Biography

Francisco J. Lombardi is one of the most renowned filmmakers in Latin America. Throughout his career, he has directed 17 feature films, and his work has been the subject of retrospectives and tributes at major festivals such as Fribourg, Mar del Plata, Guadalajara, Havana, Huesca, Viña del Mar, and Trieste. Lombardi has received numerous international awards, including two Silver Shells for Best Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival (The City and the Dogs, Under the Skin) and the Grand Prix des Amériques at the Montreal World Film Festival (Fallen from Heaven). His films have also been selected by top-tier festivals such as Cannes (The City and the Dogs, Without Compassion), Toronto (What the Eye Doesn’t See, Fallen from Heaven), and Berlin (The Mouth of the Wolf, Captain Pantoja and the Special Services), among many others. In 2014, he received the National Culture Award of Peru, the highest distinction in the country’s cultural sphere. Other major honors include the Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award from Human Rights Watch for his exceptional commitment to human rights, and the Pablo Neruda Gold Medal of Merit, awarded by Chile’s National Council for Culture and the Arts in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Latin American art and culture. In 2023, he was among the 398 individuals invited to join the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars.