Simón Mesa Soto is a Colombian director, screenwriter, and producer. He studied audiovisual communication at the University of Antioquia and later pursued a master's degree at the London Film School. His short thesis film, Leidi, won the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes in 2014. His next short, Mother, was selected for the Official Competition at Cannes in 2016. Amparo, his first feature-length film, had its premiere in La Semaine de la Critique at Cannes in 2021, when Sandra Melissa Torres won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award. At the Colombian Film Academy's Macondo Awards, Amparo won seven prizes, including Best Director and Best Film. A Poet, his most recent film, premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, where it won the Jury Prize.