Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz is an award-winning writer and director. His short film When Big People Lie premiered at the 51st Telluride Film Festival. It also screened in competition at the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the American Pavilion at Cannes, and won Best Short Film Drama at NFMLA’s 13th Annual Awards.

In 2024, he was named Best New Filmmaker of the Year by NewFilmmakers LA, received the Anthony Rhulen Memorial Grant, and was formally recognized by the State of California for his work in the independent arts and culture sector in Los Angeles.

He is a recipient of the Latino Film Institute x Netflix Inclusion Fellowship, a finalist for the HBO Short Film Award and the Sony Future Filmmaker Award, and his work qualified for the 96th Academy Awards.

His debut feature Summer of Mercedes was a Finalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship and is currently in development with Lynette Coll and Sergio Lira under the Luz Films banner.

He holds an MFA in Directing from the AFI Conservatory. His films have screened at over 100 festivals, including PÖFF Shorts, AFI Fest, Austin Film Festival, Indy Shorts, Urbanworld, BOGOSHORTS, NALIP, and Shore Scripts.

Gianfranco’s seventh short ANEMOIA, SCENES FROM THE FUTURE is currently in post-production and will be released in 2026.

Representation: Trey Witter treywitter@gmail.com

  • I saw [Gianfranco's] short film 'Jerome' a while ago and I was very impressed that it moved me so much. Every character in the film was believable; the casting was flawless. The main character was a  tragic figure with a sense of loneliness that built amazingly toward that final emotional discovery.

    Charles Burnett

  • Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz is a talented and passionate filmmaker. I selected his AFI student film, "When Big People Lie," for the Telluride Film Festival. It has a unique and powerful perspective on immigration in the United States today and the moral dilemmas children are often forced to deal with. A true untold story.

    Gregory Nava

  • Gianfranco' s artistic voice is authentic with unique sensibilities born out of kindness, compassion and humanity. His work has a naturalistic and gritty poeticism while paying close attention to the simple details of life and relationship dynamics. His tastes and sensibilities are sophisticated and mature and his films are well observed. He is guided by a genuine artistic calling and driven by a personal need to share his stories and specific point of view.

    Rob Spera

  • Gianfranco is an unusual director in particular ways. He clearly has a strong creative vision and imagination, but also is able to access a camaraderie and kindness with his crew that is not always common in our industry. He has an openness and excitement that leans very well to working with agencies and communicating with clients.

    Columbine Goldsmith

  • "I’m a son to people I’ll never know, I’m what they fought for, what they suffered for, what they dreamed. I often imagine my stories as theirs. But they belong to us all. Stories don’t have race or tongue, they’re portals to all our peoples, in all of space and time. Cinema seems to have this unique force to forever collapse and expand consciousness.”

    GFR