Leonardo Pirondi (b. São Paulo, Brazil; 1999) is a filmmaker and artist who lives and works between Los Angeles, Porto and São Paulo. His films build and inhabit alternative worlds that move between reality and fiction; his filmmaking practice challenges traditional narrative structures that emerge from the fabulation of sociopolitical resonances within culture, history, technology, image-making, and orality.

His films have been exhibited in various festivals worldwide, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the Tiger Short Competition in Rotterdam, the New York Film Festival, Viennale, Mar del Plata, BFI London, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Guanajuato, Ambulante, Media City and many others.

His work has been presented in art centers such as CCCB, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and REDCAT. He has had solo exhibitions at Galeria Mola (Portugal) and Spectacle Theater (New York). Some of his 35mm films live in the UCLA Film & Television Archive collection; some digital ones exist in the Cinematheque of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York City.

He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in film from the California Institute of the Arts, is a Sundance Institute Fellow, and has received the Allan Sekula Social Documentary Fund and Tim Disney Prize for Excellence in the Storytelling Arts.

Fractais Tropicias, his debut feature-length fiction produced by Bam Bam Cinema and Ver e Ouvir Filmes, will be his next film.

GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, LABS, AWARDS

  • 2024 - Fundo de Apoio ao Cinema - IndieLisboa & Portugal Film

  • 2023/24 - Sundance Ignite Fellowship at MASS MoCA; North Adams, Massachusetts

  • 2023 - Award Winner for Best Experimental Film (Visão do Paraíso) at Brooklyn FF

  • 2023 - Award Winner for Best Editing (Visão do Paraíso) at DTLA Film Festival

  • 2023 - Honorable Mention at Onion City Experimental Film Festival

  • 2023 - School of Film/Video Dean's Grant for Student Achievement Travel

  • 2023 - Patty Disney Center for Life & Work Travel Grant

  • 2023 - Tim Disney Prize for Excellence in the Storytelling Arts

  • 2022 - Allan Sekula Social Documentary Fund

  • 2022 - Nominee for Yugo BAFTA Student Award

  • 2022 - Award Winner for Best Experimental Film at Chicago Int. Film Festival: CineYouth

  • 2021/22 - Peter Stark Scholarship

  • 2018/22 - Lillian Disney Scholarship, California Institute of the Arts

  • 2021 - CalArts Student Union Grant

  • 2021 - CalArts School of Film/Video Project Funds

  • 2021 - CalArts Creative Practice Grant

  • 2021 - Peter Stark Scholarship

  • 2020 - CalArts School of Film/Video Project Funds

  • 2020 - CalArts Student Union Grant

  • 2019 - Award Winner for Best Social Commentary Film at Austin Arthouse

  • 2019 - CalArts Student Union Grant

  • 2018 - Award Winner for Best Surrealist Film at Austin Arthouse

  • 2016 - Best Animated Film at South West London International Film Festival

SOLO SHOWS, SPECIAL SCREENINGS, LECTURES

  • 2024 - University of Virginia: Art Department; Charlottesville, USA

  • 2023/24 - When We Encounter the World: Gallery Installation Piece at Galeria Mola; Braga, Portugal

  • 2023 - When We Encounter The World, preceding The Night Visitors screening at Maysles Documentary Center; New York, USA

  • 2023 - A Night with Leonardo Pirondi and Zazie Ray-Trapido at Spectacle Theater; New York, USA

  • 2023 - University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Department of Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres; Milwaukee, USA

  • 2023 - Earth Grain Pixel: Films by Leonardo Pirondi at Spectacle Theater; New York, USA

  • 2023 - University of Chicago; Chicago, USA

  • 2022 - BORDERS: Films by Leonardo Pirondi at Galeria Mola; Braga, Portugal

  • 2018 - Photo & Video Class at Escola Viva; São Paulo, Brazil

PRESS