Juan Branco is a filmmaker whose work explores the boundaries between political commitment and cinematic creation. Active in the world of cinema since his teenage years, he went on to direct several short films, including Ivresses (2007), Toi + Moi (2010), and Dans l’antre du loup (2017), each marked by a distinctive visual and narrative sensibility. He has participated in the development of several notable films, such as Cosmopolis by David Cronenberg (2012), adapted from Don DeLillo's novel, selected at the official competition of Cannes, and A Criança by Marguerite de Hillerin and Félix Dutilloy-Liégeois (2022), which was selected at international festivals including Rotterdam, Trieste, and São Paulo.
Also an international lawyer and political essayist, Branco has published over fifteen books, including the bestseller Crépuscule (2019), and is known for his outspoken engagement in major political and legal controversies. Deeply influenced by cinephilia and critica thought, he has carried out ambitious artistic dialogues, notably a filmed conversation with Jean-Luc Godard and producer Paulo Branco. His writing includes essays and critical interventions on cinema, such as his analysis of Alexander Sokurov’s aesthetics and reflections on the representation of abjection in Son of Saul. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and former visiting fellow at Yale and the Max Planck Institute, Branco brings to cinema a singular voice—radical, literary, and uncompromising.
In 2025, Branco presents his first narrative feature, O Massacre de Gilles de Rais, a film selected for the São Paulo International Film Festival – Special Presentation and the Official ‘Crouching Tigers’ Competition at the Pingyao International Film Festival in China, and which will also be screened out of competition at LEFFEST.
