Esteban Larrain is Chilean and lives in Santiago, Chile. He was born in December of 1973. In 1995 he graduated from the University of Chile with a degree in Social Communication. His thesis was “The Contemporariness in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Cinema.” In a parellel way to his last university years, he develops studies about Photography of Cinema, Script and Documentaries.

Since the beginning, Esteban Larraín has been the producer and director of their own films. In 1997 he won the National Fund for the Development of the Arts award, FONDART, for his documentary entitled, “Patio 29, Stories of Silence,” which narrates the history of the largest discovery of missing persons in Chile in 1992. In the beginning of 1998, the Ford Foundation awarded him a scholarship to broadcast and distribute “Patio29.” Thanks to this scholarship, “Patio 29” was selected in diverse international film festivals and distinguished with the Third Place award at the XX Havana Film Festival and the Award for the Best Film in the XIV Fribourg Film Festival, Switzerland.

In mid 1998, he went to Cuba to study at the Film School at San Antonio de Los Baños. At the end of 1998, his project, “Ralco,” about a conflict between an hydroelectric center and an indigenous community, resulted in another award from FONDART. Another Ford Foundation helped to finance this project, making it possible to continue following the conflict for a year and a half. “Ralco,” documentary filmed entirely in 16mm, participated in more than twenty international film festivals in countries such as France (Cinéma du Réel), Italy (Milan and Trieste), Spain (Gijón), Canada (Montreal and Vancouver), the United States (Margaret Mead), Cuba, Uruguay. “Ralco” was also awarded with the Special Prize in Valparaíso’s Documentary Film Festival, First Mention in the Trieste Film Festival, and awarded with the Best Photography Award at the Documentary Film Festival in Santiago.

During 1999 and 2001, he carried out specialization studies in Cinematographic Studies in Rome thanks to a scholarship from the Italian government. During this period, he directed four short films. Similarly, he works as producer for the Cultural Office at the Embassy of Chile in Rome.

At the beginning 2002 he returned to Chile where begins to shoot “The Veil of Berta”, the “Ralco”’s saga. This documentary was supported twice by the Jan Vrijman Fund and had his world premiere in the Joris Ivens Competition at IDFA 2004. Afterwards, “The Veil of Berta” took place in more than 25 festivals, getting the Best Film Award at the V Ecocinema Film Festival of Rhodes, the Special Award of the Jury at the Festival di 3 Continenti di Milano, the Best Photography Award at the Valparaiso Film Festival and being part of the “Best Iberoamerican Documentaries” section at the Huelva Film Festival.

After realize a Master in Political Sciences at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Esteban Larrain begins to teach at the University of Chile being part of the Master of Documentary Cinema and carrying on a short-film laboratory. At these days, he’s shooting “ Alice in the land” a documentary taking place in Bolivia and winning of the Jan Vrijman Fund.