Horacio Reyes Páez was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1987.

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He moved to Buenos Aires in 2008 to study at Universidad del Cine (FUC), graduating as a Film Director in 2012. His first fiction short film, Soldado de Plomo (2010), was produced with the support of the university after winning a competition to be shot on 35mm film.

During this early period, he also explored experimental cinema.

His film El efecto del amor received the award for Best Short Film in New Formats at Rojas Fest in Buenos Aires in 2013.

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While in Buenos Aires, Reyes Páez also trained as a theatre director for two years under renowned Argentine theatre director and playwright Juan Carlos Gené.

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Alongside filmmaking, Reyes Páez pursued a career as a classical guitarist, which he had begun in Uruguay at the age of eight.

 

In 2015, he moved to Vienna, Austria, invited to study with the internationally renowned guitarist Álvaro Pierri, professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW).

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In 2021, his film produced during lockdown in Uruguay—Dance for the Apocalypse— won the Audience Award at the José Ignacio International Film Festival. Reyes Páez directed the film and also composed and performed its music. The film was subsequently presented at the Short Film Corner of the 74th Cannes Film Festival.

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His short film Pillow (2020), written and directed in Vienna, was awarded Best Uruguayan Short Film at the José Ignacio International Film Festival in 2022 and was presented at the Short Film Corner of the 75th Cannes Film Festival. Pillow was also named by the Uruguayan Film Critics Association (ACCU) as one of the five best Uruguayan short films of the year.

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His independent documentary A Son Portrays His Father was selected for the official competition of the 16th Atlantidoc International Documentary Film Festival in Uruguay in 2022.

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That same year, he finished writing the script for his first feature film, La Otra Montaña (The Other Mountain), which is being developed by the Uruguayan production company UFilms.

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In 2025, his film The Cycle of Life was selected for the International Short Film Competition of the 40th Mar del Plata International Film Festival.

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In 2026, his first feature film project La Otra Montaña was selected for the Working JIIFF LAB, an initiative of the José Ignacio International Film Festival in collaboration with IBERMEDIA dedicated to the development of first feature films.

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Alongside his work in cinema, Reyes Páez has developed a body of work as a photographer and visual artist. His photographic project The Big Rest, produced in Uruguay in 2020, was featured twice by Berlin-based contemporary art and photography magazine IGNANT. Since then, his photographic work has gained recognition in both Europe and South America.

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In 2026, he presented his first solo exhibition, Walk and Remember, at the Letino Art Festival in Italy. The exhibition consisted of fourteen large-format photographic works and was presented with the support of the STABAT Foundation, NextGenerationEU and the Italian Ministry of Culture. It was curated by Vienna-based art and photography curator Karine Lisbonne.

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Reyes Páez lives and works in Vienna as a filmmaker, photographer and musician. In 2016, he founded his independent audiovisual production company in the Austrian capital.