Elena López Riera is a Spanish filmmaker and visual artist. She holds a PhD in Audiovisual Communication and has been based in Switzerland since 2008, where she teaches cinema and comparative literature at the University of Geneva and the HEAD (Haute École d'Art et Design). She is also a co-founder of lacasinegra, an artist collective focused on experimental audiovisual research.
Her short films have gained international recognition: Pueblo (2015) premiered at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, Las vísceras (2016) was selected for Locarno, and Los que desean (2018) won the Pardino d'Oro at Locarno and major awards at Zinebi, Abycine, and Vila do Conde. Her work has been screened in retrospectives at La Cinémathèque Française, the Colombian Cinematheque, and the Gijón International Film Festival.
Her debut feature film, El agua (2022), premiered at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, and was nominated to the Spanish Academy Awards.
Her latest work, Las novias del sur, premiered at the Critics' Week at Cannes, winning the Queer Palm, the César Award (French Academy Award), and the Quartz Award (Swiss Academy Award) and was nominated to the Spanish Academy Awards.
Elena has participated in artistic residencies and development programs such as the Berlinale Talent Campus, Ikusmira Berriak, Arché lab, and the Cinéfondation Residency at Cannes, where she was awarded the CNC grant in 2019.
Her video installations have been exhibited at MoMA PS1 (New York) and Madrid’s Architecturehe Biennale, among others.