Biography
Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (both 1980, Chile) have been working together since 2007. They were educated at the Universidad Católica, Santiago de Chile. León also studied at UDK (Berlin) and De Ateliers (Amsterdam). With their experimental films, León and Cociña create a new interpretation of the religious symbolism and magical rituals that are deeply rooted in the traditional culture of Latin America. For the production of their films they combine different techniques such as photography, drawing, sculpture, dance and performance.
An unpolished cinematographic language characterizes the stop-motion films of León and Cociña. The papier mâché figures and innocent-looking drawings strongly contrast with the heavy topics such as religion, sex and death the films deal with.
León and Cociña won several awards and their films are selected regularly for international film festivals. Their work is frequently exhibited in museums and biennials in Latin America, but it has also been presented at venues such as the Whitechapel Gallery, the Guggenheim, KW Berlin, the Venice Biennial 2013 and Art Basel Statements 2012 with Upstream Gallery.
Their first full-length film La Casa Lobo (The Wolf House) premiered at the 68th Berlinale in 2018, where it was awarded the Caligari Film Prize.
Their short film Los Huesos (The Bones) (2021) won Best Short film at the Venice Film Festival 2021, where it had its world premiere.
The 20 minute animated sequence in Beau is Afraid (2023) is a celebatred example of their cinematic signature.
Their most recent film The Hyperboreans (2024) premiered at Cannes Director’s Fortnight, during the Cannes Film Festival. With this film the duo won the award for best Debut Director at the International Film Festival of Kerala.
Film trailers:
Trailer The Hyperboreans, 2024