Néstor López (1992), a Spanish-Portuguese film director, is considered one of the leading figures in documentary and short film in Spain. He has won three Goya Awards and received four nominations from the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences. He was also a finalist for the 2025 Academy Awards. As a director and screenwriter, he won the 2023 Sitges Film Festival, the New York Shorts Award, and the Silver Biznaga at the Málaga Film Festival for his short film AnĒiclímax. His film Semillas de Kivu is currently a finalist for the 2026 Academy Awards.

He was recently selected for the IDFA Academy and the Ji.Hlava Academy. He has also been included twice on the IDFA Forum shortlist and the IFF Rotterdam shortlist.

In 2024, he was chosen for the Forbes List of Top Creatives in Spain, and in 2025, he was honoured for his modernism by the Gaudí de Botines house. His works have been selected for festivals and markets such as FIPADOC, Berlinale, Medimed, Miradas Docs, FICG Guadalajara, Seminci and Sundance Institute.

He began his career in 2011, at the age of 18, as a screenwriter for several television programmes. In 2016, he founded his own company, Filmakers Monkeys. That year, he directed the short film 82 Years, starring Manuel Zarzo, which was screened in more than 15 countries and at more than 70 film festivals. In 2021, he premiered his new fiction short film as director, Alina, at the prestigious Medina del Campo Film Week.

In 2022, he won the Dama Cortos award for his new fiction short film, Ellos, produced by Malvalanda (two Oscar nominations) and starring Bárbara Santa Cruz and Cristóbal Suárez, winning Best Drama at the prestigious New York Shorts Festival and also the Paul Naschy Award at the Sitges Festival in 2023.

That same year, he premiered the feature film 19 at SEMINCI, for which he was the screenwriter and producer, a documentary exercise that focuses on the conceptual, starring Luis Tosar, Imanol Arias, Javier Gutiérrez, Belén Rueda and Mariin Álvarez, among others. After its theatrical release, the film arrived on Movistar Plus+.

In 2023, he premiered the fictional short film Anticlímax with Manolo Solo and Belén López, winning the Biznaga de Plata in Malaga, among others.

In 2024, he premiered the short documentary Semillas de Kivu (Seeds of Kivu) with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Amnesty International and the United Nations. It has been screened at seven Oscar-qualifying festivals and was selected for the César Awards in the Les Nuits d’Or category, where directors such as Oliver Laxe and Rodrigo Sorogoyen have previously been selected.

The film made it onto the 2026 Oscars longlist. It became the first European film to be screened at the United Nations in New York, the European Parliament in Brussels and the Vatican, at a panel discussion with the author and Dr Denis Mukwege, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Following the success of the short film, the work has been purchased to be turned into a feature film, with filming beginning in January 2026, purchased by Beta Fiction Spain (La InfilĒrada), RTVE and Movistar+ in co-production with France, generating an international story in Néstor López’s debut feature film.

In 2025, after winning the Goya Award, he premiered Polígono X in the Official Section of the Malaga Film Festival, which has just been acquired for development into a feature film and whose short film won the SEMINCI and Aguilar de Campo 2023 Laboratory Award. Also, in the same year, he was selected for The Euro-Mediterranean Dock Market with Semillas de Kivu.

As an author, he has been selected with other scripts for the prestigious Ibermedia Development Course, LabGuion de Antioquia (Colombia), Lab del FICG (Guadalajara, Mexico), Ibermedia Programme for Atitlán projects, and Cine Qua Non Lab 2026.

His experience as a screenwriter has led him to be a jury member at several festivals such as SEMINCI and ESCAC’s Mister Documental. He is a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa, DR Congo, at ECAM and at Carlos III University.

“POLÍGONO X” – Shortfilm
Official Selection – Malaga Film Festival

“SEMILLAS DE KIVU” · Shortfilm
Goya Award for Best Documentary Short Film (2025)
Oscar Awards Longlist (2025 and 2026)
César Awards Selection · Le Nuits d’Or – French Film Academy (2025)
Official Selection – Guadalajara International Film Festival (2025)
Best International Short Film – DocsMX (2025)
Amnesty International Award – Abycine (2021)
First European film screened at the United Nations, European Parliament and Vatican

“ANTICLÍMAX” · Shortfilm
Biznaga de Plata Award for Best Short Film – Malaga Film Festival (2023)

“ELLOS” · Shortfilm
Winner of DAMA Cortos (2021)
Paul Naschy Award for Best Short Film Brigadoon – Sitges Film Festival (2023)
Best Drama – New York Shorts (2022)

“82 YEARS” · Shortfilm
More than 100 selections at international festivals

OTHER AWARDS AND SELECTIONS
Three Goya Awards (Two in Documentary Short Film and one in Fiction Short Film)
Four Goya Award nominations
Oscar Shortlist (2025)
Grand Jury Prize – Sundance Film Festival (2024)
Grand Jury Prize – Sundance Film Festival (2024)
Forqué Award for Best Short Film (2024)
Valors Human Rights Award – Catalan Bar Association (2025)
Official Short Film Section – Venice Biennale (2024)
Special Mention and Best Short Film Castilla y León – SEMINCI (2023)
Selected – IDFA Academy (2025)
Selected – Ji.hlava Academy (2025)
CineMart Shortlist – IFFR Rotterdam (2026)
New Talent Winner – ECAM / SEMINCI and Aguilar de Campoo (2024)
More than 150 international festivals with his works