René Ballesteros

René Ballesteros was born in Chile, 1975. He is a psychologist (Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco), film director and screenwriter. After working in prisons for minors and with street children in Araucania, he studied filmmaking at the Université Paris VIII and Le Fresnoy (France). In 2010, his first feature documentary, La Quemadura, won the Joris Ivens Award at Cinéma du Réel, Best Documentary at Documenta Madrid and Best Chilean Director at SANFIC 2010, among others. In 2011 he was selected for the Résidence de la Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival. As a screenwriter, he co-wrote Los versos del olvido, by Alireza Khatami, which won the Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival 2017. Los sueños del castillo, his second documentary, premiered at the Valdivia International Film Festival 2018 and won the Best Chilean Film Award and was in competition at Cinéma du réel in 2019.