Melina Leon is a Peruvian film director whose opera prima, Canción sin Nombre (Song without a Name), premiered at Cannes Director’s Fortnight 2019, making her the first Peruvian female filmmaker to be invited to the festival. The film was nominated for Best Iberoamerican Feature at the Goya Awards 2022 and was Peru’s Oscar® Entry for Best International Feature.
Song without a Name has been selected for over 100 international film festivals winning several awards including Best Director at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, Best Film at the Stockholm Film Festival and the Cinevision Award for Best Emerging Director at the Munich Film Festival.
Set in Peru, in 1988, the film is inspired by a true account of child trafficking originally reported by her father, the journalist Ismael León.
An MFA film graduate of Columbia University, her short film El Paraíso de Lili (Lili’s Paradise), also set in Peru in 1988, made its international debut at the 47th New York Film Festival.
Her second feature film, the documentary, Lejos del Sol (Far from the Sun), will be shot in LA in 2024.
MELINA LEON 