Juan Luis Matos, originally from Havana, Cuba is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker. He studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany and received his B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. He is a member of Third Horizon film collective that hosts an annual film festival in Miami, and he is a 2020 and 2021 Suncoast Regional Emmy Award Winner.
Juan is the top prize recipient for the 2022 Knight Foundation’s Made in MIA Award at Miami Film Festival for his film You Can Always Come Home. Currently Juan is working on his next short film Estado Real (True Condition) that explores immigrant trauma and its relationship to capitalism.
While at MacDowell, Juan completed his short script Estado Real, translated it into English, and was able to present it to other Fellows, and learned that he received two Suncoast Regional Emmys for two short documentaries made this past year. Past films have received the top prize at Miami Film Festival for Best Miami film, and have been exhibited in film festivals both nationally and internationally.
