Elena López Riera holds a PhD in Audiovisual Communication, she is a filmmaker, programmer and teacher. Her work has been shown at festivals such as Cannes, Toronto, Locarno, San Sebastián, Cinéma du réel, Vila do Conde, Hiroshima, Fidocs, Cali and Rekjiavik, and at art centres such as PS1 MOMA in New York. Her short film, “Los que desean”, has been awarded the Pardino de Oro at Locarno, the grand prize at Zinebi and Vila do Condeand has also been nominated for the European Film Awards.

As a programmer, she has worked for the Entrevues de Belfort festival, the Seville European festival and the Visions du réel festival. She has taught at the Universities of Geneva, Valencia, Carlos III, and since 2019 she teaches at HEAD (Haute école d’art et design) in Geneva and at the Elías Querejeta School in San Sebastián.  She has also participated as a speaker at the Tabakalera International Seminar (San Sebastian), at the Museo de Arte Universitario de México (Mexico DF) or ArtBo (Bogota, Colombia) or Territorios y fronteras (University of the Basque Country, Bilbao). She has been artist-in-residence at Ikusmira Berriak (Tabakalera), and at the Résidence de la Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival.

She has directed the short films Pueblo (2015), Las vísceras (2016) and Los que desean (2018), and the feature film, El agua (2022), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and invited to numerous international festivals (Toronto, San Sebastian, Melbourne…).

2022
Madrid Film Academy Residencies.
Márgenes Film Festival Un Futuro de Cine Award.
Nomination for the Berlanga Awards of the Valencian Audiovisual Academy: Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Film for “EL AGUA”.
Grand prize best film at the Toulouse Spanish Film Festival for “EL AGUA”.
Best Director Award, Ourense Film Festival for “EL AGUA”.
Special Jury Prize, Salé International Film Festival, Morocco for “THE WATER”.
Special Jury Award, Clam Festival, Manresa, Catalonia.

2019
Development aid, Media Desk, European Union.
Grand prix, Vila do Conde Film Festival, Vila do Conde, Portugal for “LOS QUE DESEAN”.
2nd prize Alcine Film Festival, Madrid, Spain.
Project pitching award, cinéfondation-CNC, Cannes Film Festival, France.

2018
Writing Residency, Cinéfondation, Cannes Film Festival, France.
Writing Residency, Ikusmira Berriak, Tabakalera Art Center, Spain.
Nomination for the European Film Awards-Best Short film.
Pardino d’oro-Best Short Film Award, Locarno Film Festival, Locarno, Switzerland.
Grand prize at the Zinebi Film Festival, Bilbao, Spain.
Special mention Tabakalera-Zabaltegui, San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain.
Grand Prize, Abycine Film Festival, Albacete, Spain.
Production grant, IVAC, Valencia, Spain.

2017
Production grant, Cinéforom, Switzerland.
Production grant, Office Federal de la Culture, Switzerland.
Selected for Berlinale Talent Campus, Berlin International Film Festival.

2016
Mikeldi de plate, Zinebi Film Festival, Bilbao, Spain.
Guest filmmaker, Arché, development workshop, Doclisboa film festival, Portugal.

2014
Post-production grant, Migros, Switzerland.
Production grant, Cinéforom, Switzerland.

2012
Research grant, Université Sorbonne/Swiss National Fund gran.

2004
Research grant for the project Dispositivos cinematográficos aplicados a las artes escénicas, Ministry of Education, Spain.