Leonardo Pirondi

Leonardo Pirondi is a Brazilian film director from São Paulo. Pirondi's work explores the intersection between fiction and non-fiction filmmaking using non-conventional structures of documentary, experimental, and narrative modes.^[1] In his films he explores contemporary sociopolitical issues and collective anxieties as a lens to look into history, imagination, myth, and technology.^[2][3]

Leonardo Pirondi studied filmmaking at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), in an analog and 16 mm focussed film program with an avant-garde/experimental film tradition, located in Valencia, California.^[4] He holds both B.F.A and M.F.A degrees from the Film/Video program.^[5]

His films have been presented at the Toronto International Film Festival,^[6] International Film Festival Rotterdam,^[7][8] New York Film Festival (Currents),^[9][10] Vienna International Film Festival,^[11] Mar del Plata International Film Festival,^[12] BFI London Film Festival,^[13] Festival du nouveau cinéma, Slamdance,^[14] Melbourne International Film Festival,^[15] Edinburgh International Film Festival, Centre de Cultura Contemporànea de Barcelona,^[16] and REDCAT.^[17]

Some of his films exist in the UCLA Film and Television Archive, The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York,^[18] and were deposited at the Cinematheque of the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro^[19] after the 4th edition of the 1666 Festival Internacional de Cinema 16mm.^[20] He has had solo and retrospective showings of his films at the Spectacle Theater in New York City,^[21][22] and Galeria Mola in Portugal.^[23][24] He took part in the 2023 Sundance Ignite X Adobe Fellowship.^[25]

Pirondi's first co-authored project, the 2023 short film titled When We Encounter the World, was co-directed with Zazie Ray-Trapido and it premiered at the 32nd Curtas Vila do Conde^[26] followed by the North American Premiere at the 61st New York Film Festival,^[27][28] the Austrian Premiere at the 61st Viennale,^[29] and selected to additional exhibitions at 15th Crossroads by the San Francisco Cinematheque,^[30] San Diego Underground Film Festival. The film was also shown alongside an interactive exhibition at Galeria Mola in Portugal.^[31]

Pirondi's 2024 short film, Potenciais à Deriva [Adrift Potentials],^[32] premiered at the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam as part of the Tiger Short Competition,^[33] with a North American premiere at the 49th Toronto International Film Festival (Wavelengths)^[34][35] and selected to the 62nd Viennale,^[36] 53rd Festival du nouveau cinéma,^[37] 49th Mar del Plata International Film Festival,^[38] 33rd Curtas Vila do Conde, and 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival.^[39] In 2025 the film was selected to the Hong Kong International Film Festival,^[40] Prismatic Ground^[41] in New York City, and the Umbrales de Vanguardias Latinoamericanas competition at FICUNAM (Festival Internacional de Cine de UNAM).^[42][43]

Pirondi was selected for the fourth edition of the Locarno Residency, which took place during the 78th Locarno Film Festival. He participated with a feature film project in development titled Amerika'atinga.^[44] He received the Paradiso Grant, a support from the Brazilian philanthropic initiative named Projeto Paradiso by the Olga Rabinovich Institute, to attend the Locarno Residency and he also became part of the Paradiso Talent Network.^[45][46]

In 2025, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film^[47] and he was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship for the Fall '25 Winter '26 cycle.^[48][5]

Pirondi's 2026 short films, Memórias Encontradas Numa Banheira [Memoirs Found in a Bathtub] and Suíte dos Viajantes [Travelers' Suite], were selected for the International Selections at the 72nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen^[49] and the 39th European Media Art Festival,^[50][51] respectively.

• Interview with Pirondi at VoyageLA, 2020
• Leonardo Pirondi at IMDb
• Leonardo Pirondi on Letterboxd
• Leonardo Pirondi on MUBI
• Leonardo Pirondi page on Vimeo