Sebastián Martínez Valdivia named executive director of Murray Center for Documentary Journalism
COLUMBIA, Mo. (Aug. 26, 2026) — Sebastián Martínez Valdivia has been named the executive director of the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism. He will now lead the Missouri School of Journalism’s documentary program after nearly four years as its supervising producer.
“Sebastián’s efforts to support students as they make their award-winning documentary films have steadily raised the national profile of the Murray Center,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “As he steps into this new role, I look forward to seeing him continue to drive student success and collaborate with Filmmaker-in-Chief Robert Greene.”
Martínez will be the first to hold a director position at the center since founding director Stacey Woelfel, who retired in 2021 after 35 years at the School of Journalism.
He takes the reins of the center at a time when its students and alums are finding increasing success locally and nationally; at a time when a $10.3 million vote of confidence from founding donor and reality television pioneer Jonathan Murray, BJ ’77, has enabled the creation of the revolutionary Method M Film Fund to help alumni complete their film productions; and at a time when Greene’s most recent film, “Too Much Sugar,” will feature a Method M Films credit when it premieres at the 2026 Venice Film Festival thanks to the contributions of Murray Center students over multiple years.
“It’s an honor to be entrusted with this responsibility, and I’m very grateful for that trust,” said Martínez, who earned his master’s degree in documentary journalism in 2017 as part of the center’s first graduating class. “The nearly four years I’ve spent at the Murray Center have been some of the most energizing of my life. Getting to work with Robert, [Alumni Coordinator] Adam Dietrich, our colleagues in the School of Journalism and our students has been a privilege, and I really welcome this opportunity to take a more active leadership role here.”
In recent years, Martínez has worked to ensure that the center’s support for student films does not end with the films’ completion, though his guidance has also played a vital role in helping the young filmmakers manage complexities like budgets, scheduling, equipment management and other logistics.
He put together the application for the Method M Film Fund, did the legwork with Mizzou’s contracts office to build the infrastructure needed to pay recipients, and served on the selection committee when it was time to pick the first round of recipients.
For their part, students have increasingly found success not only with Columbia’s trademark True/False Film Fest and other regional gatherings but with Academy Award-qualifying festivals like the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Montana. The center also covers some festival submission fees.
“The nearly four years I’ve spent at the Murray Center have been some of the most energizing of my life. Getting to work with Robert, [Alumni Coordinator] Adam Dietrich, our colleagues in the School of Journalism and our students has been a privilege, and I really welcome this opportunity to take a more active leadership role here.”
Sebastián Martínez Valdivia
Baxter Stein, BJ ’23, credited that support when his film, “Tilted Arc,” was selected as a finalist for Best Mini-Doc at the Big Sky Festival in 2024.
“These festivals are a big deal,” Stein said at the time, adding, “The fact that the center goes beyond just teaching you how to make a movie is so cool. I only applied to five festivals because I didn’t think my movie was going to get in, but when I got into Big Sky, I went out and applied to eight more.”
Greene, a working filmmaker whose previous film, “Procession,” was acquired by Netflix and shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the 94th Academy Awards, said Martínez was already instrumental in moving the center forward before becoming executive director, noting his influence in the push toward further support for alumni and a stronger presence in the film industry — collectively known as the center’s “Phase II.”
“Sebastián has done an amazing job as supervising producer, and he is going to be incredible as the director of the program,” Greene said. “He was, of course, a student at the Murray Center, and so this place means as much to him as it does to me and our students. It was his leadership that initiated Murray Center Phase II, and it’s his partnership that has helped me do what I can to make this place special. I’m incredibly excited about working with him in this new way.”
From the School of Journalism, Martínez earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2013 before earning his master’s degree in 2017. He is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker, with previous work appearing on NPR, Kaiser Health News and PBS.
About the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism
The Murray Center’s documentary theory, development and production program offers a wide range of flexibility for students, who can make films about virtually anything through a documentary lens. Launched in 2014 with a $6.7 million gift from namesake Jonathan Murray — to which he added a further $10.3 million in 2025 — the center is uniquely situated as a documentary film program housed within a journalism school.
Each year, graduating students showcase their capstone films at Stronger Than Fiction, a festival in which the films are screened for the public at Columbia’s historic Missouri Theatre. Judges award prizes to the best films, which advance to a screening at the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look Film Festival in New York.
Updated: August 27, 2026