Melina León (; born 1977) is a Peruvian filmmaker.

Early life and education

Melina León was born in

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

in 1977, to Ismael León Arias, a renowned journalist and one of the founders of the newspaper ''

La República ''La República'' () is a Peruvian newspaper based in Lima, Peru. It is one of the two main national daily newspapers sold all over the country since it was founded on November 16, 1981. History Founding and early history The paper was fou ...

'', who helped expose a child trafficking network that illegally sent children abroad in the 1980s. She studied communications at the

University of Lima The University of Lima (; ; ) is a private nonprofit university in Lima, Peru. It was founded in 1962. The decision to create the University of Lima was made in the early 1960s by a group of university professors, along with commerce and indu ...

and completed a master's degree in Film Directing at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, which she was able to finish thanks to a three-year scholarship funded by the

Hollywood Foreign Press Association The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) was a nonprofit organization of journalists and photographers who reported on the American entertainment industry for predominantly foreign media markets. It is best known for founding and conduc ...

(HFPA).

Career

León directed her first short film ''A 45 for the Month's Expenses'' (2000), which won the Best Short Film award from Conacine (now DAFO, part of the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) * Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)Ministry o ...

) and was selected for the

Tampere Film Festival The Tampere Film Festival () is a short film festival held every March, mostly at the Finnkino Plevna movie theatre, in Tampere, Finland. It is accredited by the film producers' society FIAPF, and together with the short film festivals in Oberhau ...

in 2002. Her short film, ''Lili’s Paradise'' (2009), premiered at the 47th

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

and has won 11 awards, including Best Latin-American Film at the São Paulo International Short Film Festival. León's critically acclaimed directorial debut, '' Song Without a Name'', premiered at the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festival as a ...

during the

2019 Cannes Film Festival The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president for the main competition. South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho won the , the festival's top prize, fo ...

, making her the first Peruvian director to be selected by the festival.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:León, Melina 1977 births Living people Columbia University alumni University of Lima alumni Peruvian women film directors Peruvian screenwriters Peruvian film producers Mass media people from Lima