Juan Castillo Gil
Social Communicator, Filmmaker & Storyteller
Juanka Castillo is a filmmaker and expert in strategic communication, specializing in gastronomy. A graduate in Film and Television Directing from IORTV (Spain), he has built a solid career telling stories that explore identity and heritage through the lens of food. For more than 30 years, he worked in Ecuadorian media as a producer, presenter, and director of some of the country’s most emblematic programs.
His auteur approach is reflected in various gastronomic documentaries focused on Ecuador, especially the Manabí region, where he has documented the cultural richness of rural women cooks and the value of their ancestral knowledge. He served as a gastronomy advisor to the Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador and is now considered a key figure in the country’s gastronomic storytelling.
Juanka has been recognized with multiple national and international awards. In 2021, he received El Colibrí, the most prestigious award in Ecuador’s audiovisual industry, for directing and producing the series Huele que Alimenta. He also won in two categories of the Food Film Menu and was a finalist at INPUT 2016, a festival that highlights the best public television productions worldwide, with his series El Gran Cacao.
His work combines cinematography, research, and strategy to create pieces that deeply connect with the land, flavours, and stories that bring Ecuadorian gastronomy to life.
3 July 2025
