago

Queens, Chaos, and Claiming the Crown at Tribeca 2025

This Pride Month, WISE celebrates filmmaker Tina Romero, whose genre-smashing debut Queens of the Dead just won the Audience Award at Tribeca 2025. She’s queer, bold, and rewriting the rules of horror.

This Pride Month, a Star Rises

When Tina Romero stepped onto the scene with her debut feature Queens of the Dead, she wasn’t just telling a story—she was carrying a legacy, claiming space, and crashing open genre doors with glitter, guts, and grit.

This June, Tina made her mark in spectacular fashion as Queens of the Dead won the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, one of the most prestigious honors a first-time filmmaker can receive. The crowd-pleasing horror-comedy—set in Brooklyn and bursting with drag-queen energy, queer joy, and zombie-fueled chaos—was unlike anything else at the festival. And audiences couldn’t get enough.

A Debut with Bite

“Tina doesn’t just flip the script—she slays it, rebuilds it, and invites everyone to the afterparty.”

Queens of the Dead is a genre-defying ride that celebrates queer culture while plunging viewers into a hilarious, high-camp apocalypse. With a cast led by standouts like Katy O’Brian, Jaquel Spivey, and Nina West, Tina weaves humor, heart, and horror into a narrative that feels both wildly fun and deeply personal.

At its core, the film is about survival—but not just from zombies. It’s about surviving in a world that often tries to erase queer voices, feminine power, and fearless originality.

A Legacy Reimagined

For Tina Romero, filmmaking runs in her blood. She’s the daughter of George A. Romero, the legendary director who redefined horror with Night of the Living Dead and turned zombies into cultural icons. While Tina honors that towering legacy, she’s forging her own path—infusing the genre with queerness, wit, and a fearless sense of identity.

Her voice is sharp. Her vision is unapologetic. And her timing? Impeccable.

With Queens of the Dead, Tina proves that legacy and innovation can dance together—fiercely and fabulously—on screen.

The WISE Connection

At WISE, we exist to elevate women and underrepresented storytellers like Tina—artists who don’t wait for permission to be brilliant, bold, and barrier-breaking. Tina’s work embodies the future of genre filmmaking: inclusive, imaginative, and impossible to ignore.

Her Tribeca win isn’t just a personal milestone—it’s a moment for all of us who believe in the power of diverse stories to reshape the cultural landscape.

“She’s not just carrying on a legacy—she’s queering it, electrifying it, and making it her own.”

What’s Next?

Tina Romero is just getting started. With studios and audiences now paying attention, and Queens of the Dead already being hailed as a cult classic in the making, we expect this is only the beginning of a long and fearless journey in film.

And here at WISE, we’re ready to support her every step of the way—because her rise lifts us all.

🎬 Why This Story Matters

Horror has always been a space for the outsiders, and Queens of the Dead reminds us that queerness isn’t just present in the genre—it’s vital to it. From the drag queens fighting off the undead to the dance-floor defiance of queer bodies moving freely, this film is a celebration of survival, resistance, and joy.