JUAN PABLO CABALLERO

Director 

Juan Pablo is a director and cinematographer based in Barcelona. His work moves between fiction, documentary, and climbing films — spaces where reality starts to bend and emotion takes the lead. He’s drawn to remote landscapes, forgotten stories, and the invisible threads that tie people to the places they inhabit.

With an M.A. in Contemporary Film from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and a B.A. in Audiovisual Arts from the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga, Juan Pablo approaches filmmaking as a way to decode culture through imagery. His stories often reinterpret local cosmologies and belief systems, shaping a kind of contemporary magical realism.

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In 2018, he was selected for the Amazonian film residency "Filming in Peru with Werner Herzog", where he shot Spacewalkers, winner of the ADB Award at the São Paulo International Film Festival — a hallucinatory trip through the jungle’s spiritual and sonic landscape.

His short film The Black Virgin (Contravía Films) premiered at Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival, and went on to win Best Short Film at both the New York Colombian Film Festival and the Macondo Awards of the Colombian Film Academy. It screened at more than thirty festivals worldwide.

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Since then, his trajectory has expanded across genres and geographies. His documentary Déjame Quererte earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Long Music Video, while his most recent film, Living the Way, won the Audience Prize — “Versante Sport Award” at Cervino Cinemountain Festival 2025 in Italy.

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As a cinematographer, he’s collaborated with VICE, BBC, and ARTE+, as well as with filmmakers exploring the limits between observation and fiction. His first feature as DOP, Snake Oil Song (dir. Micah Van Hove), premiered at New/Next Film Festival 2025. He’s currently in post-production on his short The Place Where Everything Begins and Ends, and developing two feature projects — My Eight Reincarnations, a meditation on memory and rebirth, and The Stone, a documentary about climbing and belonging.

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In advertising, Juan Pablo has been represented by Primo Content, Central Films, Los Notarios, and Akira Cine, crafting campaigns for Coca-Cola, Renault, Visa, Movistar, Claro, and General Motors, among others. His commercial work, often described as cinematic and emotionally charged, has been recognized at Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, El Sol, and Effie Awards. In 2014, he received the Best Director Award at El Ojo de Iberoamérica.

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More than anything, Juan Pablo’s films are about the pulse of life in unlikely places — where silence, landscape, and people share the same breath.

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