Flavio Florencio

Flavio Florencio is an award-winning film director, writer, and a VICE series host, born in Buenos Aires in 1979. He is known for for his very popular and multi-award-winning documentary feature debut Made in Bangkok (2015), part of Netflix (2017), the VICE series Vice Trans (2016), the vertical short documentary Vertical Dreams (2016), and his virtual reality short Como de la familia (2017) . Throughout his artistic career, he has lived in 12 countries and visited 60, working with such luminaries as Yoko Ono, the Dalai Lama, Richard Gere, Mauritanian Oscar- nominated director Abderrahmane Sissako, Zenani Mandela, Chaz Bono and the Cambodian Oscar-winning director Rithy Panh. His work has received grants from the Ford Foundation, BBVA, the Spanish Agency of Cooperation and Air France. After a decade producing and directing film festivals, Flavio was recognized for his critically-acclaimed documentary feature debut Made in Bangkok (2015), among its multiple awards and more than 60 nominations, Made in Bangkok (2015) won Best Documentary prizes at the Guadalajara and Guanajuato film festivals in Mexico. It was also nominated for a Sebastiano award at the 2016 San Sebastian International Film Festival best documentary at the LGBT Festival in Paris Chéries-Chéris; best documentary at AMOR, the LGBTTI festival of Chile, an Ariel Award nomination by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences for best documentary, and an audience award nomination at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. It also vied for best film in more than 40 film festivals around the world, including a special screening at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Made in Bangkok's successful tour completed its run on Netflix [us] and with a theatrical release in México. As a TV host he is highlighted by his produced, directed and created VICE series Vice Trans (2016) about the transgender community in Mexico. One of the episodes, "Victims of Vanity" is the most viewed documentary on Vice in Spanish with more than 4.5 million hits. The Nespresso Talent 2016 selected - from 500 submissions - his first vertical short film Vertical Dreams (2016) about immigrant's dreams in the border with Tijuana. This was the only vertical short which had a film festival world premiere at the official selection of the Palm Springs International Film Festival where it was also nominated for the HP Bridging the Borders Award as best short film. He created the first African film festival of Latin America, Africala (2006-2010), bringing well-known African filmmakers, including the Oscar-nominated Abderrahmane Sissako. Later he was co-founder of Ambulante Beyond (2009-10), the festival founded by Gael García Bernal, and Diego Luna, and Elena Fortes who promoted the inclusion of indigenous youth in film workshops in Nicaragua, México and Guatemala under the auspices of the Ford Foundation. After these successful experiences, one of the world's biggest entertainment group, Cinepolis, appointed him as director of the DHFEST, the human rights film festival of México (2013-15), where he produced an opening film to pay homage to Nelson Mandela with the presence of his daughter Zenani Mandela, among other events and international guests led by actor and activist Chaz Bono, and the Cambodian award-winning director Rithy Panh. His work has been featured in a slew of prominent print, TV and online media including CNN, Huffpost, Indie wire and Attitude Magazine. He was recently listed as a 'Mexican Filmmaker on the Rise' by the influential Hollywood trade, Variety.