Mário  is  a  devoted  storyteller  known  for  his  cinematic,  raw  and  emotive  human  portraits  across  film, documentary, commercials and branded content. He  is notorious  for his  flexibility  to work across various  formats, his spontaneity and emotional approach to directing actors and capturing “real people”, and his way of telling a carefully crafted story with an engaging cinematic aesthetic.

Mário’s first NARRATIVE FICTION film “Two Strangers” is currently in pre-production and will be shot in 2019. Mário was selected as a Berlinale Talent in 2017 and has since attracted the interest for co-production by Nimbus Films (“Festen” - Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival) and Moonrise Pictures (The Little One - South Africa’s entry for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film). 

Mário started studying screenwriting under Michael Margotta, of the Actor’s Centre of Rome, and Directing the Actor in Film with Jack Waltzer, one of the founders of the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. He also studied Theater with Selonk and Paulo de Moraes, in Rio de Janeiro.

“Complexo: Parallel Universe”, MÁRIO’S FIRST DOCUMENTARY, was  the  first EVER  to be shot  inside one of the world’s most dangerous agglomerate of slums in Latin America - the “Complexo do Alemão”, in Rio de Janeiro. It was  a  critical  success  for  its  devastating  portrayal  of  human  suffering  and  hope  AND  the  country’s  most  watched documentary in Theaters in 2011. It premiered at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, WON the award for best International Film in the Human Rights category at the Artivist International Film Festival, and got an honorable mention by the International Federation of Film Societies, among other awards.

In his following Documentary - I Love Kuduro - Mário went to Angola to track several characters in the universe of the Kuduro, a urban cultural movement that was born in Angola in the last decade of the Civil War. The film was part of the official selection at Guadalajara International Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Hot Docs - Canadian  International Documentary Festival, among many others, and was awarded best documentary  in Vienna, at Inquietudo Film Festival.

Working different formats has helped Mário develop and refine his vision of how to bring realism when portraying a character in their natural state, discovering details that make the characters unique and bringing a humane vision into his work.

As a producer Mário has curated content that has travelled the world. “Menina”, a short film directed by Simão Cayatte, won the Portuguese Academy Award for Best Short Film  in 2017 and was  invited to be part of “Les Nuits en Or”,  a  collection  of  the  world’s  best  short  films  of  2017  organized  by  the  French  Academy  of  Film. More  recently, HÍBRIDOS,  THE  SPIRITS  OF  BRAZIL, a  film  that dives into the sacred culture of the  largest  country in South America through a very poetic and sensorial approach, directed by Priscilla Telmon and Vincent Moon, screened at the MOMA in NYC, IDFA in Amsterdam, and Mostra de São Paulo, among other Film Festivals around the world.

In  2019, Mário co-produced with SpectreVision and ACE Pictures, the feature film “Color Out  of  Space”, directed by Richard Stanley, featuring Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Q´orianka Kilcher and Tommy Chong.

Mário is partner of the production company BRO (brocinema.com) and founded a writer´s room that in the last two years has developed several scripts of feature films and TV series. He has also been creating innovative content for some of the world's biggest advertising  agencies: J. Walter Thompson, FCB, McCann, Fullsix, and for a broad and diverse range of brands, such as Mercedes, L’Oreal Paris, Nike USA, BMW, Audi, Nivea, Sata  - Azores Airlines, Visa, Universal Music, Sony Music, Red Bull, EMI, Nestle, Galp Energy, Vodafone, among others. Projects directed by Mário have been collecting Gold, Silver and Bronze awards at the Cannes Lions, Lusophone Creativity Advertising Awards, LIF Lisbon International Advertising Festival, Clio Awards and other international festivals.