José María Cabral (born July 24, 1988) is a Dominican film director, screenwriter, and producer. Cabral started making films when he was 16 years old, making private screenings of short films to family and friends in local movie theaters, one of them "Excexos" got national distribution in 2008. His first commercial feature film, "Jaque Mate" (2012), was screened at a high number of film festivals and selected as the Dominican entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar award at the 85th Academy Awards. "Arrobá" and "Despertar" followed in 2013 and 2014, also making it into the festival circuit. In 2015 he released "Detective Willy" a comedy adventure film. Cabral is now working on his new feature drama "Carpinteros" a story that portrays the realities and relationships of the prisoners in Dominican jails.