Fernando Pérez is a director, writer, and recipient of the National Film Award, in 2007. He graduated in Hispanic Language and Literature from the Universidad de La Habana. In 1962, he joined the ICAIC, where he worked as an assistant director on films by Tomás Gutiérrez-Alea, Manuel Octavio Gómez, Manuel Herrera and Sergio Giral. In 1975, he made his debut directing documentaries, a genre in which he accumulated a dozen titles, plus a significant number of editions of the ICAIC Latin American Newscast. In 1987, he directed Clandestinos, which won the debut award at the New Latin American Cinema Film Festival in Havana. He is the director of the films Hello Hemingway, Madagascar, La vida es silbar, Suite Habana, José Martí: el ojo del canario, the independent film La pared de las palabras, Últimos días en La Habana and Insumisas.
He is the general director and curator of a choral film, made up of six independent short films about love in times of pandemic prepared by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industries (ICAIC), together with the independent production companies i4Films, WajirosFilms and DB Estudio. He has taught Film Appreciation and Film History courses at the San Antonio de los Baños International Film School. He was the director of the most important independent audiovisual event in Cuba, the Muestra Joven at ICAIC for four editions, until his resignation in 2012 “due to disagreements with ICAIC.”