Laimir Fano is a film director, writer, and educator. His films explore national identity and cultural memory through fabulation, particularly in the context of Cuba and its immigrant communities. These works have screened at major festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival, Havana Film Festival, and Huesca Film Festival, among others. They have received multiple awards, among them the Sara Gómez Prize at the Havana Film Festival and jury mentions at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival. Model Town was selected by Cuba's National Association of Film Press as one of the six best documentaries screened in the country in 2007, and Ode to the Pineapple was selected by the International Film Guide as one of the five best Cuban films of 2008. Fano received a Best Director award at the 2016 Vieques International Film Festival for Waiting for Berta. Building on his 2024 doctoral dissertation on screen acting, his current work centers performers as subjects of stories at the intersection of fiction and non-fiction.
 

Before transitioning to film, Fano trained as a theater actor at Cuba's National School of Art, where he later taught acting. He holds a Ph.D. in Film and Digital Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz; an M.F.A. in Performing Arts (concentration in film) from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and a Diploma in Film Directing from Cuba's International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Boston College, where he teaches courses that integrate production with the history and theory of moving image media from a global perspective.