João Gonzalez (1996) is a Portuguese film director, animator, illustrator and a musician with classical training in piano. After finishing his BA at ESMAD (PT), he did a Masters at the Royal College of Art (UK). In these institutions he made two award-winning films, Nestor and The Voyager. In 2022 he became the first Portuguese animation filmmaker to be awarded at Festival de Cannes, winning the Prize for Best Short film in the competition at the Critics Week, with the multi-award-winning short Ice Merchants, which later became the first-ever Portuguese film to be nominated for an Oscar and the second to win an Annie Award. He has a big interest in combining his musical background with his practice in authorial animation, always taking the role of composer and sometimes instrumentalist in the films he directs, occasionally setting them to a live performance.