Tamara Aalto is a Spanish-Finnish filmmaker and illustrator whose work explores the friction of belonging through a lens of dark humor and surrealism. Based in Helsinki, she uses her background as a visual artist to design every frame with meticulous detail, blending the vibrant energy of her Spanish roots with a Nordic sensibility for atmosphere and irony.
Her multidisciplinary approach allows her to bridge the gap between the page and the screen, often using her illustrations to storyboard the surrealist “glimpses” that define her cinematic voice. This unique vision is evident in her award-winning short film The Kid, which won Best Indie Short at the East Village New York Film Festival and was selected for the 2025 San Francisco Frozen Film Festival.
Beyond directing, Tamara Aalto’s leadership as the Artistic Director of the Cinemaissí Latin American Film Festival (2021–2023) and her work as a film tutor highlight her commitment to global storytelling. Having studied across Europe and the Americas, she continues to create work that questions reality and challenges our sense of place.