Pimentel Melo, Jesús

Mexican filmmaker who spends his time between New York City and the Tzintzuntzan community in Mexico. He holds a Law Degree from the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo and a Master's in Film with a specialization in directing and screenwriting by Columbia University in New York.

Jesus' works have been exhibited at festivals around the world, such as the Miami International Film Festival, the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival, the Morelia International Film Festival, the Seoul Chungmuro Festival and the Bolzano Festival, among others, as well as in the Short Film Corner and Cannes' Critics Week.

In 2005, Jesus received the prestigious Fulbright-García Robles scholarship to study film at Columbia University in New York. That same year he received the Prize of the Audience in FICM 2005 with the short of fiction Un Bel Mori. In 2010, he was nominated for the Student Academy Awards-Oscars® for his short film Miramelinda and in 2011 he received the prestigious Diosa de Plata award for the best Mexican short film awarded by the Mexican Association of Film Journalists (PECIME). In 2012, Jesus was commissioned by the Government of the State of Michoacán to direct the conceptualization and development of a project to create the Film Commission of Michoacán (COFILMICH). In 2015, he won the National Contest of Fiction Feature Projects, convened by the Audiovisual Directorate, Phonography and New Media in Peru, with the project Canción sin nombre.

Jesús has participated as a project consultant and jury member of the Independent Film Week in New York, the Independent Film Project (IFP), the Fund for the Development of Cinematography, FDC de Proimgos Colombia, the Los Cabos International Film Festival, the Festival MicGénero in Mexico City and BAM, Bogota Audivisual Market, among others. He has been an executive producer on several film co-productions between the United States, Peru, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Mexico and has worked as a script consultant in the development of several feature films in Spain and the United States.

He is co-founder and director of Qua Non Lab, a non-profit organization for filmmakers based in Michoacán, Mexico, whose objective is to provide an environment where filmmakers can develop their creative process, exchange ideas and establish new avenues for collaboration. It also supports independent filmmakers and emerging filmmakers by offering screenwriting workshops for screenwriters.