Meritxell Colell
Graduated in Audiovisual Communication from the Universidad Pompeu Fabra in 2006. In 2005 she won a grant to study at the Universidad del Cine (FUC) in Buenos Aires. In 2005 she directed her first film, “Manuscrito en la ciudad” (Manuscript in the City). In Buenos Aires she also began her professional career as an editor, working on two long documentaries. As an editor, she has worked on eight full-length films shown at numerous festivals (Mar del Plata, Documenta Madrid, IDFA ...).
As a director she made her first full length fictional film in 2018, after several shorts. “Con el viento” (With The Wind) was chosen at L’Atelier de la Cinéfondation at the Cannes Festival in 2015, had its World Premiere at the 68th Berlinale and won the Biznaga de Plata award for best film at Zonazine at the Festival de Málaga. It has been shown at over thirty festivals (in particular the 66th Festival de San Sebastián, the Chicago International Film Festival and the Nara Film Festival).
Since 2007 she has combined film-making as an editor, director and screenwriter, with teaching film. She is a member of the “Cinema on the curriculum” team, a film studies project by the A Bao a Qu association (www.cenemaencurs.org), and as part of this she has overseen over forty shorts made by 11 to 18 year olds. In 2018 she joined the Universidad Pompeu Fabra as an associate lecturer on the Audiovisual Communication course, giving workshops on screen writing and dramaturgy. She also teaches the workshop on “Cinematic editing: a space for dialogue” on the non-fiction course at ESCAC. She has advised on projects in the “Shorts Under Construction” programme at the Festival Europeo de Lima 2018, the Noka Mentoring programme in the Basque Country and at Bolivia Lab 2019.
She is currently making “Cartas transoceánas” (Letters Overseas), a full-length film based on a filmed correspondence between Barcelona and Buenos Aires, with the director Lucía Vassallo. She won the Klyazev prize at Malaga Lab WIP 2019. She is also preparing her second full length fictional film, Duo, a road movie through the northwest of Argentina and Chile (MálagagoestoCannes prize and Abycine price at Málaga Spanish WIP 2019; Cannes prize in the Co-production category at the 66th Festival de San Sebastián; Yapimlab prize at Sofía Meetings 2018; selected for MIA Rome 2017.
She also works for the Fundación Miró, making audiovisual material for their temporary exhibitions.