Mario Amarilla (Paraguay, 1991) is a director, screenwriter, and musician. He holds a degree in Industrial Design from the National University of Asunción and completed a postgraduate diploma in Commercial Film Directing and Actor Direction at Congo Films (Bogotá, 2023). He is a co-founder of Barraco Films, an audiovisual production company.
Over the past few years, he has worked on various projects focused on experimentation and an ongoing exploration of cinematic audiovisual language. Notable works include Mara (2017), selected for the “Sombras en la Noche” festival; Kuñatai (2024), a poetic piece created as part of Itaú’s “Atardeceres del Paraguay” campaign; and Confiá en el viaje (2025), a locally rooted work reflecting on the connection to one’s origins and the importance of rediscovering the country.
Within this same creative process, he directed a series of shorter short films conceived as exercises in search, formal exploration, and the construction of a personal voice, including Marisa (2025), Championes Blancos (2025), and Jacinta (2025).
As a musician, he has composed soundtracks for film and advertising, and since 2018 has been developing a solo music project, with seven releases available across different music platforms.
He is currently submitting his short film Luz de Río (2024) to festivals. The film is a psychological drama that explores the relationship between memory, the body, and illness. At the same time, he is developing the script for his first fiction feature film, Flores del Mar, whose first draft was completed in 2025. The screenplay was developed during a writing residency with director Paz Encina, has undergone an initial script doctor review, and was selected for the CINEMAREA film residency (Uruguay), all key stages in deepening and strengthening the project. Set in Cabo Polonio (Uruguay), the film approaches grief as memory and the search for emotional repair from an intimate and sensory perspective.
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