João Gonzalez (Porto, 1996) is a Portuguese director, animator, illustrator and musician with classical training in piano. In 2022 he premiered his first funded film “Ice Merchants” in Cannes Film Festival, winning Best Short Film in Competition from the Semaine de La Critique Jury, which would later become the first Portuguese film to be nominated for an Oscar®, and the most awarded Portuguese film in history, with more than 150 international awards. João has a great interest in combining his musical background with his artistic practice in animated cinema, always playing the role of composer and occasional instrumentalist in all the films he makes.