Nicolás Pereda (born 1982) is a Mexican-Canadian film director. His films regularly blend aspects and techniques of both narrative fiction and documentary filmmaking. His films include Where Are Their Stories? (2007), Summer of Goliath (2010), Tales of Two Who Dreamt (2016), Fauna (2020), Lázaro at Night (2024), and Copper (2025).
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Early life
Pereda was born in Mexico City in 1982; he holds dual Mexican and Canadian citizenship. He studied filmmaking at York University. He received his Bachelor degree of Fine Arts in Films in 2005 and his Master in 2007.
Career
Pereda's award-winning films include Where Are Their Stories? (2007), Summer of Goliath (2010), Tales of Two Who Dreamt (2016), Fauna (2020), Lázaro at Night (2024), and Copper (2025). His films have been described as "meticulous, minimalist, deadpan." His films regularly blend aspects and techniques of both narrative fiction and documentary filmmaking.
Pereda's films, which have been financed by both Mexican and Canadian arts grants and funding bodies, have been predominantly shot in Mexico and are "resolutely Mexican in their intimate attention to class, culture, social structure, and family relations in Mexican society."
His films have been exhibited in festivals around the world, including at the Venice Film Festival, Berlinale, Rotterdam, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Pereda's work has also been presented at several archives, retrospectives, and cinematheques, including the Anthology Film Archives, the Pacific Film Archive, and the Harvard Film Archive, the latter of which wrote of his work: "Pereda’s films are resolutely Mexican in focus and almost exclusively deal with stories drawn directly from the everyday lives and worlds of their working-class characters."
Other work
Pereda formerly served as the director of the Filmmaking Program, a new BFA program at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Personal life
Pereda is married to film director Andrea Bussmann, with whom he codirected the 2016 film Tales of Two Who Dreamt.
Awards
Pereda has won several awards for his filmmaking work, including the $10,000 Jay Scott Prize from the Toronto Film Critics Association in 2013, and an honorable mention from the jury for the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Film at TIFF.
His other filmmaking awards include:
Best Film, Morelia International Film Festival, Where are their Stories (2007)
Best Documentary, Curtas Vila do Conde, Interview with the Earth (2008)
Best Documentary, Guanajuato International Film Festival, Mexico for Interview with the Earth (2008)
K.M. Hunter Award, Film & Video (2009)
Best Film, Guadalajara International Film Festival, Perpetuum Mobile (2010)
Images Prize, Images Festival, All Things Were Now Overtaken by Silence (Todo, en fin, el silencio lo ocupaba) (2010)
Best Film, Valdivia International Film Festival, Chile for Summer of Goliath (2010)
Critics Prize, Valdivia International Film Festival, Chile for Summer of Goliath (2010)
Orizzonti Award for Best Film, Venice Film Festival, Summer of Goliath (2010)
Best Film, Cinema of the Future – BAFICI, Summer of Goliath (2011)
Grand Prix du Jury, Festival La Roche-sur-Yon, The Greatest Hits (Los mejores temas) (2012)
Filmography
Where Are Their Stories? (¿Dónde están sus historias?), 2007
Interview with the Earth (Entrevista con la tierra), 2008
Together (Juntos), 2009
Perpetuum Mobile, 2009
All Things Were Now Overtaken by Silence (Todo, en fin, el silencio lo ocupaba), 2010
Summer of Goliath (Verano de Goliat), 2010
The Greatest Hits (Los mejores temas), 2012
Killing Strangers (Matar extraños), 2013
The Palace (El palacio), 2013
The Absent (Los ausentes), 2014
The Empty Classroom (El aula vacía), 2015
Minotaur (Minotauro), 2015
Tales of Two Who Dreamt (Historias de dos que soñaron), 2016
My Skin, Luminous (Mi piel, luminosa), 2019
Fauna, 2020
Dear Chantal (Querida Chantal), 2021
Lázaro at Night (Lázaro de noche), 2024
Copper (Cobre), 2025
Everything Else Is Noise (Lo demás es ruido), 2026
