Franco de Peña

Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, de Peña began studying economics at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, but after two years left Venezuela for Montreal, where he settled. He has been an Invited Artist of the Cannes Film Festival Residence in Paris and the Berlin Kunstler Programme and Nipkow Program in Berlin. De Peña has lived in London, Barcelona before relocating to Poland in 1987. De Peña passed his entrance exams to the Łódź Film School, but had to put his plans on hold. He moved to Warsaw and studied at the Warsaw National Academy of Theatre for two years. He was finally admitted to the Łódź school and graduated in 1997. Franco De Peña has participated in two MASTER CLASSES organised by the European Film Academy: A Master Class by Mike Newell CREATING A WORLD FOR A STORY and a MASTER CLASS BY ALAIN DEROBE with the participation of Florian Maier and Win Wenders STEREOSCOPIC STORY TELLING, CRAFTING AND SHOOTING STORIES IN 3-D. Since 2008, De Peña is the happy father of Anne Sophie. (Sophi)

• Może to grzech, że się modlę (Maybe it's sinful to pray, 1993) - a document on a 33-year-old prisoner suffering from AIDS • Szepty wiatru (The Whispers of the Wind, 1995), on a friendship of an old Andean man with his donkey • El Porvenir de una Ilusión (The Future of an Illusion; 1997) - a poetic description of dreams of modern inhabitants of Havana • Amor en concreto (Love in Concrete, 2003) - a sketch of lives of several inhabitants of a modern city • Masz na imię Justine (Your Name is Justine), 2005, about Mariola, a young Polish woman who elopes with her boyfriend to Germany and finds herself jailed and forced into prostitution. • Hugo King about the totalitarian mechanism of by Hugo Chávez used to stay in power. Co writer "A letter from Argentina", (List z Argentiny) directed by Grzegorz Pacek "Non sono io". Directed by Gabriele Iacovone