Víctor Pérez (director)

In 2019 Victor Perez received the highest honour from the Italian Academy of Motion Picture being awarded with the David Di Donatello (the Italian equivalent to the Oscar®) for his work as visual effects supervisor on The Invisible Boy: Second Generation.

In early 2016 and with the acclaim of Another Love, Victor began writing and directing his second short film ECHO. Unlike Another Love, Perez focused on ECHO as a way of bringing together his abilities as VFX artist to explore new ways of storytelling. The experimental film is about girl who wakes up in the middle of nowhere only to see her reflection in a mirror 10 seconds ahead of her time. When she wakes up again, the nightmare starts over.

In 2015 Perez delved into the world of film directing. Since then, he has released two short films and received more than 27 awards and nominations for his debut Another Love (2015). His second short film ECHO (2017) uses pioneering, never-seen-before visual effects technology and was shot in just five long takes. Perez’s love of story telling combined with his award-winning directing and visual effects artistry has positioned him as an up-and-coming film director and a one-to-watch in the industry.

Since building a huge portfolio in visual effects and acclaim in the film industry, Perez started his dream career as a director with the short film Another Love in 2015. He wrote and directed the film and received more than 27 awards and nominations in more than 60 film festivals around the world, including the Festival de Cannes. The film depicts the efforts to avoid a necessary separation when a pregnant married woman (Maria Ruiz) struggles to tell a much older man (Nigel Barber) that their affair is over. Soon this unnatural situation forces her to face the truth. Described by the critics as “excellent as it is – dense narrative, very good character construction, neat camera work. Not very often we can say that a short is better than a feature film, or a short has no future potential to be transformed into a long movie, but 'Another Love' is a one of a kind piece; it is a must-watch for every film freak!”

Perez’s directing debut Another Love achieved great acclaim receiving more than 27 nominations and awards at more than 60 films festivals since 2015.

After the earthquake and with a new focus on a career in visual effects, Perez quickly became well known as a VFX artist. Continuing to master his now renowned visual effects skills, Perez moved to London to complete his formation in Visual Effects (VFX) at Escape Studios. Following his graduation from Escape, Perez worked on several projects for broadcast, such as the Gorillaz music video "Stylo" before he went to the recently opened studio Union VFX, where he was the first artist to start in his studio and began working on the Fox Searchlight film 127 Hours directed by Danny Boyle as both digital compositor and technical director. Perez then relocated to Canada to work for IMAX Corporation, before returning to London to work at Cinesite and then Double Negative. He went on to co-found Masked Frame Pictures where he co-produced and starred in the 2013 short film Project Kronos directed by Hasraf "Haz" Dulull. Later that year Haz funded his own company Haz Films and Perez acquired Masked Frame Pictures in full.

In 2013, Perez started the development of his short film The Girl and the Mask, and whilst shifting his focus to film directing, he continued to make his mark in the VFX industry. His experience in visual effects has seen him work on notable films such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Dir. Gareth Edwards, 2016); The Dark Knight Rises (Dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012); Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Dir. David Yates, 2010) and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Dir. Rob Marshall, 2011) to name a few.

Perez worked on the visual effects team for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, which won a BAFTA award for visual effects in 2012. He was also voted the year’s most valuable contributors in 2012 and 2017 on Nukepedia, and in 2008, he won the Golden Pixel Award at the Maine Media Workshop.

At 3.32 a.m. on April 6, 2009, Perez's home and studio were destroyed in the earthquake in L'Aquila. In his TED Talk at TEDxVicenza, Perez reveals that both him and his wife barely made it outside their house before it collapsed. He said, "In less than 22 seconds we lost our home, our studio and our little bed and breakfast. My wife and I were literally on the street with just our pyjamas on. We weren't event wearing shoes and it was only 30°F (4°C)."

This path saw him land his first acting role in Summer Rain (Dir. Antonio Banderas, 2006). After shooting the film, Perez traveled to Italy in July 2006 to study Commedia dell'arte and renaissance mask making under renowned master Antonio Fava, as well as working with the Spanish stage company Laviebel.

Perez’s love for story telling had always been in his blood, but after landing his first acting role in the film Summer Rain (Dir. Antonio Banderas, 2006), he understood the art of conveying a story to an audience. This experience was a huge influence on him and helped guide the steps Perez would next take into the film industry.

Perez studied performing arts first at the Escuela Municipal de Teatro "Duque de Rivas" in Lucena (his birthplace), and then at the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático in Málaga, Spain, graduating in 2004.

Víctor Raúl Pérez Raya (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbiktoɾ ˈpeɾeθ]; born 11 February 1981) is a Spanish-born British film director, producer, screenwriter and visual effects artist who has worked on a number of Hollywood films, including The Dark Knight Rises (Dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Dir. Gareth Edwards, 2016), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Dir. David Yates, 2010), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Dir. Rob Marshall, 2011) and 127 Hours (Dir. Danny Boyle, 2010), plus many more.

Perez then went on to study at the International Academy of Image Arts and Sciences (Accademia dell'Immagine) in L'Aquila, Italy which was founded by three times Academy Award winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, 1979; The Last Emperor, 1987; Dick Tracy, 1990; Last Tango in Paris, 1972) and Gabriele Lucci since the late 1980s. Here Perez studied film direction and earned an honorary degree. Alongside his studies and to further hone his skills, Perez frequently traveled to the U.S. to study visual effects from Steve Wright.