Adrián Arce is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and social communicologist from Mexico. He has directed, edited, cinematographed and produced feature-length and short documentaries, television series and fiction short films since 2003. He studied a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Communication at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), Mexico; and has a Master’s Degree in Film and Video Production by the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia. He began his professional career as an audiovisual editor in 2000 working for different production houses, private and public institutions and TV channels.
In 2002, he debuted as a director with his first fiction short film, “Locked Souls”, shot in Australia. In 2004, he directed in Mexico his first documentary feature: “Voces de la Guerrero”, which explored the everyday life of a group of street-kids in a marginal neighborhood of Mexico City. The film received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the José Rovirosa Award for the Best Documentary, given by the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC) and the Filmoteca of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
In 2006, Arce directed two feature documentaries: “Shooting Battle in Heaven”, about the shooting of the second fiction feature of the multi-award-winning Mexican director Carlos Reygadas, and “Memoria en brasas”, about the Pima indigenous group in the northern territories of Mexico. Both films were shown in multiple festivals around the globe.
In 2007, Adrián directed his second fiction short film, “El Ñero’s Trip”, a surrealistic black comedy shot in Australia. It obtained a mention of the Jury of the Sydney Underground Film Festival (SUFF) “for transcending the frontiers of filmmaking”. The film was screened in different festivals in Mexico and Australia.
During 2013, Arce directed the mid-length documentary film “Out of Focus”, which, among other awards, won the Best Documentary Award at the Festival do Filme Etnográfico do Recife (2013), in Brazil; the Viva Latino Film Festival NYC International (2015), in United States; and the Short Shorts Film Festival (2014), in Mexico.
In 2016, he directed the documentary short film “Metamorphosis”, that obtained the the Best Film in the Environmental/Ecology Category at the CTLPDX International Environmental Film Festival (2016), in the United States; the Best Cinematography of a Foreign Film Award at the International Ethnographic Film Festival Zlatna, in Romania; and the Best Foreign Short Eco-documentary – Runner Up at the tiNai Ecofilm Festival (2017), in India.
Along 2021 and 2022, Adrián produced the documentary “Xänthe Dehe – Bosque de Agua”, that won the Best Documentary Award at the Muestra Nacional de Imágenes Científicas (2022) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
Arce has also collaborated with the production of film festivals, such as the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) and Mexico City’s International Contemporary Film Festival (FICCO). He’s also created audiovisual pieces for different museums, directed the casting for 8 Mexican fiction features, and imparted audiovisual production workshops for institutions like the National Council for Culture and the Arts of Mexico (CONACULTA), Casa Wabi, and the Fund for the Arts of the BBVA Bancomer Bank’s Foundation.
Adrián is an accomplished filmmaker who has received numerous awards for his work. He continues to create thought-provoking and emotionally affecting films that explore the lives of people in Mexico.
