Melina León is a Peruvian director based in Lima and New York. Her opera prima Song without a Name (Canción sin Nombre) premiered at Cannes Director’s Fortnight 2019 and was nominated to the Caméra d’Or. The film has been selected to over 100 international film festivals winning several awards including Best Director at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, Best Film at the Stockholm Film Festival and the Cinevision Award for Best Emerging Director at the Munich Film Festival.

Set in Peru, in 1988, the film is inspired by a true account of child trafficking originally reported by Ismael Leon, her father.

An MFA film graduate of Columbia University, her short film El Paraíso de Lili (Lili’s Paradise), also set in Peru in 1988, made its international debut at the 47th New York Film Festival.