Daniel Chávez-Ontiveros is a Mexican filmmaker known for his award-winning documentary editing. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Cinematográficas (ENAC) in Mexico City and earned an MFA in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University.

His most recent feature, American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2026 and received the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition and the Festival Favorite Award. The film also received the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, recognizing its exceptional use of archival materials.

He’s known for his editing work on 499, Sansón and Me, Unseen, Si Pudiera Quedarme (If I Could Stay), and For Venida, For Kalief. These films have premiered and earned awards at top-tier festivals including Tribeca, Hot Docs, and Sheffield DocFest.

Daniel worked as a finishing editor on the documentary How to Clean A House in 10 Easy Steps, produced by Olga Segura and executive produced by Alfonso Cuarón, which premiered at True/False 2026, and won the Kirby Walker Documentary Award at the 69th SFFILM Festival.

In 2020, Daniel was nominated for Best Editing in a Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival for 499, later recognized among DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40” emerging documentary filmmakers and named a Karen Schmeer Editing Fellow in 2022, and most recently selected as a Gloria Schoemann Fellow in 2025.

Drawing from his experience as a Mexican immigrant living in the U.S. for over a decade, Daniel focuses his editing on films that showcase stories about immigration, the Mexican-American experience, and social justice, aiming to inspire and empower his community.

He is also one of the lead organizers for Video Consortium México, a nonprofit organization dedicated to elevating the work of emerging Mexican and Latin American documentary filmmakers through workshops, labs, and masterclasses across the region.

Additionally, Daniel and his partner, Eréndira Olivera, founded the production company Think Films, which produces short-form documentary content for television and social media. In 2023, their work on She Means Business, a collaboration with Stanford University, earned them an Emmy Award in the category of Public Affairs Program Content.