BIO

Yannick Benavides is an audiovisual artist, film producer, and director. He started playing the piano at 11 years old and later began creating electronic music on his computer. 2015 he began studying “Music and Media” at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, focusing on music informatics, visual music, and audiovisual production. He made music videos for his classmates, which sparked his interest in film production in general. In 2020, he co-founded and produced the music video series “away from stage sessions”. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in music in 2021, he enrolled for the M.A. “Film” at the University of Applied Sciences in Dortmund, Germany. There, he is (currently still) working on his fictional short film called “Pisicorre”: a story about a young Cuban man jumping from dream to dream, reflecting life in Cuba that has become a place unlike any other and far from internationally known clichés, embodied by the actor of Yanm Rubén Calderín Valdes.

At the same time, he co-produced the award-winning short film “Hard Cash”, written and directed by David Füsgen, world premiered at MotelX in Lisboa, Portugal, as well as winning “best director” and “best cinematography” at the British Horror Film Festival London 2025, and nominated for the short film award of the city of Hof, as well as the PHAROS award, during the 59th international film days at Hof, Germany, in 2025, which was also selected to become the opening short film of the entire edition of this festival.

Also, back in 2023, a new chapter in his life begun when he joined his family business Aguiar 610 | boutique hotel in Havana, crafting the corporate identity and brand of the hotel located near a formerly famously renowned hat reseller shop in the heart of the old town of the Cuban capital. Running a business there is nothing short of extraordinary, if you know you know.

Thanks to his abilities and knowledge in music, he is able to approach film production from a sensitive perspective which enables him to take responsibility as a director, producer and editor for music-related films, content for brands and so much more. Since mid-2025 he embarked on a journey as a digital content creator at minilu GmbH in Ratingen, but has realized that his passion lies elsewhere and that boredom does not appear in his dictionaries (the bastard got lucky and was born polyglot).