Pedro Pinho was born in Lisbon and has lived in Paris, Barcelona, Maputo, and Mindelo. In 2009, he co-founded the production company Terratreme with five other filmmakers. His first documentary, Bab Sebta (co-directed with Frederico Lobo), premiered at FIDMarseille in 2008, where it won the Marseille Espérance Award. His next work, Um Fim do Mundo, premiered in 2013 in the Generation section of the Berlinale. In 2014, the documentary As Cidades e as Trocas (co-directed with Luísa Homem) premiered at both FIDMarseille and Art of the Real at Lincoln Center in New York. In 2017, his first feature film, The Nothing Factory, premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight, where it received the FIPRESCI International Critics' Prize and won 20 other awards at festivals around the world. The film was released commercially in Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Italy, China, Belgium, the former Yugoslavia, and Argentina. In 2025, his second feature film, O Riso e a Faca, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival.