Jose A. Ruiz (Zújar, Granada, 2004) is a Spanish screenwriter and director with a background in Audiovisual Communication. His work explores memory, loss, and the beauty of the ephemeral from an intimate and poetic perspective. In 2024, he premiered his first short film, The Astronomer, which was selected for more than 20 international film festivals, including the Portugal International Film Festival, the Ravno Selo Film Festival, and the Tsiolkovsky International Space Film Festival. In it, he combined realism and metaphor to explore themes of loneliness, hope, and the search for something genuine in a world that seems to have forgotten how to look to the stars. The Light We Leave Behind is his second short film as a director, a story about adolescence, memories, and that moment when everything irrevocably changes. With a naturalistic visual style and a contemplative rhythm, Ruiz establishes a voice that intertwines emotion, time, and light in every shot.
